Part 45

In fruit the styles of this plant split apart with an elasticity which serves to project the seeds to a distance, it is said, of twenty-five feet.

BUSH CLOVER. Lespedeza procumbens. Pulse Family (p. 16).

Stems.—Slender, trailing, and prostrate. Leaves.—Divided into three clover-like leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, purplish-pink, veiny. Pod.—Small, rounded, flat, one-seeded.

The flowers of this plant often have the appearance of springing directly from the earth amid a mass of clover leaves. They are common in dry soil in the late summer and autumn, as are the other members of the same genus.

L. reticulata is an erect, very leafy species with similar blossoms, which are chiefly clustered near the upper part of the stem. The bush clovers betray at once their kinship with the tick-trefoils, but are usually found in more sandy, open places.

L. polystachya has upright wand-like stems from two to four feet high. Its flowers grow in oblong spikes on elongated stalks. Those of L. capitata are clustered in globular heads.

TICK-TREFOIL. Desmodium Canadense. Pulse Family (p. 16).

Stem.—Hairy, three to six feet high. Leaves.—Divided into three somewhat oblong leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, dull purplish-pink, growing in densely flowered racemes. Pod.—Flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, from one to three inches long, roughened with minute hooked hairs by means of which they adhere to animals and clothing.

Great masses of color are made by these flowers in the bogs and rich woods of midsummer. They are effective when seen in the distance, but rather disappointing on closer examination, and will hardly bear gathering or transportation. They are by far the largest and most showy of the genus.

PLATE LXIX

HERB ROBERT.—G. Robertianum. ]

TICK-TREFOIL. Desmodium nudiflorum. Pulse Family (p. 16).

Scape.—About two feet long. Leaves.—Divided into three broad leaflets, crowded at the summit of the flowerless stems. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, purplish-pink, small, growing in an elongated raceme on a mostly leafless scape.

This is a smaller, less noticeable plant than D. Canadense. It flourishes abundantly in dry woods, where it often takes possession in late summer to the exclusion of nearly all other flowers.

The flowers of D. acuminatum grow in an elongated raceme from a stem about whose summit the leaves, divided into very large leaflets, are crowded; otherwise it resembles D. nudiflorum.

D. Dillenii grows to a height of from two to five feet, with erect leafy stems and medium-sized flowers. It is found commonly in open woods.

Many of us who do not know these plants by name have uttered various imprecations against their roughened pods. Thoreau writes: “Though you were running for your life, they would have time to catch and cling to your clothes.... These almost invisible nets, as it were, are spread for us, and whole coveys of desmodium and bidens seeds steal transportation out of us. I have found myself often covered, as it were, with an imbricated coat of the brown desmodium seeds or a bristling chevaux-de-frise of beggar-ticks, and had to spend a quarter of an hour or more picking them off in some convenient spot; and so they get just what they wanted—deposited in another place.”

BOUNCING BET. SOAPWORT. Saponaria officinalis. Pink Family.

Stem.—Rather stout, swollen at the joints. Leaves.—Oval, opposite. Flowers.—Pink or white, clustered. Calyx.—Of five united sepals. Corolla.—Of five pinkish, long-clawed petals (frequently the flowers are double). Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with two styles.

A cheery pretty plant is this with large, rose-tinged flowers which are especially effective when double.

PLATE LXX

BOUNCING BET.—S. officinalis. ]

Bouncing Bet is of a sociable turn and is seldom found far from civilization, delighting in the proximity of farm-houses and their belongings, in the shape of children, chickens, and cattle. She comes to us from England, and her “feminine comeliness and bounce” suggest to Mr. Burroughs a Yorkshire housemaid. The generic name is from sapo—soap, and refers to the lather which the juice forms with water, and which is said to have been used as a substitute for soap.

STEEPLE-BUSH. HARDHACK. Spiræa tomentosa. Rose Family.

Stems.—Very woolly. Leaves.—Alternate, oval, toothed. Flowers.—Small, pink, in pyramidal clusters. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Corolla.—Of five rounded petals. Stamens.—Numerous. Pistils.—Five to eight.

The pink spires of this shrub justify its rather unpoetic name of steeple-bush. It is closely allied to the meadow-sweet (Pl. XXVI.), blossoming with it in low grounds during the summer. It differs from that plant in the color of its flowers and in the woolliness of its stems and the lower surface of its leaves.

DEPTFORD PINK. Dianthus Armeria. Pink Family.

One or two feet high. Leaves.—Opposite, long and narrow, hairy. Flowers.—Pink, with white dots, clustered. Calyx.—Five-toothed, cylindrical, with awl-shaped bracts beneath. Corolla.—Of five small petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with two styles.