PINK 



some of the many pests she has shipped to our shores in view of 

 this radiant acquisition. The botany locates it anywhere be- 

 tween Nova Scotia and Delaware. It may be seen in the per- 

 fection of its beauty along the marshy shores of the Hudson and 

 in the swamps of the Wallkill Valley. 



When we learn that these flowers are called "long purples" 

 by the English country people, the scene of Ophelia's tragic 

 death rises before us : 



" There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 

 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream, 

 There with fantastic garlands did she come, 

 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 

 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 

 But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them." 



Dr. Prior, however, says that it is supposed that Shakespeare in- 

 tended to designate the purple flowering orchis, O. ??iascula, which 

 is said closely to resemble the showy orchis of our spring woods. 

 The flowers of the purple loosestrife are especially interesting 

 to botanists on account of their trwio7'phism, which word signifies 

 occurring in three forms, and refers to the stamens and pistils, 

 which vary in size in the different blossoms, being of three dif- 

 ferent lengths, the pollen from any given set of stamens being 

 especially fitted to fertilize a pistil of corresponding length. 



MEADOW-BEAUTY. DEER-GRASS. 



Rhexia Virginica. Melastoma Family. 



Stem. — Square ; with wing-like angles. Leaves. — Opposite ; narrowly 

 oval. Flmvers. — Purplish-pink; clustered. Calyx-tiibe. — Urn-shaped; four- 

 cleft at the apex. Corolla. — Of four large, rounded petals. Stamens. — 

 Eight, with long, curved anthers. Pistil. — One. 



It is always a pleasant surprise to happen upon a bright patch 

 of these delicate deep-hued flowers along the marshes or in the 

 sandy fields of midsummer. Their fragile beauty is of that order 

 which causes it to seem natural that they should belong to a 

 genus which is the sole northern representative of a tropical fam- 



236 



