THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 69 



terested by such striking features, and some of them odd, which 

 this plant presents. First consider the opposite and decussate 

 leaves. That last term which sounds so like a swear word only 

 means that the leaves, while opposite, cross each other in pairs, 

 each succeeding couple alternating with the pair above and be- 

 low, so as to fill the space and give each the best possible show 

 for light and air. These elliptical leaves, when held to the 

 light, and looked through are seen to be, as the books have it 

 "punctate with pellucid and dark dots." In less technical 

 language the foilage is spotted with many thin translucent 

 places mingled with black spots like fly specks. These are seen 

 also on the flowers. 



There are five light yellow petals and the inflorescence is 

 centrifugal, the middle flowers blooming first. The stamens 

 are in three marked clusters united by their filaments at the 

 base. The botanist says they are triadelphous or in three 

 brotherhoods. The three divergent thread-like styles project 

 from among these, capping a three-lobed capsule or pod. There 

 are many other and quite different looking species of Hyperi- 

 cum, some of them native. Of these H. ascyron, fomierly 

 known as H. pyramidatum is the most showy. Its stems are 

 from two to five feet high and the leaves from two to five 

 inches long. The huge conical pods are apt to assume a 

 ruddy color in ripening and are almost as handsome as the 

 flowers. The plant is found on river banks from New Eng- 

 land to Pennsylvania and the far west. A striking contrast 

 to this splendid plant is the little orange grass or pineweed 

 with heathlike leaves, minute flowers and red pods growing in 

 sandy fields. 



To return to the common species, few plants show more 

 strikingly the effect of environment. In good soil it may be 

 four or five feet high while on a dry road bed it is sometimes 

 only an inch or two in height. In this last case instead of the 

 many flowered cluster seen in favorable situations it may be 



