374 Beautiful Plants growing wild 



beneath. Flowers white, forming a corymb or flat top, Hke 

 yarrow. — Common in low lands, and meadows. — August. 



Gentiana. 



Gentidna crlnita Fringed Gentain. This gentian is 

 exceeded by few, if any, of our indigeneous plants, in the 

 beauty and delicacy of its flowers. Stem round, branching 

 toward the top, and about a foot high. Leaves ovate, lan- 

 ceolate, acute. Flowers erect, on the ends of the branches, 

 remote from the leaves. Calyx square, with acute angles 

 and segments. Segments of the corolla of a splendid, deep 

 azure, fringed at the top; expanding when the sun shines, 

 but closed and twisted at other times. Grows in damp 

 places. — Concord turnpike; also near Newton Corner. — Sep- 

 tember, October. 



" Thou blossoms, bright with morning dew. 



And colored with the heaven's own blue. 



That openest when the quiet light 



Succeeds the keen and frosty night " — 



" Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 



Look through its fringes to the sky." — Bryant. 



Gentidna sapondria Soap Gentian. A very fine plant, dis- 

 tinguished by its long purple flowers, which are so nearly 

 closed at the top, as to resemble buds. Stem about eigh- 

 teen inches high , terete or conical, without branches. Leaves 

 opposite, oblong, ovate-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, of a dark, 

 fresh, glossy green, and having from three to five nerves or 

 lines running from one end of the midrib to the other. Flow- 

 ers sessile or stemless, in bunches at the top, and frequently 

 springing from the shoulders of the upper leaves. Blossoms 

 bud-shaped, dark flower-de-luce color (darker than those of 

 the fringed gentian) , variegated with white. Carolla slightly 

 five cleft, its segments subdivided, and folded together so as 

 to close the mouth. — In moist (rocky ^) woods, Cambridge, 

 Brighton. — September, October. 



Geranium. 

 Gerdniwn macula turn Spotted Geranium. " It must be 

 confessed," says Dr. Bigelow, " that a great number of ex- 

 otic species of geraniums are carefully propagated in green- 

 houses and parlors, which are altogether inferior to the pre- 

 sent very beautiful native." Stem upright, hairy, one or 

 two feet high, dividing and sub-dividing by forks. Leaves 

 divided into three, five, or seven parts, hairy, the upper 

 ones (but not the lower) stemless. The leaves become 

 pale, spotted, as they decay. Flowers purple (two on a 

 hairy peduncle or stem,) with five ovate petals. — Common 

 in somewhat moist soils, about fences, and the edges of 

 woods. — May, June. 



