Wild Flowers of the North-Eastern States

Part 1

WILD FLOWERS OF THE NORTH-EASTERN STATES

BEING THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHT INDIVIDUALS COMMON TO THE NORTH-EASTERN UNITED STATES, DRAWN AND DESCRIBED FROM LIFE BY

ELLEN MILLER AND MARGARET CHRISTINE WHITING

------ WITH THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS THE SIZE OF LIFE ------

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

The Knickerbocker Press

1895

COPYRIGHT, 1895 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

Dedicated

MARY GOODRICH WHITING

AND

MARY ESTHER MILLER

INTRODUCTION.

It was with no desire to compete with scientific botanies that this collection of flowers was gathered together, but with the hope of making their acquaintance more easy to non-scientific folk than the much condensed manuals of our flora are able to do. The opportunity of introducing a plant, with that graceful amplitude which forestalls human meetings, is denied to the scientific botanist by the needful restrictions of his formulæ, and there remain unnoted by him (because beyond the scope of a special terminology) numberless traits of race-habit, and personal details of growth belonging to the plants, to which the unlearned observer will attach a degree of significance, incommensurate, perhaps, to their scientific value. To the simple Nature-lover each growth possesses a personal quality more desirable than the catalogued facts of its existence, and which offers an invitation to his thought beyond the knowledge he may gain from books.

Supplementary, then, to the scientific classification, there is a place for the mere lover and observer, who shall display the results of his study in the most direct terms, that require no glossaries of explanation, nor, if it may be avoided, any dissection of flower-growths. Too often the amateur is dismayed, in his effort to name a plant, by the botanical need of a microscopic analysis, which calls for a preliminary training, and in its process destroys the flower he seeks to know. If it were possible for a pictorial botany to be prepared for English readers in the common vocabulary, the destructive element which, at present, occupies a painfully large place in the study of all popular science, might be confined to the needs of the higher student, and no longer pursued by children, or the merely curious observers of our common forms of life. The effort to verify what has already been established, which, in some intellectually alert localities, threatens the more delicate of our annuals and biennials with extermination, might be avoided, if we were able to recognize the commoner sorts of plants by their general character, their gesture, color, and habits, leaving scientific analysis for serious study.

The present collection of flowers common to the North-eastern United States, which was started as a personal pastime, has taken its present shape under the belief that it were well to make a beginning towards a floral portrait-gallery; it is from this point of view, rather than from the purely botanical, that the drawings have been made and the descriptions written. Days have been pleasantly spent in searching for a specimen which would show most typically the particular trick of growth, the characteristic gesture which individualized it from all other plants; often a flower has been drawn and described as it grew, surprised in its familiar haunt. Effort has been made to gather within the prescribed limits as great a diversity of growths, and as many variations of types in each family, as was feasible. Because of the desire to localize the collection, somewhat, the flowers of the seaboard have been excluded. A few shrubs, and even one small tree, the Witch Hazel, have been included, because their flowers or fruit form such essential features in the floral calendar, or possess so strong a hold upon the wayfarers’ affections, that their presence has seemed inevitable. In the case of two vines, the Carrion Flower and the Virginia Creeper, the drawings were made from the fruit (companioned by the figure of the single flower) for the obvious reason that the blossoms of the one are inconspicuous, and of the other so malodorous, they offer small temptations to a near acquaintance, while both are recompensed with highly decorative berry-clusters. The drawings of the flowers are the size of life; in every possible instance the growth also is given without reduction.

That every flower-lover will find some favorites omitted, is altogether probable, in a selection of three hundred individuals from among the hosts which invite representation. The extreme dry weather of the previous season must be held accountable for several noteworthy, and much regretted, blanks in the list.

The choice of botanical terms has been intentionally confined to those which long usage has so wrought into the common speech that they have practically ceased to belong to strictly scientific nomenclature. The floral families have been arranged in the order employed in Gray’s Manual; the individual members of a genus, and of a family, have been placed in their usual sequence of bloom, that the flower-gatherer may know when to reasonably expect the successive blossoming of any special set of plants. It is impossible however to be arbitrarily definite in any such classification of Nature’s methods. Nor are we able to do more than to approximate accuracy in describing color; modifications, even direct contradictions, of the normal or usual type are constantly discovered, which we may impute to variations in soil or temperature, but whose appearance follows laws we dimly apprehend. Of one thing only may we be sure: Nature tunes her seemingly fickle choice to harmony, whatever the key; always there remains a perfect adjustment of color between stalk and stem and leaf and blossom.

By the generosity of Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Mass., the lists of folk-names for many flowers have been greatly enriched. Recognition is due also to Dr. B. F. Robinson, and to his assistants of the Harvard Herbarium, for very kind aid in the botanical classification of specimens.

