Part 53

PLATE LXXXVI

ROBIN’S PLANTAIN.—E. bellidifolius. ]

The large nodding flower of the pitcher-plant may be found during June in the peat-bogs of New England as well as farther south and west. It is less familiar to most people than the curious pitcher-like leaves, which are usually partially filled with water and drowned insects; part of their inner surface being covered with a sugary exudation, below which, for a space, they are highly polished, while on the lower portion grow the stiff bristles which point downward. Insects attracted by the sugary secretion find themselves prisoners, as they can seldom fight their way through the opposing bristles, neither can they usually escape by such a perpendicular flight as would be necessary from the form of the cavity. The decomposed bodies of these unfortunates are supposed to contribute to the nourishment of the plant, as it is hardly probable that this elaborate contrivance answers no special purpose.

WILD GERANIUM. WILD CRANESBILL. Geranium maculatum. Geranium Family.

Stem.—Erect, hairy. Leaves.—About five-parted, the divisions lobed and cut. Flowers.—Pale pink-purple, rather large. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—With five styles, which split apart at maturity so elastically as to discharge the seeds to some distance.

In spring and early summer the open woods and shaded roadsides are abundantly brightened with these graceful flowers. They are of peculiar interest because of their close kinship with the species, G. pratense, which first attracted the attention of the German scholar, Sprengel, to the close relations existing between flowers and insects. The beak-like appearance of its fruit give the plant both its popular and scientific names, for geranium is from the Greek for crane. The specific title, maculatum, refers to the somewhat blotched appearance of the older leaves.

GILL-OVER-THE-GROUND. GROUND IVY. Nepeta Glechoma. Mint Family (p. 16).

Stems.—Creeping and trailing. Leaves.—Small and kidney-shaped. Flowers.—Bluish-purple, loosely clustered in the axils of the leaves. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.—Two-lipped, the upper lip erect and two-cleft, the lower spreading and three-cleft. Stamens.—Four. Pistil.—One, two-lobed at the apex.

PLATE LXXXVII

WILD GERANIUM.—G. maculatum. ]

As the pleasant aroma of its leaves suggest, this little plant is closely allied to the catnip. Its common title of Gill-over-the-ground, appeals to one who is sufficiently without interest in pasture-land (for it is obnoxious to cattle) to appreciate the pleasant fashion in which this little immigrant from Europe has made itself at home here, brightening the earth with such a generous profusion of blossoms every May. But it is somewhat of a disappointment to learn that this name is derived from the French guiller, and refers to its former use in the fermentation of beer. Oddly enough the name of alehoof, which the plant has borne in England and which naturally has been supposed to refer to this same custom, is said by a competent authority (Professor Earle, of Oxford) to have no connection with it, but to signify another sort of hofe, hofe being the early English name for the violet, which resembles these flowers in color.

The plant was highly prized formerly as a domestic medicine. Gerarde claims that “boiled in mutton-broth it helpeth weake and akeing backs.”

LARKSPUR. Delphinium. Crowfoot Family.

Six inches to five feet high. Leaves.—Divided or cut. Flowers.—Blue or purplish, growing in terminal racemes. Calyx.—Of five irregular petal-like sepals, the upper one prolonged into a spur. Corolla.—Of four irregular petals, the upper pair continued backward in long spurs which are enclosed in the spur of the calyx, the lower pair with short claws. Stamens.—Indefinite in number. Pistils.—One to five, forming pods in fruit.

In April and May the bright blue clusters of the dwarf larkspur, D. tricorne, are noticeable in parts of the country. Unfortunately they are not found east of Western Pennsylvania.

The tall wand-like purplish racemes of the tall larkspur, D. exaltatum, are found in July in the rich soil of Pennsylvania, and much farther south and west as well.

WILD LUPINE. Lupinus perennis. Pulse Family (p. 16).

Stem.—Erect, one to two feet high. Leaves.—Divided into seven to eleven leaflets. Flowers.—Blue, papilionaceous, showy, in a long raceme. Pod.—Broad, hairy.

In June and July the long bright clusters of the wild lupine are very noticeable in many of our sandy fields. Its pea-like blossoms serve to easily identify it. Under date of June 8th, Thoreau writes: “The lupine is now in its glory.... It paints a whole hill-side with its blue, making such a field (if not meadow) as Proserpine might have wandered in. Its leaf was made to be covered with dewdrops. I am quite excited by this prospect of blue flowers in clumps, with narrow intervals, such a profusion of the heavenly, the Elysian color, as if these were the Elysian fields.... That is the value of the lupine. The earth is blued with it.”

HAREBELL. Campanula rotundifolia. Campanula Family.

Stem.—Slender, branching, from five to twelve inches high. Root-leaves.—Heart-shaped or ovate, early withering. Stem-leaves.—Numerous, long and narrow. Flowers.—Bright blue, nodding from hair-like stalks. Calyx.—Five-cleft, the lobes awl-shaped. Corolla.—Bell-shaped, five-lobed. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One, with three stigmas.

This slender, pretty plant, hung with its tremulous flowers, springs from the rocky cliffs which buttress the river as well as from those which crown the mountain. I have seen the west shore of the Hudson bright with its delicate bloom in June, and the summits of the Catskills tinged with its azure in September. The drooping posture of these flowers protect their pollen from rain or dew. They have come to us from Europe, and are identical, I believe, with the celebrated Scotch bluebells.

BLUE-EYED GRASS. Sisyrinchium angustifolium. Iris Family.

Four to twelve inches high. Leaves.—Narrow and grass-like. Flowers.—Blue or purple, with a yellow centre. Perianth.—Six-parted, the divisions bristle-pointed. Stamens.—Three, united. Pistil.—One, with three thread-like stigmas.

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, But it withereth the grass, And the flower thereof falleth, And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth.

So reads the passage in the Epistle of James, which seems so graphically to describe the brief life of this little flower, that we might almost believe the Apostle had had it in mind, were it to be found in the East.

The blue-eyed grass belongs to the same family as the showy fleur-de-lis and blossoms during the summer, being especially plentiful in moist meadows. It is sometimes called “eye-bright,” which name belongs by rights to Euphrasia officinalis.

VENUS’S LOOKING-GLASS. Specularia perfoliata. Campanula Family.