Part 38

Chaucer calls it egremoine. The name is supposed to be derived from the Greek title for an eye-disease, for which the juice of a plant similarly entitled was considered efficacious. The crushed flower yields a lemon-like odor.

YELLOW WOOD SORREL. Oxalis stricta. Geranium Family.

Stem.—Erect. Leaves.—Divided into three delicate clover-like leaflets. Flowers.—Golden-yellow. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with five styles.

All summer the small flowers of the yellow wood sorrel show brightly against their background of delicate leaves. The plant varies greatly in its height and manner of growth, flourishing abundantly along the roadsides. The small leaflets are open to the genial influence of sun and air during the hours of daylight, but at night they protect themselves from chill by folding one against another.

SUNDROPS. Œnothera fruticosa. Evening Primrose Family.

This is a day-blooming species of the evening primrose, with large, pale yellow blossoms and alternate oblong or narrowly lance-shaped leaves, and of a much less rank habit. In early summer our roadsides are illuminated with these flowers.

Œnothera pumila is also a diurnal species. Its loosely spiked blossoms are much smaller than those of the sundrops.

EVENING PRIMROSE. Œnothera biennis. Evening Primrose Family.

Stout, erect, one to five feet high. Leaves.—Alternate, lance-shaped to oblong. Flowers.—Pale yellow, in a leafy spike, opening at night. Calyx.—With a long tube, four-lobed. Corolla.—Of four somewhat heart-shaped petals. Stamens.—Eight, with long anthers. Pistil.—One, with a stigma divided into four linear lobes.

Along the roadsides in midsummer we notice a tall, rank-growing plant, which seems chiefly to bear buds and faded blossoms. And unless we are already familiar with the owl-like tendencies of the evening primrose, we are surprised, some dim twilight, to find this same plant resplendent with a mass of fragile yellow flowers, which are exhaling their faint delicious fragrance on the evening air.

One brief summer night exhausts the vitality of these delicate blossoms. The faded petals of the following day might serve as a text for a homily against all-night dissipation, did we not know that by its strange habit the evening primrose guards against the depredations of those myriad insects abroad during the day, which are unfitted to transmit its pollen to the pistil of another flower.

We are impressed by the utilitarianism in vogue in this floral world, as we note that the pale yellow of these blossoms gleams so vividly through the darkness as to advertise effectively their whereabouts, while their fragrance serves as a mute invitation to the pink night-moth, which is their visitor and benefactor. Why they change their habits in the late year and remain open during the day, I have not been able to discover.

HORSE BALM. RICH-WEED. STONE-ROOT. Collinsonia Canadensis. Mint Family (p. 16).

One to three feet high. Leaves.—Opposite, large, ovate, toothed, pointed. Flowers.—Yellowish, lemon-scented, clustered loosely. Calyx.—Two-lipped, the upper lip three-toothed, the lower two-cleft. Corolla.—Elongated, somewhat two-lipped, the four upper lobes nearly equal, the lower large and long, toothed or fringed. Stamens.—Two (sometimes four, the upper pair shorter), protruding, diverging. Pistil.—One, with a two-lobed style.

In the damp rich woods of midsummer these strong-scented herbs, with their loose terminal clusters of lemon-colored, lemon-scented flowers are abundant. The plant was introduced into England by the amateur botanist and flower-lover, Collinson, after whom the species is named. The Indians formerly employed it as an application to wounds.

BLACK-EYED SUSAN. CONE-FLOWER. Rudbeckia hirta. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Stout and hairy, one to two feet high. Leaves.—Rough and hairy, the upper long, narrow, set close to the stem; the lower broader, with leaf-stalks. Flower-heads.—Composed of both ray and disk-flowers; the former yellow, the latter brown and arranged on a cone-like receptacle.

By the middle of July our dry meadows are merry with black-eyed Susans, which are laughing from every corner and keeping up a gay midsummer carnival in company with the yellow lilies and brilliant milkweeds. They seem to revel in the long days of blazing sunlight, and are veritable salamanders among the flowers. Although now so common in our eastern fields they were first brought to us with clover-seed from the West, and are not altogether acceptable guests, as they bid fair to add another anxiety to the already harassed life of the New England farmer.

PLATE LIV

EVENING PRIMROSE.—Œ. biennis. ]

——— ——— Rudbeckia laciniata. Composite Family (p. 13).

Two to seven feet high. Stem.—Smooth, branching. Leaves.—The lower divided into lobed leaflets, the upper irregularly three to five-parted. Flower-heads.—Yellow, rather large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers, the former drooping and yellow, the later dull greenish and arranged on a columnar receptacle.

This graceful, showy flower is even more decorative than the black-eyed Susan. Its drooping yellow rays are from one to two inches long. It may be found throughout the summer in the low thickets which border the swamps and meadows.

GOLDEN ASTER. Chrysopsis Mariana. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Silky, with long weak hairs when young. Leaves.—Alternate, oblong. Flower-heads.—Golden-yellow, rather large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

In dry places along the roadsides of Southern New York and farther south, one can hardly fail to notice in late summer and autumn the bright clusters of the golden aster.

C. falcata is a species which may be found in dry sandy soil as far north as Massachusetts, with very woolly stems, crowded linear leaves, and small, clustered flower-heads.

GOLDEN-ROD. Solidago. Composite Family (p. 13).