From Blue to Purple 



its leaves has long been an important item of trade in Wayne 

 County, New York. One has only to crush the leaves in one's 

 hand to name the flower. 



Ournative Wild Mint {M. Canadensis), common along brook- 

 sides and in moist soil from New Brunswick to Virginia and far 

 westward, has its whorls of small purplish flowers seated in the 

 leaf axils. Its odor is like pennyroyal. The true pennyroyal, 

 not to be confused with our spurious woodland annual, is M. Piile- 

 gium, a native of Europe, whence a number of its less valuable 

 relatives, all perennials, have travelled to become naturalized 

 Americans. 



In dry open woods and thickets and by the roadside, from 

 late August throughout September, we find blooming the aromatic 

 fragrant Stone Mint, Sweet Horse-mint, or American Dittany 

 {Cunila origano/cfes) — C. Mariana of Gray. Its small pink-pur- 

 ple, lilac, or whitish flowers, that are only about half as long as the 

 protruding pair of stamens, are borne in loose terminal clusters 

 at the ends of the stiff, branched, slender, sometimes reddish, stem. 

 A pair of rudimentary, useless stamens remain within the two- 

 lipped tube; the exserted pair, affording the most convenient 

 alighting place for the visiting flies, dust their under sides with 

 pollen the first day the flower opens; on the next, the stigma 

 will be ready to receive pollen carried from young flowers. 



Nightshade; Blue Bindweed ; Felonwort; Bit- 

 tersweet; Scarlet or Snake Berry; Poison- 

 flower; Woody Nightshade 



{So/anum Dulcamara) Potato family 



Flowers — Blue, purple, or, rarely, white with greenish spots on each 

 lobe ; about >4 in. broad, clustered "in slender, drooping 

 cymes. Calyx 5-lobed, oblong, persistent on the berry ; corolla 

 deeply, sharply 5-cleft, wheel-shaped, or points curved back- 

 ward ; 5 stamens inserted on throat, yellow, protruding, the 

 anthers united to form a cone; stigma small. Stew : Climb- 

 ing or straggling, woody below, branched, 2 to 8 ft. long. 

 Leaves: Alternate, 2 to 4 in. long, i to lYz in. wide, pointed 

 at the apex, usually heart-shaped at base; some with 2 dis- 

 tinct leaflets below on the petiole, others have leaflets united 

 with leaf like lower lobes or wings. Fruit : A bright red, 

 oval berry. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist thickets, fencerows. 



Floivering Season — May — September. 



50 



