Part 33

Often several feet high. Stem.—Branching. Leaves.—The lower with a large terminal lobe and a few small lateral ones. Flowers.—Yellow, rather small, growing in a raceme. Pods.—Smooth, erect, appressed, about half an inch long.

Many are familiar with the appearance of this plant who are ignorant of its name. The pale yellow flowers spring from the waste places along the roadside and border the dry fields throughout the summer. The tall spreading branches recall the biblical description: “It groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”

This plant is extensively cultivated in Europe, its ground seeds forming the well-known condiment. The ancients used it for medicinal purposes. It has come across the water to us, and is a troublesome weed in many parts of the country.

WILD RADISH. Raphanus Raphanistrum. Mustard Family (p. 17).

One to three feet high. Leaves.—Rough, lyre-shaped. Flowers.—Yellow, veiny, turning white or purplish; larger than those of the black mustard, otherwise resembling them. Pod.—Often necklace-form by constriction between the seeds.

This plant is a troublesome weed in many of our fields. It is the stock from which the garden radish has been raised.

PLATE XLII

WINTER-CRESS.—B. vulgaris. ]

CYNTHIA. DWARF DANDELION. Krigia Virginica. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stems.—Several, becoming branched, leafy. Leaves.—Earlier ones roundish; the latter narrower and often cleft. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers.

In some parts of the country these flowers are among the earliest to appear. They are found in New England, as well as south and westward.

The flowers of K. amplexicaulis appear later, and their range is a little farther south. Near Philadelphia great masses of the orange-colored blossoms and pale green stems and foliage line the railway embankments in June.

RATTLESNAKE-WEED. Hieracium venosum. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem or Scape.—One or two feet high, naked or with a single leaf, smooth, slender, forking above. Leaves.—From the root, oblong, often making a sort of flat rosette, usually conspicuously veined with purple. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers.

The loosely clustered yellow flower-heads of the rattlesnake-weed somewhat resemble small dandelions. They abound in the pine-woods and dry, waste places of early summer. The purple-veined leaves, whose curious markings give to the plant its common name, grow close to the ground and are supposed to be efficacious in rattlesnake bites. Here again crops out the old “doctrine of signatures,” for undoubtedly this virtue has been attributed to the species solely on account of the fancied resemblance between its leaves and the markings of the rattlesnake.

H. scabrum is another common species, which may be distinguished from the rattlesnake-weed by its stout, leafy stem and unveined leaves.

DANDELION. Taraxacum officinale. Composite Family (p. 13).

PLATE XLIII

RATTLESNAKE-WEED.—H. venosum. ]

If Emerson’s definition of a weed, as a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered, be correct, we can hardly place the dandelion in that category, for its young sprouts have been valued as a pot-herb, its fresh leaves enjoyed as a salad, and its dried roots used as a substitute for coffee in various countries and ages. It is said that the Apache Indians so greatly relish it as food, that they scour the country for many days in order to procure enough to appease their appetites, and that the quantity consumed by one individual exceeds belief. The feathery-tufted seeds which form the downy balls beloved as “clocks” by country children, are delicately and beautifully adapted to dissemination by the wind, which ingenious arrangement partly accounts for the plant’s wide range. The common name is a corruption of the French dent de lion. There is a difference of opinion as to which part of the plant is supposed to resemble a lion’s tooth. Some fancy the jagged leaves gave rise to the name, while others claim that it refers to the yellow flowers, which they liken to the golden teeth of the heraldic lion. In nearly every European country the plant bears a name of similar signification.

POVERTY-GRASS. Hudsonia tomentosa. Rock-rose Family.

“Bushy, heath-like little shrubs, seldom a foot high.” (Gray.) Leaves.—Small, oval or narrowly oblong, pressed close to the stem. Flowers.—Bright yellow, small, numerous, crowded along the upper part of the branches. Calyx.—Of five sepals, the two outer much smaller. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Nine to thirty. Pistil.—One, with a long and slender style.

In early summer many of the sand-hills along the New England coast are bright with the yellow flowers of this hoary little shrub. It is also found as far south as Maryland and near the Great Lakes. Each blossom endures for a single day only. The plant’s popular name is due to its economical habit of utilizing sandy unproductive soil where little else will flourish.

BUSH-HONEYSUCKLE. Diervilla trifida. Honeysuckle Family.

An upright shrub from one to four feet high. Leaves.—Opposite, oblong, taper-pointed. Flowers.—Yellow, sometimes much tinged with red, clustered usually in threes, in the axils of the upper leaves and at the summit of the stem. Calyx.—With slender awl-shaped lobes. Corolla.—Funnel-form, five-lobed, the lower lobe larger than the others and of a deeper yellow, with a small nectar-bearing gland at its base. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One.

PLATE XLIV

BUSH-HONEYSUCKLE.—D. trifida. ]

This pretty little shrub is found along our rocky hills and mountains. The blossoms appear in early summer, and form a good example of nectar-bearing flowers. The lower lobe of the corolla is crested and more deeply colored than the others, thus advising the bee of secreted treasure. The hairy filaments of the stamens are so placed as to protect the nectar from injury by rain. When the blossom has been despoiled and at the same time fertilized, for the nectar-seeking bee has probably deposited some pollen upon its pistil, the color of the corolla changes from a pale to a deep yellow, thus giving warning to the insect world that further attentions would be useless to both parties.