Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 221 



MELASTOMA FAMILY (Melastomaceae). 



MEADOW BEAUTY (Rhexia virginica) is a pretty 

 little plant that always causes a thrill of admiration 

 to pass through us as we come across it in grassy 

 marshes where other flowers are usually few and 

 very far between. 



The individual blossoms are very handsome, but 

 the plant, as a whole, has rather a disheveled ap- 

 pearance; it has numerous buds, two or three of 

 which, only, open at a time, lasting but for a short 

 space, the petals then falling off and the calyx and 

 long stamens becoming withered and brownish; these 

 detract greatly from an otherwise very beautiful 

 plant. 



Meadow Beauty or "Deer-grass' is a perennial, has 

 a stout stem, quite branching and sharp-pointed, 

 ovate, toothed, three-ribbed leaves, seated oppositely 

 on the stem. The flowers grow on slender peduncles 

 from the angles of the upper leaves; they have four 

 large, rounded, magenta petals, each with a short, 

 sharp point at the tip. The eight stamens are long 

 and slightly unequal, the anthers being exception- 

 ally large and bright golden-yellow; the calyx is urn- 

 shaped, with four, short, sharp teeth. Meadow beauty 

 is found blooming during July and August in sandy 

 marshes and shores from Me. to Fla. and in the 

 states bordering the Mississippi. Several other spe- 

 cies are found, differing but slightly, as follows: 



Rhexla aristosa has a square, or wing-angled stem, 

 linear-oblong leaves and pink or purple petals. Pound 

 in pine barrens from N. J. to Ga. 



R. mariana has a round stem and linear-oblong 

 leaves with short stems. Found in sandy swamps 

 from N. Y. to Fla. and west to Mo. and Tex. 



R. ciliosa has a square stem, broad, ovate leaves 

 few, stemless flowers with straight anthers. Found 

 from Md. to Fla. and La. 



