Part 6

LXXXIX. FLEUR-DE-LIS, Iris versicolor, 245

XC. AMERICAN BROOKLIME, Veronica Americana, 247

XCI. MONKEY-FLOWER, Mimulus ringens, 251

XCII. BLUE VERVAIN, Verbena hastata, 263

XCIII. SELF-HEAL, Brunella vulgaris, 255

XCIV. BLUEWEED, Echium vulgare, 259

XCV. GREAT LOBELIA, Lobelia syphilitica, 261

XCVI. INDIAN TOBACCO, Lobelia inflata, 263

XCVII. BEACH PEA, Lathyrus maritimus, 265

XCVIII. CHICORY, Cichorium Intybus, 267

XCIX. BLAZING STAR, Liatris scariosa, 271

C. CLOSED GENTIAN, Gentiana Andrewsii, 273

CI. FRINGED GENTIAN, Gentiana crinita, 275

CII. SKUNK CABBAGE, Symplocarpus fœtidus, 277

CIII. WILD GINGER, Asarum Canadense, 279

CIV. JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT, Arisæma triphyllum, 281

Most young people find botany a dull study. So it is, as taught from the text-books in the schools; but study it yourself in the fields and woods, and you will find it a source of perennial delight.

JOHN BURROUGHS.

HOW TO KNOW THE WILD FLOWERS

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

Until a comparatively recent period the interest in plants centred largely in the medicinal properties, and sometimes in the supernatural powers, which were attributed to them.

—O who can tell The hidden power of herbes and might of magick spell?—

sang Spenser in the “Faerie Queene;” and to this day the names of many of our wayside plants bear witness, not alone to the healing properties which their owners were supposed to possess, but also to the firm hold which the so-called “doctrine of signatures” had upon the superstitious mind of the public. In an early work on “The Art of Simpling,” by one William Coles, we read as follows: “Yet the mercy of God which is over all his works, maketh Grasse to grow upon the Mountains and Herbes for the use of men, and hath not only stamped upon them a distinct forme, but also given them particular signatures, whereby a man may read, even in legible characters, the use of them.” Our hepatica or liver-leaf, owes both its generic and English titles to its leaves, which suggested the form of the organ after which the plant is named, and caused it to be considered “a sovereign remedy against the heat and inflammation of the liver.”

Although his once-renowned system of classification has since been discarded on account of its artificial character, it is probably to Linnæus that the honor is due of having raised the study of plants to a rank which had never before been accorded it. The Swedish naturalist contrived to inspire his disciples with an enthusiasm and to invest the flowers with a charm and personality which awakened a wide-spread interest in the subject. It is only since his day that the unscientific nature-lover, wandering through those woods and fields where

—wide around, the marriage of the plants Is sweetly solemnized—

has marvelled to find the same laws in vogue in the floral as in the animal world.

To Darwin we owe our knowledge of the significance of color, form, and fragrance in flowers. These subjects have been widely discussed during the last twenty-five years, because of their close connection with the theory of natural selection; they have also been more or less enlarged upon in modern text-books. Nevertheless, it seems wiser to repeat what is perhaps already known to the reader, and to allude to some of the interesting theories connected with these topics, rather than to incur the risk of obscurity by omitting all explanation of facts and deductions to which it is frequently necessary to refer.

It is agreed that the object of a flower’s life is the making of seed, i.e., the continuance of its kind. Consequently its most essential parts are its reproductive organs, the stamens, and the pistil or pistils.