BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 



south to Georgia, New Mexico and California. Also 

 in Europe, Asia and South America. 



BLUETS. INNOCENCE. QUAKER LADIES. 

 QUAKER BONNETS. VENUS'S PRIDE 



Houstonia caerulea. Madder Family. 



When one has viewed the myriads of Quaker Ladies 

 that blossom so vigorously from April to July, it is not 

 difficult to realize that the spirit that moved them never 

 prompted their dignified namesakes with such strenuous 

 activity. Otherwise their azure bonnets would never 

 have graced our grassy meadows with so much pro- 

 fusion as we are annually privileged to enjoy. The 

 slender, spreading rootstock forms a dense tuft of small 

 leaves, from which a frail, sparingly branched green 

 stem rises from three to seven inches in height. The 

 tiny, toothless leaves are generally oblong in shape. 

 The basal ones are broader toward the end and are 

 narrowed into short stems. A few smaller ones clasp 

 the stem in opposite pairs. The delicate flowers are 

 very small, and are set in a tiny green calyx on the tip 

 of the stem, where they nod in the bud. The corolla is 

 funnel-shaped, with four widely spreading and pointed 

 lobes. They are white, faintly tinged with light blue 

 or violet, with a circle of yellow in the centre. The 

 Bluets often grow in great colonies in moist, sunny 

 fields, along roadsides and fences or on wet rocks, 

 from Georgia and Alabama to Michigan, Ontario and 

 Nova Scotia. Linnaeus dedicated this genera to 

 Dr. William Houston, an English botanist who collected 



