ST. JOHN'S WORT FAMILY 



HYPERICACE^E ST. JOHN'S- WORT FAMILY 



Hypericum boreale, (Britton) Bicknell. 



Yellow 



Northern St. Johris-wort. 

 July-September 



Hypericum: Ancient Greek name of obscure meaning. 

 Boreale: from Greek and Latin, to signify northern. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: low grounds, damp, or wet, 

 sandy places, and pond shores. 



THE PLANT: from creeping underground stems or erect; 

 one inch to eighteen inches high; the stem slightly four- 

 angled, simple or branched. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; elliptic, oval, oblong, or linear- 

 oblong; the lower commonly much smaller and closer 

 together; obtuse at the apex; sessile and sometimes slightly 

 clasping at the base; mostly three-nerved. 



THE FLOWERS: small, few or several in cymes with leafy 

 bracts, wheel-shaped, closing early. 



THE FRUIT: capsules, purple, crossed, and lined. 



Mr. Bicknell has an interesting account of this, the 

 commonest Hypericum of the Island. He says: "It is 

 sometimes aquatic, inhabiting deep water with the habit 

 of a Callitriche (Water Star-wort), the elongated leafy 

 stems either wholly submerged or their tips emersed. In 

 wet sand it may become strongly stoloniferous, putting 

 forth prostrate basal offshoots which reach a length of 

 several inches and root at intervals, sending up small 

 flowering stems and terminating in a cluster of stems from 

 the rooted tip." 



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