YELLOW 



that a slender scape rises from its midst bearing at its summit 

 several yellowish, bell-shaped flowers. 



C umbellata is a more southern species, with smaller white 

 flowers, which are speckled with green or purplish dots. 



GOLDEN RAGWORT. SQUAW-WEED. 



Senecio aureus. Composite Family, 



Stem. — One to three feet high. Root-leaves. — Rounded ; the larger 

 ones mostly heart-shaped ; toothed, and long-stalked. Stem-leaves. — The 

 lower lyre-shaped ; the upper lance- shaped ; incised; set close to the stem 

 Flower -he ads. — Yellow ; clustered ; composed of both ray and disk-flowers. 



A child would perhaps liken the flower of the golden ragwort 

 to a yellow daisy. Stain yellow the white rays of the daisy, di- 

 minish the size of the whole head somewhat, and you have a 

 pretty good likeness of the ragwort. There need be little diffi- 

 culty in the identification of this plant — although there are sev- 

 eral marked varieties — for its flowers are abundant in the early 

 year, at which season but few members of the Composite family 

 are abroad. 



The generic name is from senex — an old man — alluding to 

 the silky down of the seeds, which is supposed to suggest the 

 silvery hairs of age. 



Closely allied to the golden ragwort is the common ground- 

 sel, S. vulgaris, which is given as food to caged birds. The 

 flower-heads of this species are without rays. 



YELLOW LADY'S SLIPPER. WHIP-POOR-WILL'S 



SHOE. 



[PI. LXI 

 Cypripedium pubescens. Orchis Family. 



.9/^;„. —About two feet high; downy; leafy to the top; one to three- 

 flowered. Z^rtz/d-J.— Alternate; broadly oval; many-nerved and plaited. 

 Flfliver.—\.2LXg^ ; the pale yellow lip an inflated pouch ; the two lateral 

 petals long and narrow ; wavy-twisted ; brownish. 



The yellow lady's slipper usually blossoms in May or June, 

 a few days later than its pink sister, C. acaule. Regarding its 



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