YELLOW 



WOOD BETONY. LOUSEWORT. 



Pedicularis Canadensis. Figwort Family. 



Stems. Clustered ; five to twelve inches high. Leaves. The lower 

 ones deeply incised ; the upper less so. Flowers. Yellow and red ; grow- 

 ing in a short dense spike. Calyx. Of one piece split in front. Corolla. 

 Two-lipped ; the narrow upper lip arched, the lower three-lobed. Stamens. 

 Four. Pistil. One. 



The bright flowers of the wood betony are found in our May 

 woods, often in the company of the columbine and yellow vio- 

 let. Near Philadelphia they are said to be among the very ear- 

 liest of the flowers, coming soon after the trailing arbutus. In 

 the later year the plant attracts attention by its uncouth spikes 

 of brown seed-pods. 



Few wayside weeds have been accredited with greater virtue 

 than the ancient betony, which a celebrated Roman physician 

 claimed could cure forty-seven different disorders. The Roman 

 proverb, ' ' Sell your coat and buy betony, ' ' seems to imply that 

 the plant did not flourish so abundantly along the Appian Way 

 as it does by our American roadsides. Unfortunately we are 

 reluctantly forced to believe once more that our native flower is 

 not identical with the classic one, but that it has received its 

 common name through some superficial resemblance to the origi- 

 nal betony or Betonica. 



SOLOMON'S SEAL. 



Polygonatum biflorum. Lily Family. 



Stem. Slender ; curving ; one to three feet long. Leaves. Alternate ; 

 oval; set close to the stem. Flowers. Yellowish; bell-shaped; nodding 

 from the axils of the leaves. Perianth. Six-lobed at the summit. Stamens. 

 Six. Pistil. One. Frttit. A dark blue berry. 



The graceful leafy stems of the Solomon's seal are among the 

 most decorative features of our spring woods. The small blos- 

 soms which appear in May grow either singly or in clusters on a 

 flower-stalk which is so fastened into the axil of each leaf that 



128 



