Part 29

This species is one commonly found on dry uplands, especially southward, with flowers resembling in structure those of the other milkweeds. (Pl. .)

GROUNDSEL TREE. Baccharis halimifolia. Composite Family (p. 13).

A shrub from six to twelve feet high. Leaves.—Somewhat ovate and wedge-shaped, coarsely toothed on the upper entire. Flower-heads.—Whitish or yellowish, composed of unisexual tubular flowers, the stamens and pistils occurring on different plants.

Some October day, as we pick our way through the salt marshes which lie back of the beach, we may spy in the distance a thicket which looks as though composed of such white-flowered shrubs as belong to June. Hastening to the spot we discover that the silky-tufted seeds of the female groundsel tree are responsible for our surprise. The shrub is much more noticeable and effective at this season than when—a few weeks previous—it was covered with its small white or yellowish flower-heads.

GRASS OF PARNASSUS. Parnassia Caroliniana. Saxifrage Family.

Stem.—Scape-like, nine inches to two feet high, with usually one small rounded leaf clasping it below; bearing at its summit a single flower. Leaves.—Thickish, rounded, often heart-shaped, from the root. Flower.—White or cream-color, veiny. Calyx.—Of five slightly united sepals. Corolla.—Of five veiny petals. True Stamens.—Five, alternate with the petals, and with clusters of sterile gland-tipped filaments. Pistil.—One, with four stigmas.

PLATE XXXIV

GRASS OF PARNASSUS.—P. Caroliniana. ]

Gerarde indignantly declares that this plant has been described by blind men, not “such as are blinde in their eyes, but in their understandings, for if this plant be a kind of grasse then may the Butter-burre or Colte’s-foote be reckoned for grasses—as also all other plants whatsoever.” But if it covered Parnassus with its delicate veiny blossoms as abundantly as it does some moist New England meadows each autumn, the ancients may have reasoned that a plant almost as common as grass must somehow partake of its nature. The slender-stemmed, creamy flowers are never seen to better advantage than when disputing with the fringed gentian the possession of some luxurious swamp.

PEARLY EVERLASTING. Anaphilis margaritacea. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Erect, one or two feet high, leafy. Leaves.—Broadly linear to lance-shaped. Flower-heads.—Composed entirely of tubular flowers with very numerous pearly white involucral scales.

This species is common throughout our Northern woods and pastures, blossoming in August. Thoreau writes of it in September: “The pearly everlasting is an interesting white at present. Though the stems and leaves are still green, it is dry and unwithering like an artificial flower; its white, flexuous stem and branches, too, like wire wound with cotton. Neither is there any scent to betray it. Its amaranthine quality is instead of high color. Its very brown centre now affects me as a fresh and original color. It monopolizes small circles in the midst of sweet fern, perchance, on a dry hill-side.”

FRAGRANT LIFE-EVERLASTING. Gnaphalium polycephalum. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Erect, one to three feet high, woolly. Leaves.—Lance-shaped. Flower-heads.—Yellowish-white, clustered at the summit of the branches, composed of many tubular flowers.

This is the “fragrant life-everlasting,” as Thoreau calls it, of late summer. It abounds in rocky pastures and throughout the somewhat open woods.

NOTE.—Flowers so faintly tinged with color as to give a white effect in the mass or at a distance are placed in the White section: greenish or greenish-white flowers are also found here. The Moth Mullein (p. 152) and Bouncing Bet (p. 196) are found frequently bearing white flowers: indeed, white varieties of flowers which are usually colored, need never surprise one.

II YELLOW

MARSH MARIGOLD. Caltha palustris. Crowfoot Family.

Stem.—Hollow, furrowed. Leaves.—Rounded, somewhat kidney-shaped. Flowers.—Golden-yellow. Calyx.—Of five to nine petal-like sepals. Corolla.—None. Stamens.—Numerous. Pistils.—Five to ten, almost without styles.

Hark, hark! the lark at Heaven’s gate sings, And Phœbus ’gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs, On chaliced flowers that lies: And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes; With everything that pretty is— My lady sweet, arise! Arise, arise.—Cymbeline.

We claim—and not without authority—that these “winking Mary-buds” are identical with the gay marsh marigolds which border our springs and gladden our wet meadows every April. There are those who assert that the poet had in mind the garden marigold—Calendula—but surely no cultivated flower could harmonize with the spirit of the song as do these gleaming swamp blossoms. We will yield to the garden if necessary—

The marigold that goes to bed with the sun And with him rises weeping—

of the “Winter’s Tale,” but insist on retaining for that larger, lovelier garden in which we all feel a certain sense of possession—even if we are not taxed on real estate in any part of the country—the “golden eyes” of the Mary-buds, and we feel strengthened in our position by the statement in Mr. Robinson’s “Wild Garden” that the marsh marigold is so abundant along certain English rivers as to cause the ground to look as though paved with gold at those seasons when they overflow their banks.

These flowers are peddled about our streets every spring under the name of cowslips—a title to which they have no claim, and which is the result of that reckless fashion of christening unrecognized flowers which is so prevalent, and which is responsible for so much confusion about their English names.

The derivation of marigold is somewhat obscure. In the “Grete Herball” of the sixteenth century the flower is spoken of as Mary Gowles, and by the early English poets as gold simply. As the first part of the word might be derived from the Anglo-Saxon mere—a marsh, it seems possible that the entire name may signify marsh-gold, which would be an appropriate and poetic title for this shining flower of the marshes.

SPICE-BUSH. BENJAMIN-BUSH. FEVER-BUSH. Lindera Benzoin. Laurel Family.

An aromatic shrub from six to fifteen feet high. Leaves.—Oblong, pale underneath. Flowers.—Appearing before the leaves in March or April, honey-yellow, borne in clusters which are composed of smaller clusters, surrounded by an involucre of four early falling scales. Fruit.—Red, berry-like, somewhat pear-shaped.

These are among the very earliest blossoms to be found in the moist woods of spring. During the Revolution the powdered berries were used as a substitute for allspice; while at the time of the Rebellion the leaves served as a substitute for tea.