342 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



blush to think of it ; and every year that passes, this royal 

 representative of the Composite seems to be more and more 

 abundant in that same locality. There is a reason for this, 



THE CURIOUS LEATHER-FLOWER OF THE RICH LOWLANDS OF THE 

 SOUTH 



Fig. .S. — Here is another representative of the Crowfoot family {Rannnculacea) 

 which has been called the Leather-fiower {^Clematis viorna) on account of the 

 thick, leathery sepals, four of which, with their recurved tips, are joined at their 

 margins as shown in the cut. F. Schuyler Mathews, in his useful " Field Book of 

 American Wild Flowers," says, on paKC l.?0. that it is "a southern species with 

 solitary, thick, leathery, bell-shaped, dull purple flowers without petals, the jnir- 

 ple sepals about one inch long. The three or more leaflets with unbroken edfies 

 or lobed. In early autumn the hoary plume is brownish. Southern Pennsyl- 

 vania, south to Georgia and Tennessee and west to Ohio." The specimen here 

 shown is a Maryland one, collected on the Georgetown Canal, and the vine was 

 growing in rich, marshy soil, amid a mass of other vegetation. 



just as was found to be the case with respect to the White 

 Daisies in last month's American Forestry: they 

 are rich in pollen, and the bees, butterflies, and beetles do 

 the rest. Neltje Blanchan truly says: "Anyone who has 



had a jar of these yellow daisies standing on a polished 

 table indoors, and tried to keep its .surface free from a ring 

 of golden dust around the flowers, knows how abundant 

 their pollen is." 



The New Jersey Tea, here shown in Figure 4, is also 

 called Wild Snowball, as well as Red Root, from the deep 

 reddish tint of that part of the plant. A tan-colored dye 



A PRETTY MIDSUM.MER UAXSV 



Fig. 6. — This is the Common Daisy Fleabane {Erigeron ramosus) of the Com- 

 posite and it belongs in a genus in which occur some ten or more species, with as 

 many varieties; so it is not always an easy .task to distinguish them. Indeed, 

 common as this plant is from June to October, east of the Mississippi, in fields 

 and along roadsides, it has been incorrectly identified by not a few authors on 

 flowers. Note that the stem is slightly hairy, and that it is pannicled — corym- 

 bose at the summit; that tlie lanceolate leaves are entire or occasionally once- 

 notched, and scattered. Flowers white, sometimes tinged with lilac. This is the 

 Erigeroii slrigosus of Muhlenberg and of Mathews. The central disks are bright 

 yellow, and constitute the true flowers; the white rays correspond toall daisyrays. 

 Robin's Plantain, Sweet Scabious, and Horse-weed or Butter-weed all belong in 

 this genus, and arc close relatives of the Asters. 



is made from these roots which possesses some economic 

 importance. As one passes through the silent woods in 

 June, a group of these consjjicuous, shrubby plants appears 

 to stand out boldly and apart from the surrounding vegeta- 

 tion, and the sight is by no means an unattractive one. 



There is hardly any danger of mistaking the curious 

 Leather-flower (Figure 5), nor the long, straggling vine 

 upon which it is found, for any other flower, although some 

 botanists touch upon the possibility of this in their works. 



