Magenta to Pink 



nearly seated on the stem, have dark triangular or lunar marks 

 near the centre in the majority of cases. 



An insignificant little plant, found all over our continent, Eu- 

 rope, and Asia, is the familiar Knot-grass or Doorweed (P. 

 aviculare), often trailing its leafy, jointed stems over the ground, 

 but at times weakly erect, to display its tiny greenish or white 

 pink-edged flowers, clustered in the axils of oblong, bluish-green 

 leaves that are considerably less than an inch long. Although 

 in bloom from June to October, insects seldom visit it, for it se- 

 cretes very little, if any, nectar. As might be expected in such a 

 case, its stem is smooth. 



When the amphibious Water Persicaria (P. amphibium) lifts 

 its short, dense, rose-colored ovoid or oblong club of bloom above 

 ponds and lakes, it is sufficiently protected from crawling pilferers, 

 of course, by the water in which it grows. But suppose the pond 

 dries up and the plant is left on dry ground, what then ? Now, a 

 remarkable thing happens: protective glandular, sticky hairs ap- 

 pear on the epidermis of the leaves and stems, which were per- 

 fectly smooth when the flowers grew in water. Such small wing- 

 less insects as might pilfer nectar without bringing to their hostess 

 any pollen from other blossoms are held as fast as on bird-lime. 

 The stem, which sometimes floats, sometimes is immersed, may 

 attain a length of twenty feet; the rounded, elliptic, petioled leaves 

 may be four inches long or only half that size. From Quebec to 

 New Jersey, and westward to the Pacific, the solitary, showy in- 

 florescence, which does well to attain a height of an inch, may be 

 found during July and August. 



Throughout the summer, narrow, terminal, erect, spike-like 

 racemes of small, pale pink, flesh-colored, or greenish flowers are 

 sent upward by the Mild Water Pepper (P. hydropiperoides). 

 It is like a slender, pale variety of the common pink persicarin. 

 One finds its inconspicuous, but very common, flowers from June 

 to September. The plant, which grows in shallow water, 

 swamps, and moist places throughout the Union and consider- 

 ably north and south of it, rises three feet or less. The cylindric 

 sheaths around the swollen joints of the stem are fringed with 

 long bristles a clue to identification. Another similar Water 

 Pepper or Smartweed (P. hydropiper) is so called because of 

 its acrid, biting juice. 



The Climbing False Buckwheat (P. scandens) straggles over 

 bushes in woods, thickets, and by the waysides throughout a 

 very wide range ; yet its small, dull, greenish-yellow and pink- 

 ish flowers, loosely clustered in long pedicelled racemes, are so 

 inconspicuous during August and September, when the showy 



89 



