Magenta to Pink 



high, erect, branched, shrubby, bristly, not prickly. Leaves: 

 Alternate, petioled, 3 to 5 lobed, middle lobe largest, and all 

 pointed ; saw-edged lower leaves immense. Fruit : A de- 

 pressed red berry, scarcely edible. 



Preferred Habitat — Rocky woods, dells, shady roadsides. 



Flozvering Season — June — August. 



Distribution — Northern Canada south to Georgia, westward to 

 Michigan and Tennessee. 



To be an unappreciated, unloved relative of the exquisite wild 

 rose, with which this flower is so often likened, must be a similar 

 misfortune to being the untalented son of a great man, or the un- 

 happy author of a successful first book never equalled in later at- 

 tempts. But where the bright blossoms of the Virginia raspberry 

 burst forth above the roadside tangle and shadv woodland dells, 

 even those who despise magenta see beauty in them where abun- 

 dant green tones all discordant notes into harmony. Purple, as we 

 of to-day understand the color, the flower is not ; but rather the 

 purple of ancient Orientals. On cool, cloudy days the petals are 

 a deep, clear purplish rose, that soon fades and dulls with age, or 

 changes into pale, bluish pink when the sun is hot. 



Many yellow stamens help conceal the nectar secreted in a 

 narrow ring between the filaments and the base of the receptacle. 

 Bumblebees, the principal and most efficient visitors, which can 

 reach sweets more readily than most insects, although numerous 

 others help to self-fertilize the flower, bring to the mature stig- 

 mas of a newly opened blossom pollen carried on their under 

 sides from the anthers of a flower a day or two older. When 

 the inner row of anthers shed their pollen,' some doubtless falls on 

 the stigmas below them, and so spontaneous self-fertilization may 

 occur. Fruit sets quickly ; nevertheless the shrub keeps on flow- 

 ering nearly all summer. Children often fold the lower leaves, 

 which sometimes measure afoot across, to make drinking-cups. 



Queen-of-the- Prairie 



{Ulmaria rubra) Rose family 

 (Spirea lobata of Gray) 



Flowers — Deep pink, like the peach blossom, fragrant, about T i in. 

 across, clustered in large cymose panicles on a long footstalk. 

 Calyx 5-lobed; 5-clawed, rose-like petals; stamens numer- 

 ous; pistils 5 to 15, usually 10. Stem : 2 to 8 ft. tall, smooth, 

 grooved, branched. Leaves: Mostly near the ground, large, 

 rarely measuring 3 ft. long, compounded of from ^ to 7 leaf- 

 lets; end leaflet, of 7 to 9 divisions, much the largest: side 

 leaflets opposite, seated on stem, 3 to 5 lobed or parted ; all 



7 97 



