THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 67 



fording a delicious and stimulating beverage, and the other 

 an all important medicine. It is hard to imagine how man 

 could dispense with either. 



Small as are the bluets, they are, in parts of New Eng- 

 land, very abundant, and anyone knowing and loving them 

 in childhood, feels a distinct loss if in later life he removes to 

 a section of country, or to foreign parts, where they do not 

 grow. They are never more than a few inches in height, with 

 somewhat square stems and opposite spatulate leaves, the 

 flowers borne in unequal cymes ; that is, the first flower to 

 bloom terminal and, to form a complete cluster, this should be 

 balanced by a younger one on each side. As a matter of fact 

 but one of the lateral blossoms developes, leaving a two- 

 flower cluster, in which the upper flower is the older. Be- 

 fore opening, these flowers droop on their pedicels, but later 

 become erect. The four-parted calyx is adherent to the ovary, 

 and thus eventually becomes part of the fruit. From the top 

 of this grows the salverform corolla, four-lobed, with the ovate 

 lobes valvate or touching each other by the edges. It varies 

 in color from deep purple blue, or lavender, to white, with a 

 yellow eye. When a whole meadow is in bloom, it produces 

 the effect of a wide snow-pall. 



The pretty herb has been singularly afflicted with both 

 scientific and common names. These seem to be ever in flux. 

 To the English titles already mentioned, may be added a quite 

 erroneous one, namely star-of-Bethlehem. Needless to say 

 this pertains to a quite different plant of the lily family often 

 seen in old g-ardens. Three generic names, Hedyotis, Olden- 

 landia, and Houstonia, have been applied to bluets. The last, 

 or Linnaean name, bestowed in honor of Dr. Houston, an 

 English botanist who collected in tropical America, seems now 

 likely to hold. 



This plant like very many of its family, (the Mitchella 

 or twin-berry, the Botivardia, coffee, etc.,) shows the phe- 



