HERB 



HERB 



1471 



The roadside is the chief sanctuary of the native flora, 

 and if the movement to preserve and restore the prairie 

 flowers has progressed farther in the prairie states than 

 others it may be because the prairie states must, to a 

 great extent, create their own scenery. The following 

 list contains very characteristic and beautiful flowers 

 that can be bought or collected cheaply, and are easy 

 of cultivation, but not weedy. Many of them are 

 excellent for cut-flowers, but few of them would be 

 likely to encourage vandalism. To this list should be 

 added three important bulbous plants which can be 

 used to edge the shrubbery, viz., dodecatheon, mer- 

 tensia, and camassia. The following plants are all 

 sun-loving species, and most are well adapted to stand 

 drought: May: Phlox divaricata. June: Callirhoe 

 involucrata, Tradescantia virginica, Phlox glaberrima 

 and P. maculata, Eryngium aquaticum. July: Phlox 

 paniculata, Echinacea purpurea, Helianthus mollis, 

 H. Isetiflorus, H. helianthoides, Asclepias tuber osa, 

 Rudbeckia speciosa, Heliopsis scabra. August : Gaillardia 

 aristata, Boltonia asteroides, Liatris pycnostachya, Aster 

 novx-anglise, Rudbeckia subtomentosa, Helenium autum- 

 nale, Helianthus decapetalus, September: Aster eri- 

 coides, A. paniculatus, and A. patens, Helianthus orgy- 

 alis. October: Aster amethystinus, A. Isevis, and A. 

 commulatus, A. Tradescantii, Helianthus Maximilianii. 



Perennials for shade. A great problem in the prairie 

 states is restoration of wild flowers to woodlots that 

 have been pastured. The chief wooded areas are along 

 streams and whenever they exist elsewhere they furnish 

 the only scenic foil to, or relief from", the prairie. The 

 western woods are scarcely differentiated from the 

 eastern woods in spring unless by greater abundance 

 of American bluebells (Mertensia virginica), and wild 

 blue phlox (P. divaricata). The snow or early wake- 

 robin (Trillium nivale) is often the first flower, pre- 

 ceding the hepaticas. Perhaps the most character- 

 ^istic spring wild flower of the woods is Erythronium 

 'albidum, which replaces the yellow adder's-tongue of 

 the East. In summer, the most characteristic species, 

 probably, are Helianthus decapetalus and H. divaricatus. 

 Lilium canadense and L. superbum grow taller and pro- 

 duce more flowers in moist woods than open places. 

 At the edge of the woods, Anemone virginiana and 

 A. canadensis bloom freely. Phloxes appear to much 

 better advantage in woods where their magenta color 

 is toned down by the shade, especially when they are 

 seen amid grass. The best planting policy ordinarily 

 is to spend money chiefly near the trails, a favorite 

 foliage plant beside trails being the maidenhair fern 

 (Adiantum pedatum). Perhaps the best large masses 

 of color are produced by colonies of Cimictfuga race- 

 mosa and Aralia racemosa, the berries of which change 

 from green through purple to scarlet during the summer. 



In autumn, many species of aster and goldenrod fill 

 the woods, notably Aster cordifolius and A. divaricatus, 

 and Solidago csesia. 



Perennials for rock-gardens. Natural rocks are so 

 rare in the West that rock-gardens hardly seem appro- 

 priate. Among the best flowers native to western 

 rocks are Aquilegia canadensis, Campanula rotundi- 

 fplia, Eupatorium codestinum, Fragaria virginiana var. 

 illinoiensis, Heuchera americana, Oxalis violacea, 

 Sedum pulchellum and S. ternatum, and Silene virginica. 



Perennials for bog-gardens. Sphagnum bogs in 

 convenient locations are getting rare in the West, but 

 western people are beginning to buy them because they 

 contain some of the most beautiful flowers, especially 

 orchids, pitcher-plants, and members of the heath 

 family. Many of these plants and the fringed gentian 

 require sphagnum moss or peat. They present a higher 

 type of beauty than the plants that grow in ordinary 

 muck or wet soil, which are named in the next list. 



