MIDSUMMER FLOWER-HUNTS 



491 



case of the second we may note that there were people 

 who appreciated the pedicularian resemblance, even 

 though our good old Doctor Gray did not. 



In plucking a matured specimen of Wood Betony, one 

 of the first things that strikes you is its hairyness a 

 character well seen in some parts of the accompanying 

 figure. Then we may note its simple stem, and its dull, 

 dark green, soft-hairy leaves, which are multilobed and 

 somewhat feather-shaped. Many parts of the entire plant 

 may be more or less tinged with dull magenta, or deep 

 pinkish purple. It will be 

 noted in Figure 2 that the 

 rather large flower-heads 

 are terminal, with bract- 

 like leaves below them or 

 even mixed with them. As 

 this head grows during the 

 summer, it lengthens, as 

 here shown in the tallest 

 specimen. The superior lip 

 of the two-lipped flowers is 

 conspicuous ; is of a dark 

 purple color, the lower 

 three-lobed one being of a 

 dull greenish yellow. There 

 are four stamens, and bees 

 are the principal agents 

 upon which this plant de- 

 pends for fertilization. It 

 may occur almost anywhere 

 east of the Mississippi, or 

 even westward to South 

 Dakota. 



"Few plants have been 

 accredited with greater vir- 

 tue," says Mrs. Dana, "than 

 the ancient betony, which a 

 celebrated Roman physician 

 claimed could cure forty- 

 seven different disorders. 

 The Roman proverb, 'Sell 

 your coat and buy betony,' 

 seems to imply that the 

 plant did not flourish so 

 abundantly along the Ap- 

 pian Way as it does by our 

 American roadsides." Her 

 colored figure of this plant 

 has the flowers altogether 

 too yellow. The Italian 

 plant is Betonica officinalis, 

 and during the middle ages 

 that species was cultivated 



in cemeteries, and worn around the neck of a person to 

 protect him or her against certain evil spirits. Those 

 ancient Italians made up their high heal-all into all sorts 

 of pharmaceutical preparations, each one having some 



THE TWO CATERPILLARS HERE SHOWN ARE OF THE CHERSIS 

 SPHINX MOTH, A WELL-KNOWN SPECIES COMMON THROUGH- 

 OUT THE COUNTRY. (Hyloicus chersis.) 



Fig. 5 Nearly everyone is familiar with the bunches of pale, tan-colored 



seeds of the Poison Ivy or Poison Oak vine (Rhus toxicodendron). They 

 remain on their stems long after the leaves have fallen. We also have 

 in this picture several seeding heads of the Thimble weed. 



that when sheep happen to eat the plant, which it is 

 fair to believe they often did and doubtless do still, it 

 gave rise to a peculiar skin disease in them, and this 

 was followed by a small louse appearing upon them 

 hence the name. Possibly this may be true for the name 

 "lousewort;" but it will not account for the scientific 

 name of the genus, which doubtless came about in the 

 way described above. 



Another plant found in our Figwort family along with 

 the wood betony is the Purple Gerardia (Fig. 3). To 



be sure, superficially they 

 do not appear to be much 

 alike, though each possesses 

 botanical characters which 

 connect them. Purple 

 Gerardia, so called on ac- 

 count of its beautiful, bell- 

 shaped purple flowers, is 

 often found growing in flat, 

 sandy meadows, in patches 

 several feet in width. When 

 the plants are all in bloom, 

 they may be recognized 

 some distance off. Then, 

 too, if there be any doubt, 

 that is, in the case of this 

 purple species, just note 

 whether it has any little 

 fine spots inside the corolla ; 

 if it has, you may be sure 

 that you are one point 

 nearer the correct diagnosis. 

 This Gerardia is also a plant 

 which, in a broad sense, is a 

 coast-wise species, being 

 found from northern Unit- 

 ed States to Florida from 

 the Atlantic shores inland 

 for a belt some twenty 

 miles or more wide. To 

 some extent, this gerardia 

 is a parasitic plant, its roots 

 drawing upon those of oth- 

 ers below the surface of the 

 ground. 



There is an interesting 

 paragraph in Neltje Blanch- 

 an's account of the purple 

 gerardia, and it runs thus: 

 "Low-lying meadows gay 

 with gerardias were never 

 seen by that quaint old 

 botanist and surgeon, John 

 author of the famous 'Herball or General 



Gerarde 



Historie of Plants,' a folio of nearly fourteen hundred 

 pages, published in London toward the close of Queen 

 Elizabeth's reign. He died without knowing how much 

 special virtue, while the lot stood for the cure of nearly he was to be honored by Linnaeus in giving his name 

 every known disease of the time. There are those who to this charming American genus." 

 believe that the word "lousewort" arose from the fact Speaking of Linnaeus, to whom reference has been so 



