Part 44

There is something very moss-like in the appearance of this little plant which blossoms in late summer. It is found near moist places and salt marshes along the coast, being very common in parts of New England.

SPREADING DOGBANE. INDIAN HEMP. Apocynum androsæmifolium. Dogbane Family.

Stems.—Erect, branching, two or three feet high. Leaves.—Opposite, oval. Flowers.—Rose-color veined with deep pink, loosely clustered. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Small, bell-shaped, five-cleft. Stamens.—Five, slightly adherent to the pistil. Pistil.—Two ovaries surmounted by a large, two-lobed stigma. Fruit.—Two long and slender pods.

PLATE LXVII

SPREADING DOGBANE.—A. androsæmifolium. ]

The flowers of the dogbane, though small and inconspicuous are very beautiful if closely examined. The deep pink veining of the corolla suggests nectar, and the insect-visitor is not misled, for at its base are five nectar-bearing glands. The two long, slender seed-pods which result from a single blossom seem inappropriately large, often appearing while the plant is still in flower. Rafinesque states that from the stems may be obtained a thread similar to hemp which can be woven into cloth, from the pods, cotton, and from the blossoms, sugar. Its generic and one of its English titles arose from the belief, which formerly prevailed, that it was poisonous to dogs. The plant is constantly found growing in roadside thickets, with bright, pretty foliage, and blossoms that appear in early summer.

HEDGE BINDWEED. Convolvulus Americanus. Convolvulus Family.

Stem.—Twining or trailing. Leaves.—Somewhat arrow-shaped. Flowers.—Pink. Calyx.—Of five sepals enclosed in two broad leafy bracts. Corolla.—Five-lobed, bell-shaped. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One, with two stigmas.

Many an unsightly heap of rubbish left by the roadside is hidden by the delicate pink bells of the hedge bindweed, which again will clamber over the thickets that line the streams and about the tumbled stone-wall that marks the limit of the pasture. The pretty flowers at once suggest the morning-glory, to which they are closely allied.

The common European bindweed, C. arvensis, has white or pinkish flowers, without bracts beneath the calyx, and a low procumbent or twining stem. It has taken possession of many of our old fields where it spreads extensively and proves troublesome to farmers.

PURPLE-FLOWERING RASPBERRY. Rubus odoratus. Rose Family.

Stem.—Shrubby, three to five feet high; branching, branches bristly and glandular. Leaves.—Three to five-lobed, the middle lobe prolonged. Flowers.—Purplish-pink, large and showy, two inches broad. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Of five rounded petals. Stamens and Pistils.—Numerous. Fruit.—Reddish, resembling the garden raspberry.

PLATE LXVIII

PURPLE-FLOWERING RASPBERRY.—R. odoratus. ]

This flower betrays its relationship to the wild rose, and might easily be mistaken for it, although a glance at the undivided leaves would at once correct such an error. The plant is a decorative one when covered with its showy blossoms, constantly arresting our attention along the wooded roadsides in June and July.

PALE CORYDALIS. Corydalis glauca. Fumitory Family.

Stem.—Six inches to two feet high. Leaves.—Pale, divided into delicate leaflets. Flowers.—Pink and yellow, in loose clusters. Calyx.—Of two small, scale-like sepals. Corolla.—Pink, tipped with yellow; closed and flattened, of four petals, with a short spur at the base of the upper petal. Stamens.—Six, maturing before the pistil, thus avoiding self-fertilization. Pistil.—One.

From the rocky clefts in the summer woods springs the pale corydalis, its graceful foliage dim with a whitish bloom, and its delicate rosy, yellow-tipped flowers betraying by their odd flat corollas their kinship with the Dutchman’s breeches and squirrel corn of the early year, as well as with the bleeding hearts of the garden. Thoreau assigns them to the middle of May, and says they are “rarely met with,” which statement does not coincide with the experience of those who find the rocky woodlands each summer abundantly decorated with their fragile clusters.

The generic name, Corydalis, is the ancient Greek title for the crested lark, and said to refer to the crested seeds of this genus. The specific title, glauca, refers to the pallor of leaves and stem.

The golden corydalis, C. aurea, is found on rocky banks somewhat westward.

COMMON MILKWEED. Asclepias Cornuti. Milkweed Family.

Stem.—Tall, stout, downy, with a milky juice. Leaves.—Generally opposite or whorled, the upper sometimes scattered, large, oblong, pale, minutely downy underneath. Flowers.—Dull, purplish-pink, clustered at the summit and along the sides of the stem. (These flowers are too difficult to be successfully analyzed by the non-botanist.) Calyx.—Five-parted, the divisions small and reflexed. Corolla.—Deeply five-parted, the divisions reflexed; above them a crown of five hooded nectaries, each containing an incurved horn. Stamens.—Five, inserted on the base of the corolla, united with each other and enclosing the pistils. Pistils.—Properly two, enclosed by the stamens, surmounted by a large five-angled disk. Fruit.—Two pods, one of which is large and full of silky-tufted seeds, the other often stunted.

This is probably the commonest representative of this striking and beautiful native family. The tall, stout stems, large, pale leaves, dull pink clustered flowers which appear in July, and later the puffy pods filled with the silky-tufted seeds beloved of imaginative children, are familiar to nearly everyone who spends a portion of the year in the country. The young sprouts are said to make an excellent pot-herb; the silky hairs of the seed-pods have been used for the stuffing of pillows and mattresses, and can be mixed with flax or wool and woven to advantage; while paper has been manufactured from the stout stalks.

The four-leaved milkweed, A. quadrifolia, is the most delicate member of the family, with fragrant rose-tinged flowers which appear on the dry wooded hill-sides quite early in June, and slender stems which are usually leafless below, and with one or two whorls and one or two pairs of oval, taper-pointed leaves above.

The swamp milkweed, A. incarnata, grows commonly in moist places. Its very leafy stems are two or three feet high, with narrowly oblong, pointed leaves. Its intense purple-pink flowers gleam from the wet meadows nearly all summer. They are smaller than those of the purple milkweed, A. purpurascens, which abounds in dry ground, and which may be classed among the deep pink or purple flowers according to the eye of the beholder.

HERB ROBERT. Geranium Robertianum. Geranium Family.

Stem.—Forking, slightly hairy. Leaves.—Three, divided, the divisions again dissected. Flowers.—Purple-pink, small. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with five styles which split apart in fruit.

From June until October many of our shaded woods and glens are abundantly decorated by the bright blossoms of the herb Robert. The reddish stalks of the plant have won it the name of “red-shanks” in the Scotch Highlands. Its strong scent is caused by a resinous secretion which exists in several of the geraniums. In some species this resin is so abundant that the stems will burn like torches, yielding a powerful and pleasant perfume. The common name is said to have been given the plant on account of its supposed virtue in a disease which was known as “Robert’s plague,” after Robert, Duke of Normandy. In some of the early writers it is alluded to as the “holy herb of Robert.”