Part 53

The long narrow leaf is somewhat blunt-pointed at the tip and heart-shaped at the base, with an entire margin, and a strong midrib; its fibre is strong and coarse, the veins showing, and it is hairy underneath and downy above; the color is a full green, much toned with orange. The leaves are set on short stems, and placed near together, alternately, and with an upward inclination.

The flower is small and long; the crown is set up high on its slender neck, its hoods short and narrow, and yet somewhat longer than the fine-pointed straight horns,--in color a splendid glowing orange; the narrow, fine-pointed lobes are slightly curling, and bright yellow; the calyx is unobservable. The flowers are set on slender, rather long, light green foot-stems, forming a loose flat-topped cluster; the clusters being arranged in a leafy terminal group.

As many as eighteen clusters have been counted upon a single stalk. The color scheme of this plant is especially good; the green betrays the same tawny tone which belongs to the gorgeous flowers.

*Common Milkweed.* Asclepias Cornuti.

Found in meadows and roadsides, from June to August.

The large, round, and tough-fibred stalk, which grows from 3 to 4 feet high, has a sticky and milky juice, is minutely downy, and pale green.

The leaf is often very large (from 4 to 8 inches long), oval, rounded at both ends, with an entire and somewhat wavy margin, and a large midrib; it is thick in texture, smooth above, but a little downy beneath, and grayish-green in color, the underside being silvery,--the wide midrib is light, or often tinged with dull red.

The flower is rather large; the crown is brownish-pink, the lobes light flesh-pink or pale lilac, and the foot-stems are pinkish. The flower-clusters are large, round, and drooping; they spring from the angles of the upper leaves.

Though regarded as a “weed” this Milkweed has many attractive features.

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The seed-pods of the Milkweeds are most interesting; rough on the outside, they are beautifully finished within, with a fine, smooth, light lining. The silky plumes of the flat-brown seeds are closely folded together and the seeds lie overlapping like the scales of a fish. The light green outside of the Butterfly-Weed pod, tinged with crimson-tawny, becomes with age a fine tree-trunk gray. In some varieties a likeness to a dove may be found in the inverted pod.

GENTIAN FAMILY.

GENTIANACEÆ.

*Fringed Gentian.* Gentiana crinita.

Found in fields, pastures, and along wayside thickets, frequently where it is damp; coming into bloom late in August and continuing until middle October or later.

The stalk, which branches for the flowers, grows usually from 6 inches to 2 feet in height, and is somewhat square near the blossoms, and sometimes twisted; it is grooved, smooth and shining, and light green, tempered with bronze.

The leaf is heart-shaped at the base, tapering sharply to a long-pointed tip, slightly creased on the midrib, with an entire margin, and thin smooth texture. In color it is light green. The leaves clasp the stalk in pairs, which occur at right angles to each other.

The corolla is a deep vase shape spreading at the top into 4 fringed lobes which curve like shells; of a delicate thin texture, and satin smooth surface, in color an evasive azure, impossible to describe, varying from pale to deep (sometimes reddish tinted), and marked upon the outside with fine lines of darker blue. The 4-parted calyx is pinched into 4 angles at its base, and is a light yellow-green color, its long, sharp tips sometimes bronzy. The flowers are set on short, and long, leafy stems; in groups, or singly.

Though often low, and bearing but one flower, it is not uncommon to find a single tall stalk adorned with a dozen or two of blossoms, and a reliable observer reports having found plants 5 feet in stature, and bearing upwards of a hundred flowers and buds apiece! This remarkable luxuriance could only have occurred in some solitary mountain glen unknown to the gentian-hunter, who, between greedy admiration of its beauty and ignorance of its habits, is doing his best to exterminate the plant. The seeds are exceedingly capricious in their choice of a home, and refuse to germinate when garden-sown. For the æsthetic pleasure also it is best not to pluck them; their charm loses its subtlety when carried into civilized environments--the spirit of their loveliness escapes imprisonment.

*Blind Gentian.* Gentiana Andrewsii. *Closed Gentian.*

Found in rich woodlands and pastures, blossoming in September and October.

The single leafy stalk, from 1 foot to 18 inches in height, is round, stout, smooth, and green.

The leaf is large (from 2 to 4 inches long), usually bread oval in shape, tapering to the tip, with an entire margin, and a thick texture; the surface is smooth, and the color a rich green that is frequently weather-worn and rusty. The leaves are set in pairs upon the stalk.

The flower is like a closed bud which never opens, an inflated club-shape from 1 to 1 and ½ inches in length; the corolla is a dark purple-blue color, growing lighter near the base, and in its folds; the 5-parted calyx is more or less green. The flowers are gathered together in a close cluster of four or five, upon the summit of the stalk, amidst the numerous green leaves.

The color of the closed gentian, being low and rich in tone rather than brilliant, loses greatly in value when gathered and fetched into the subdued light of the house.

BORAGE FAMILY.

BORRAGINACEÆ.

*Forget-me-not.* Myosotis palustris. *Mouse-ear.*