;< 



156 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



bright yellow, with brownish-red centres and veinings. Tiny- 

 bulbs often occur in the leaf-axils. A bright, pretty flower of 

 the low meadows. 



The Moneywort of our gardens, sometimes called yellow 

 myrtle, belongs to the loosestrife genus. It grows trailing 

 on the ground, with roundish, bright-green leaves and yellow 

 blossoms. It escapes from gardens into a wild state. 



38. Fringed False Loosestrife 



Steironema ciliaium. — Family, Primrose. Color, yellow, 

 with a dark reddish centre. Leaves, opposite, often so close 

 together as to seem whorled, narrow, somewhat heart-shaped 

 at base, tapering and pointed at apex, the lowest 6 inches 

 long, on fringed leaf-stalks. Time, July. 



Calyx and corolla, united below, deeply 5-parted above, the 

 divisions spreading. Flowers on long peduncles, grouped 

 with small leaves, springing from the opposite leaf-axils. 



A pretty plant, so much like the loosestrifes as to suggest the 

 common name which I have placed above. 2 to 4 feet high. 



39. Fringed Gentian 



Gentiana crimta. — Family, Gentian. Color, blue. Leaves,, 

 opposite, acute at apex ; broader, somewhat rounded or heart- 

 shaped at base, lime, September, October. 



Calyx, 4-cleft. Corolla, 2 inches long, a tube with 4 spread- 

 ing lobes, finely fringed around the edges. Stamens, 4; glands 

 between the filaments at their bases. Style, i or none. Stig- 

 mas, 2. 



Flowers solitary, or a few at the top of a stem i to 2 feet high, 

 standing stiffly erect. Its beauty lies chiefly in its clear blue 

 color, for it is scarcely graceful. The corolla opens only in sun- 

 light, closing upon the approach of a shower. It is one of our 

 late flowers, coloring the autumn low meadows with the pure 