DEERFIELD, MASS., April 3d, 1895.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CROWFOOT FAMILY, Ranunculaceæ 1

BARBERRY FAMILY, Berberidaceæ 32

WATER-LILY FAMILY, Nymphæaceæ 36

PITCHER-PLANTS, Sarraceniaceæ 40

POPPY FAMILY, Papaveraceæ 42

Part 2

FUMITORY FAMILY, Fumariaceæ 46

MUSTARD FAMILY, Cruciferæ 50

ROCK-ROSE FAMILY, Cistaceæ 60

VIOLET FAMILY, Violaceæ 62

PINK FAMILY, Caryophyllaceæ 76

ST. JOHN’S-WORT FAMILY, Hypericaceæ 90

MALLOW FAMILY, Malvaceæ 94

GERANIUM FAMILY, Geraniaceæ 96

HOLLY FAMILY, Ilicineæ 104

STAFF-TREE FAMILY, Celastraceæ 106

BUCKTHORN FAMILY, Rhamnaceæ 108

VINE FAMILY, Vitaceæ 110

MILKWORT FAMILY, Polygalaceæ 112

PULSE FAMILY, Leguminosæ 116

ROSE FAMILY, Rosaceæ 144

SAXIFRAGE FAMILY, Saxifragaceæ 178

ORPINE FAMILY, Crassulaceæ 188

SUNDEW FAMILY, Droseraceæ 190

WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY, Hamamelideæ 192

EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY, Onagraceæ 194

GOURD FAMILY, Cucurbitaceæ 204

PARSLEY FAMILY, Umbelliferæ 206

GINSENG FAMILY, Araliaceæ 220

DOGWOOD FAMILY, Cornaceæ 224

HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY, Caprifoliaceæ 226

MADDER FAMILY, Rubiaceæ 238

COMPOSITE FAMILY, Compositæ 246

LOBELIA FAMILY, Lobeliaceæ 356

Part 3

CAMPANULA FAMILY, Campanulaceæ 364

HEATH FAMILY, Ericaceæ 370

PRIMROSE FAMILY, Primulaceæ 408

DOGBANE FAMILY, Apocynaceæ 418

MILKWEED FAMILY, Asclepiadaceæ 422

GENTIAN FAMILY, Gentianaceæ 436

BORAGE FAMILY, Borraginaceæ 440

CONVOLVULUS FAMILY, Convolvulaceæ 444

NIGHTSHADE FAMILY, Solanaceæ 450

FIGWORT FAMILY, Scrophulariaceæ 452

BROOM-RAPE FAMILY, Orobanchaceæ 484

VERVAIN FAMILY, Verbenaceæ 486

MINT FAMILY, Labiatæ 492

POKEWEED FAMILY, Phytolaccaceæ 518

BUCKWHEAT FAMILY, Polygonaceæ 520

BIRTHWORT FAMILY, Aristolochiaceæ 528

LAUREL FAMILY, Lauraceæ 530

MEZEREUM FAMILY, Thymelæaceæ 532

SWEET-GALE FAMILY, Myricaceæ 534

ORCHIS FAMILY, Orchidaceæ 536

IRIS FAMILY, Iridaceæ 564

AMARYLLIS FAMILY, Amaryllidaceæ 568

LILY FAMILY, Liliaceæ 570

PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY, Pontederiaceæ 596

CAT-TAIL FAMILY, Typhaceæ 598

ARUM FAMILY, Araceæ 600

WATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY, Alismaceæ 610

The Cover-Design by E. M.: Derived from the Green Dragon (Arisæma Dracontium) Plant.

Part 4

WILD FLOWERS OF THE NORTH-EASTERN STATES.

CROWFOOT FAMILY.

RANUNCULACEÆ.

*Hepatica.* Hepatica triloba. *Liverwort.* *Liver-leaf.*

Found in April and May, on hillsides, along the edge of woods, and in rocky ground.

The leaf-stems and flower-stems rise from the ground to the height of 4 or 6 inches.

The leaf is heart-shaped, and 3-lobed, of a tough, strong fibre that often survives the winter. Its color is dark green above and dull violet beneath.

The beautiful flower is composed of 6 to 9 petal-like calyx-parts, of an oval shape, and thin texture, whose color varies from light to dark violet, and from lavender-tinted white to a very pink-lavender, or lilac; the stamens are many, and thread-like, and of a pale straw color. Close beneath the flower are 3 reddish-brown, downy little leaves, bearing the semblance of a calyx. The flower is set on a slender, very downy stem, which springs from amidst the leaves.

The harmony of color in this plant as seen in the flower and leaf is striking, a preponderance of violet showing throughout. It is very downy, the young leaves being covered with long silky hairs. The numerous half-opened flowers and buds are slightly nodding, but become more erect when fully spread in the sunlight. The Hepatica is often frequented by small lavender butterflies, in size and color resembling the blossoms,--when they rise and flutter in the soft spring air, it is as though the flowers themselves are taking flight.

*Marsh Marigold.* Caltha palustris. *Cowslips.*

Found in late April and early May, in swamps or wet meadows, with its roots in the water.

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