Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 111 



BOUNCING BET (Saponaria officinalis) (EURO- 

 PEAN). This is probably the most hardy and the 

 most widely distributed of our adventive members 

 of the Pink Family. It increases very rapidly by 

 means of underground runners as well as by seed. 

 It is very commonly known as "Soapwort," because 

 of the fact that the mucilaginous juice from the 

 crushed leaves will form a lather if they are shaken 

 in water; it is said that it was, in olden days, used 

 for washing purposes. 



The plant stem is quite stout, smooth, erect and 

 sparingly, or not at all branched. At the top is a 

 corymbed, or flat-topped, cluster containing many 

 flowers; petals, notched or sometimes quite deeply 

 cleft, and with an appendage at the top of the long 

 claws that, bent at right angles, enter the long, tub- 

 ular, veined, greenish, 5-notched calyx. The ten sta- 

 mens are divided into two sets of five, one longer 

 than the other and maturing first. The flowers vary 

 in color from a delicate, beautiful shade of pink to 

 white, depending upon the amount of shade and the 

 dryness of the soil in which they grow r . The leaves 

 are ovate-lanceolate, united opositely on the stem 

 by short clasping petioles. 



Prom July until September, Soapwort blooms pro- 

 fusely in waste places along railroad beds and be- 

 side dusty roads where few other flowers are able 

 to flourish. It was one of the first of foreign flowers 

 to be introduced into this country and has been es- 

 tablished as a wild flower for several centuries. 



COW-HERB (S. Vaccaria) has a more slender and 

 branching stem and pale red flowers in a loose cory- 

 mb, the central flowers of which bloom before the 

 outer ones; the petals are not crowned. It is ad- 

 ventive from Europe and may occur anywhere. 