Water-loving perennials. The following are suitable 

 for the margins of ponds, lakes, brooks, rivers, and 

 water-gardens. They require more water than it is 



convenient to give them in ordinary flower-gardens, 

 and even if they thrive they are likely to look out of 

 place: April: Caltha palustris. May: Chamselirium 

 luteum, Senecio aureus, Menyanthes trifoliata. June: 

 7ns versicolor, Parnassia caroliniania, Angelica atro- 

 purpurea. July: Angelica hirsuta, Aster puniceus, Caltha 

 palustris, Lilium canadense and L. superbum, Thalic- 

 trum polygamum (T. Cornuti). August: Lobelia cardi- 

 nalis, Aster paniculatus, Eupatorium purpureum, Hibis- 

 cus Moscheutos. September: Gentiana Andrewsii, Hele- 

 nium autumnale, Pontederia cordata. October: Helian- 

 thus orgyalis and H. Maximilianii. Colored water-lilies 

 are not used in the prairie style of landscape garden- 

 ing as they spoil the purity of the composition, since 

 the white water-lily is the only one native to prairie 

 rivers. Perhaps the finest aquatic plant yet to be nat- 

 uralized in western water-gardens is the yellow lotus 

 (Nelumbo lutea). 



Bird-pools. Few, if any, perennials are worth plant- 

 ing around bird-pools to furnish food, but water-loving 

 perennials are important for finishing such com- 

 positions. Where the gardenesque style uses German or 

 Japanese iris, variegated calamus, eulalia, and eastern 

 cattail, the prairie style uses Iris versicolor, green 

 calamus, bluejoint (Calamagrostis canadensis), and 

 western cattail (Typha angustifolia). Several wild 

 flowers of the lily family suggest the flight of birds by 

 their habit, e.g., Polygonatum giganteum. In the prairie 

 school, the motive is often to reproduce something like 

 the characteristic local spring. Among the original 

 plants native to springs which Brendel records are, 

 Archangelica atropurpurea, Aster corymbosus and A. 

 umbellatus, Caltha palustris, Parnassia caroliniana, 

 Cypripedium spectabile and C. candidum, the last of 

 which is distinctly western. 



Bibliography. H. C. Cowles, "The Plant Societies 

 of Chicago and Vicinity" (1901) ; Frederick Brendel, 

 "Flora Peoriana (1887); Brendel in Fred Gerhard, 

 "Illinois as It Is" (1857), pp. 271-8; H. A. Gleason, 

 "A Botanical Survey of the Illinois River Valley Sand 

 Region" in Bot. Gaz. 7:149-194 (1907); and "The Veg- 

 etation of the Inland Sand Deposits of Illinois," Bull. 

 111. State. Lab. Nat. Hist. 9:23-171 (1910). 



WILHELM MILLER, 

 L. E. FOGLESONG and 

 FRANZ A. AUST. 



Perennial herbs for the South. 



1. Piedmont Zone extends from the Mountain Zone to 

 the "Fall Line," which follows approximately the fol- 

 lowing cities :Weldon and Raleigh, North Carolina; Cam- 

 den and Columbia, South Carolina; Augusta, Milledge- 

 ville, Macon and Columbus, Georgia; Montgomery, 

 Alabama; Columbus and Holly Springs, Mississippi. 



Sun-loving plants for Piedmont Zone. 



Acanthus mollis. 

 Achillea Millefolium. 

 Adonis vernalis. 

 Agave. 



Alyssum saxatile. 

 Amaryllis. 

 Anchusa italica. 

 Anemone japonica. 

 Anthemis tinctoria. 

 Antigonon leptopus. 

 Aquilegia. 

 Arabis alpina. 

 Arenaria grandiflora. 

 Armeria vulgaris. 

 Artemisia. 

 Arundp Donax. 

 Asclepias. 



Asters, grandiflprus, etc. 

 Astilbe chinensis. 

 Astilbe japonica. 

 *Astragalus tennesseensis. 

 Bamboo. 



Baptisia australis. 



Belamcanda chinensis. 



Bocconia cordata. 



Boltonia. 



Caladium esculentum. 



Callirhoe involucrata. 



Campanula. 



Canna. 



Centaurea. 



Chrysanthemums. 



Clematis. 



Clerodendron macrosiphon. 



Coreopsis lanceolata. 



Coronilla. 



Crinum. 



Dahlia. 



Dianthus barbatus. 



Dianthus deltoides. 



Dianthus latifolius. 



Dianthus plumarius. 



Dictamnus albus. 



*Astragalus tennesseensis, Gray, from Tenn. and Ala. Hirsute: 

 fls. in a short spike or head, cream-color, often tinged with purple: 

 fr. pointed, strongly wrinkled. April, May. 



