PINK 



TICK TREFOIL. 



Desmodium nudiflorum. Pulse Family (p. 16). 



Scape. About two feet long. Leaves. Divided into three broad leaflets, 

 crowded at the summit of the flowerless stems. Flowers. Papilionaceous, 

 purplish-pink, small, growing in an elongated raceme on a mostly leafless 

 scape. 



This is a smaller, less noticeable plant than D. Canadense. 

 It flourishes abundantly in dry woods, where it often takes pos- 

 session in late summer to the exclusion of nearly all other flowers. 



The flowers of D. acuminatum grow in an elongated raceme 

 from a stem about whose summit the leaves, divided into very 

 large leaflets, are crowded ; otherwise it resembles D. nudiflorum. 



D. Dillenii grows to a height of from two to five feet, with 

 erect leafy stems and medium-sized flowers. It is found com- 

 monly in open woods. 



Many of us who do not know these plants by name have 

 uttered various imprecations against their roughened pods. 

 Thoreau writes : " Though you were running for your life, they 

 would have time to catch and cling to your clothes. . . . These 

 almost invisible nets, as it were, are spread for us, and whole 

 coveys of desmodium and bidens seeds steal transportation out 

 of us. I have found myself often covered, as it were, with an 

 imbricated coat of the brown desmodium seeds or a bristling 

 chevaux-de-frise of beggar-ticks, and had to spend a quarter of 

 an hour or more picking them off in some convenient spot ; and 

 so they get just what they wanted deposited in another place." 



BOUNCING BET. SOAPWORT. 



Saponaria officinalis. Pink Family. 



Stem. Rather stout, swollen at the joints. Leaves. Oval, opposite. 

 Flowers. Pink or white, clustered. Calyx. Of five united sepals. Co- 

 rolla. Of five pinkish, long-clawed petals (frequently the flowers are 

 double). Stamens. Ten. Pistil. One, with two styles. 



A cheery pretty plant is this with large, rose-tinged flowers 

 which are especially effective when double. 



Bouncing Bet is of a sociable turn and is seldom found far 

 from civilization, delighting in the proximity of farm-houses and 

 their belongings, in the shape of children, chickens, and cattle. 



196 



