Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 325 



MADDER FAMILY (Rublaceae). 



A large family of shrubs or herbs with opposite or 

 whorled leaves having entire edges. The flowers are 

 regular, perfect and usually four-parted, with the 

 same number of stamens as divisions to the corolla. 

 The family includes the Coffee Plant and the Peruvian 

 bark trees. 



BLUETS; INNOCENCE (Houstonia caerulea). 

 These are very dainty and beautiful little plants that 

 decorate our fields profusely from April until July. 

 They frequently grow in such large patches that, 

 from a distance, the ground appears as though cover- 

 ed with snow of a bluish or pale violet shade. The 

 stems are very slender, about 3 to 6 inches tall, and 

 have a few pairs of tiny leaves; larger leaves appear 

 in tufts from the base. Usually each stem bears but 

 a single four-parted blossom at the top. The perianth 

 is slender and the lobes flare widely; the corolla is 

 about one half inch in width-, white, with the ends 

 of the lobes pale blue or violet, and stained with yel- 

 low towards the center of the flower. They are cross- 

 fertilized by small bees and little butterflies. The 

 species is very abundant from N. S. to Manitoba and 

 southwards to the Gulf. 



PARTRIDGEBERRY (Mitchella repens) is a most 

 beautiful little trailing vine with rounded, opposite, 

 white-veined leaves along the creeping stem, that ex- 

 tends 6 to 12 inches from the root. Two beautiful 

 little four-parted, bell-shaped flowers terminate each 

 branch. They are downy white within, and pinkish 

 and smooth on the outside. They have a fragrance 

 similar to that of the Water Lily. A double, red ber- 

 ry replaces the flowers in the Pall; at this season, the 

 plants are collected extensively for use in ferneries, 

 as their leaves are evergreen. It is common in woods 

 throughout our range. 



BEDSTRAWS (Gallium) have weak, square, brist- 

 ly stems, tiny four-parted flowers and whorled leaves. 



