190 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



29. Button-weed 



Diodia teres (a thoroughfare). — Family, Madder. Color^ 

 whitish. Leaves, opposite, long, lance-shaped, stemless, stiff, 

 rigid, with membranaceous, bristly stipules connecting the 

 leaves. Time, summer. 



Flower parts in fours. An insignificant herb, generally- 

 rough or hairy-stemmed, with small, whitish flowers about \ 

 inch long, with funnel-form corollas. Flowers i to 3 in the 

 leaf-axils. Stem, softly hairy, 3 to 9 inches long. 



Found along garden paths and waysides from New Jersey to 

 Florida and Texas. 



30. Bluets. Innocence 



Housionia caerulea. — Family, Madder. Color, bluish 

 white, with yellow centre. Leaves, small, blunt and wide at 

 apex, narrowing to base, opposite, entire. Time, May, June. 



A. very short, 4-lobed calyx, forming a tiny cup to hold the 

 tubular corolla with its 4 -spreading lobes, barely ^ inch 

 across. Stamens, 4. Style, i. 



Delicate flowers of spring, 2 to 5 inches high, growing in 

 bunches from slender creeping stems or rootstocks. The pale 

 blue corolla, with its bright eye, dots many meadows with tiny 

 stars. 



31. Blazing-star 



'^ Liairis spicata. — Family, Composite. Color, rose-purple. 



Leaves, long and narrow, rigid, upright, the lower 3 to 5-nerved. 

 7'ime, late summer. 



Corollas, tubular; no rays. Heads of flowers large, crowded 

 on the upper part of very leafy stems. 



A rough, bristling plant, 2 to 5 feet high, found along roadsides 

 from Massachusetts to New Jersey and southward. Very hand- 

 some, regular flowers, of striking color. 



