Part 36

RATTLEBOX. Crotalaria sagittalis. Pulse Family (p. 16).

Stem.—Hairy, three to six inches high. Leaves.—Undivided, oval or lance-shaped. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, yellow, but few in a cluster. Pod.—Inflated, many-seeded, blackish.

The yellow flowers of the rattlebox are found in the sandy meadows and along the roadsides during the summer. Both the generic and English names refer to the rattling of the loose seeds within the inflated pod.

BUTTER-AND-EGGS. TOADFLAX. Linaria vulgaris. Figwort Family.

Stem.—Smooth, erect, one to three feet high. Leaves.—Alternate, linear or nearly so. Flowers.—Of two shades of yellow, growing in terminal racemes. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Pale yellow tipped with orange, long-spurred, two-lipped, closed in the throat. Stamens.—Four. Pistil.—One.

The bright blossoms of butter-and-eggs grow in full, close clusters which enliven the waste places along the roadside so commonly, that little attention is paid to these beautiful and conspicuous flowers. They would be considered a “pest” if they did not display great discrimination in their choice of locality, usually selecting otherwise useless pieces of ground. The common name of butter-and-eggs is unusually appropriate, for the two shades of yellow match perfectly their namesakes. Like nearly all our common weeds, this plant has been utilized in various ways by the country people. It yielded what was considered at one time a valuable skin lotion, while its juice mingled with milk constitutes a fly-poison. Its generic name, Linaria, and its English title, toadflax, arose from a fancied resemblance between its leaves and those of the flax.

WILD SENNA. Cassia Marilandica. Pulse Family.

Stem.—Three or four feet high. Leaves.—Divided into from six to nine pairs of narrowly oblong leaflets. Flowers.—Yellow, in short clusters from the axils of the leaves. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five slightly unequal, spreading petals, usually somewhat spotted with reddish-brown. Stamens.—Five to ten, unequal, some of them often imperfect. Pistil.—One. Pod.—Long and narrow, slightly curved, flat.

This tall, striking plant, with clusters of yellow flowers which appear in midsummer, grows abundantly along many of the New England roadsides, and also far south and west, thriving best in sandy soil. Although a member of the Pulse family its blossoms are not papilionaceous.

PLATE XLIX

BUTTER-AND-EGGS.—L. vulgaris. ]

PARTRIDGE-PEA. Cassia Chamæcrista. Pulse Family.

Stems.—Spreading, eight inches to a foot long. Leaves.—Divided into from ten to fifteen pairs of narrow delicate leaflets, which close at night and are somewhat sensitive to the touch. Flowers.—Yellow, rather large and showy, on slender stalks beneath the spreading leaves; not papilionaceous. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five rounded, spreading, somewhat unequal petals, two or three of which are usually spotted at the base with red or purple. Stamens.—Ten, unequal, dissimilar. Pistil.—One, with a slender style. Pod.—Flat.

The partridge-pea is closely related to the wild senna, and a pretty, delicate plant it is, with graceful foliage, and flowers in late summer which surprise us with their size, abounding in gravelly, sandy places where little else will flourish, brightening the railway embankments and the road’s edge. It is at home all over the country south of Massachusetts and east of the Rocky Mountains, but it grows with a greater vigor and luxuriance in the south than elsewhere. The leaves can hardly be called sensitive to the touch, yet when a branch is snapped from the parent-stem or is much handled, the delicate leaflets will droop and fold, displaying their curious mechanism.

COMMON ST. JOHN’S-WORT. Hypericum perforatum. St. John’s-wort Family.

Stem.—Much branched. Leaves.—Small, opposite, somewhat oblong, with pellucid dots. Flowers.—Yellow, numerous, in leafy clusters. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five bright yellow petals, somewhat spotted with black. Stamens.—Indefinite in number. Pistil.—One, with three spreading styles.

“Too well known as a pernicious weed which it is difficult to extirpate,” is the scornful notice which the botany gives to this plant whose bright yellow flowers are noticeable in waste fields and along roadsides nearly all summer. Its rank, rapid growth proves very exhausting to the soil, and every New England farmer wishes it had remained where it rightfully belongs—on the other side of the water.

PLATE L

COMMON ST. JOHN’S-WORT.—H. perforatum. ]

Perhaps more superstitions have clustered about the St. John’s-wort than about any other plant on record. It was formerly gathered on St. John’s eve, and was hung at the doors and windows as a safeguard against thunder and evil spirits. A belief prevailed that on this night the soul had power to leave the body and visit the spot where it would be finally summoned from its earthly habitation, hence the all-night vigils which were observed at that time.

The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide If the coming year shall make me a bride,

is the St. John’s-wort, and the maiden’s fate is favorably forecast by the healthy growth and successful blossoming of the plant which she has accepted as typical of her future.

In early times poets and physicians alike extolled its properties. An ointment was made of its blossoms, and one of its early names was “balm-of-the-warrior’s-wound.” It was considered so efficacious a remedy for melancholia that it was termed “fuga dæmonum.” Very possibly this name gave rise to the general idea that it was powerful in dispelling evil spirits.

ST. ANDREW’S CROSS. Ascyrum Crux-Andreæ. St. John’s-wort Family.

Stem.—Low, branched. Leaves.—Opposite, narrowly oblong, black-dotted. Flowers.—Light-yellow. Calyx.—Of four sepals, the two outer broad and leaf-like, the inner much smaller. Corolla.—Of four narrowly oblong petals. Stamens.—Numerous. Pistil.—One, with two short styles.

From July till September these flowers may be found in the pine-barrens of New Jersey and farther south and westward, and on the island of Nantucket as well.

COMMON MULLEIN. Verbascum Thapsus. Figwort Family.

Stem.—Tall and stout, from three to five feet high. Leaves.—Oblong, woolly. Flowers.—In a long dense spike. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Yellow, with five slightly unequal rounded lobes. Stamens.—Ten, the three upper with white wool on their filaments. Pistil.—One.