WHITE 



GREEN-FLOWERED MILKWEED. 



Asclepias verticillata. Milkweed Family. 



Stem, Slender, very leafy to the summit. Leaves. Very narrow, from 

 three to six in a whorl. Flowers. Greenish-white, in small clusters at the 

 summit and along the .sides of the stem. Fruit. Two erect pods, one often 

 stunted. 



This species is one commonly found on dry uplands, espe- 

 cially southward, with flowers resembling in structure those of 

 the other milkweeds. (PL .) 



GROUNDSEL TREE. 



Baccharis halimifolia. Composite Family (p. 13). 



A shrub from six to twelve feet high. Leaves. Somewhat ovate and 

 wedge-shaped, coarsely toothed on the upper entire. F 'lower-heads. Whit- 

 ish or yellowish, composed of unisexual tubular flowers, the stamens and 

 pistils occurring on different plants. 



Some October day, as we pick our way through the salt 

 marshes which lie back of the beach, we may spy in the distance 

 a thicket which looks as though composed of such white-flowered 

 shrubs as belong to June. Hastening to the spot we discover 

 that the silky-tufted seeds of the female groundsel-tree are re- 

 sponsible for our surprise. The shrub is much more noticeable 

 and effective at this season than when a few weeks previous 

 it was covered with its small white or yellowish flower-heads. 



GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 



Parnassia Caroliniana. Saxifrage Family. 



Stem. Scape-like, nine inches to two feet high, with usually one small 

 rounded leaf clasping it below ; bearing at its summit a single flower. 

 Leaves. Thickish, rounded, often heart-shaped, from the root. Flower. 

 White or cream-color, veiny. Calyx. Of five slightly united sepals. Co- 

 rolla. Of five veiny petals. True Stamens. Five, alternate with the pet- 

 als, and with clusters of sterile gland-tipped filaments. Pistil. One, with 

 four stigmas. 



Gerarde indignantly declares that this plant has been de- 

 scribed by blind men, not "such as are blinde in their eyes, but 

 in their understandings, for if this plant be a kind of grasse then 



no 



