ST. JOHN'S WORT FAMILY 



THE PLANT: erect, four inches high or taller; the stem 

 branched, the branches erect and near together, thread-like. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; reduced to mere scales; minute; 

 awl-shaped. 



THE FLOWERS: minute, nearly sessile, opening in sunshine. 

 THE FRUIT: capsules. 



This is usually a small, but always a wiry plant, with 

 such tiny scales instead of leaves that the upright branches 

 appear leafless. It is made noticeable in the dry sand 

 where it grows, by the deep yellow, almost orange flowers. 



"The plant may be actually minute," Mr. Bicknell 

 says, "its simple stem bearing only a single flower, or 

 densely branched to form a firm, convex mass." 



HYPERICACEJE ST. JOHN'S- WORT FAMILY 



Hypericum mutilum, L. 



Yellow Dwarf St. John's-wort, 



Small-flowered St. John's-wort, 

 August-September Slender St. John's-wort. 



Hypericum: for derivation see boreale. 

 Mutilum: Greek meaning curtailed. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: swamps. 



THE PLANT: generally erect, eight inches to eighteen 

 inches high; the stem generally branched above, weak, 

 often coloured. 



THE LEAVES: often coloured, especially when young; 



opposite; small; ovate to narrowly oblong; obtuse at the 



apex; sessile and partly clasping at the base; entire; 

 five-nerved. 



THE FLOWERS: very small, in a cyme with leaf -like bracts, 

 closing early, seldom to re-open. 



219 



