Part 31

Stem.—Slender, prostrate, or sometimes erect. Leaves.—Divided really into three leaflets, but apparently into five by the parting of the lateral leaflets. Flowers.—Yellow, growing singly from the axils of the leaves. Calyx.—Deeply five-cleft, with bracts between each tooth, thus appearing ten-cleft. Corolla.—Of five rounded petals. Stamens.—Many. Pistils.—Many in a head.

From spring to nearly midsummer the roads are bordered and the fields carpeted with the bright flowers of the common cinquefoil. The passer-by unconsciously betrays his recognition of some of the prominent features of the Rose family by often assuming that the plant is a yellow-flowered wild strawberry. Both of the English names refer to the pretty foliage, cinquefoil being derived from the French cinque feuilles. The generic name, Potentilla, has reference to the powerful medicinal properties formerly attributed to the genus.

SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL. FIVE FINGER. Potentilla fruticosa. Rose Family.

Stem.—Erect, shrubby, one to four feet high. Leaves.—Divided into five to seven narrow leaflets. Flowers.—Yellow, resembling those of the common cinquefoil.

PLATE XXXVIII

SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL.—P. fruticosa. ]

Of all the cinquefoils perhaps this one most truly merits the title five finger. Certainly its slender leaflets are much more finger-like than those of the common cinquefoil. It is not a common plant in most localities, but is very abundant among the Berkshire Hills.

SILVERY CINQUEFOIL. Potentilla argentea. Rose Family.

Stems.—Ascending, branched at the summit, white, woolly. Leaves.—Divided into five wedge-oblong, deeply incised leaflets, which are green above, white with silvery wool, beneath.

The silvery cinquefoil has rather large yellow flowers which are found in dry fields throughout the summer as far south as New Jersey.

GOLDEN RAGWORT. SQUAW-WEED. Senecio aureus. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—One to three feet high. Root-leaves.—Rounded, the larger ones mostly heart-shaped, toothed, and long-stalked. Stem-leaves.—The lower lyre-shaped, the upper lance-shaped, incised, set close to the stem. Flower-heads.—Yellow, clustered, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

A child would perhaps liken the flower of the golden ragwort to a yellow daisy. Stain yellow the white rays of the daisy, diminish the size of the whole head somewhat, and you have a pretty good likeness of the ragwort. There need be little difficulty in the identification of this plant—although there are several marked varieties—for its flowers are abundant in the early year, at which season but few members of the Composite family are abroad.

The generic name is from senex—an old man—alluding to the silky down of the seeds, which is supposed to suggest the silvery hairs of age.

Closely allied to the golden ragwort is the common groundsel, S. vulgaris, which is given as food to caged birds. The flower-heads of this species are without rays.

——— ——— Clintonia borealis. Lily Family.

Scape.—Five to eight inches high, sheathed at its base by the stalks of two to four large, oblong, conspicuous leaves. Flowers.—Greenish-yellow, rather large, rarely solitary. Perianth.—Of six sepals. Stamens.—Six, protruding. Pistil.—One, protruding. Fruit.—A blue berry.

PLATE XXXIX

Clintonia borealis. ]

When rambling through the cool, moist woods our attention is often attracted by patches of great dark, shining, leaves; and if it be late in the year we long to know the flower of which this rich foliage is the setting. To satisfy our curiosity we must return the following May or June, when we shall probably find that a slender scape rises from its midst bearing at its summit several bell-shaped flowers, which, without either high color or fragrance, are peculiarly charming. It is hard to understand why this beautiful plant has received no English name. As to its generic title we cannot but sympathize with Thoreau. “Gray should not have named it from the Governor of New York,” he complains; “what is he to the lovers of flowers in Massachusetts? If named after a man, it must be a man of flowers.... Name your canals and railroads after Clinton, if you please, but his name is not associated with flowers.”

C. umbellata is a more Southern species, with smaller white flowers, which are speckled with green or purplish dots.

YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER. WHIP-POOR-WILL’S SHOE. Cypripedium pubescens. Orchis Family (p. 17).

Stem.—About two feet high, downy, leafy to the top, one to three-flowered. Leaves.—Alternate, broadly oval, many-nerved and plaited. Flowers.—Large, yellow. Perianth.—Two of the three brownish, elongated sepals united into one under the lip; the lateral petals linear, wavy-twisted, brownish; the pale yellow lip an inflated pouch. Stamens.—Two, the short filaments of each bearing a two-celled anther. Stigma.—Broad, obscurely three-lobed, moist and roughish.

The yellow lady’s slipper usually blossoms in May or June, a few days later than its pink sister, C. acaule. Regarding its favorite haunts, Mr. Baldwin says: “Its preference is for maples, beeches, and particularly butternuts, and for sloping or hilly ground, and I always look with glad suspicion at a knoll covered with ferns, cohoshes, and trilliums, expecting to see a clump of this plant among them. Its sentinel-like habit of choosing ‘sightly places’ leads it to venture well up on mountain sides.”

The long, wavy, brownish petals give the flower an alert, startled look when surprised in its lonely hiding-places.

PLATE XL

SMALLER YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER.—C. parviflorum. ]

C. parviflorum, the small yellow lady’s slipper, differs from C. pubescens in the superior richness of its color as well as in its size. It also has the charm of fragrance.