406 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Originally the plant came from Europe, introduced into 

 our gardens, from whence it has escaped to establish it- 

 self along the highways in the country districts through- 

 out a very wide range of our country. In many localities 

 it is very abundant and flourishes luxuriantly. In old 

 days it was supposed to possess medicinal properties, the 

 idea having gained ground 

 from the fact that its 

 leaves, when bruised, will 

 form a soap-like lather 

 when agitated in water. 

 Many moths and other 

 insects help to fertilize its 

 flowers, and the plant also 

 propagates through its un- 

 derground runners. This 

 latter means often accounts 

 for our finding the plant 

 growing in colonies in some 

 waste fence corner along 

 the roadside. A popular 

 writer at hand says : " It 

 was always a mystery to 

 Dickens that a door nail 

 should have been consid- 

 ered so much more dead 

 than any other inanimate 

 object, and it seems also 

 strange that this plant 

 should have suggested the 

 idea of'bouncing more than 

 other plants. Dear Bettie 

 does not bounce, nor could 

 she if she would. She sits 

 most firmly on her stem, 

 and her characteristics seem 

 to be home-loving and sim- 

 ple. We are sure to find 

 her peeping through the 

 garden fences, or on the 

 roadside, where the chil- 

 dren nod to her as they pass 

 by. She is one of the best 

 loved of our waste-ground 

 flora." 



It would appear that the 

 common double variety of 

 this plant is the original cul- 

 tivated species, and the sin- 

 gle variety is its more sim- 

 ple and wild form derived from it the plant that usually 

 occurs along roadside, far from any country garden patch. 

 The flowers of Bouncing Bet are sometimes of a bright 

 pink color, and as a rule they possess a certain spicy 

 fragrance, which some writers speak of as " an old-fash- 

 ioned odor," whatever may be meant by that term. In 

 typical flowers, the distal ends of the petals are scalloped, 

 a fact that lends to them a still nearer resemblance to a 

 Pink, though, as a matter of fact, this resemblance is 

 never very close. 



T 



BOUNCING BET, THE FLOWER OF THE DUSTY ROADSIDES 



Fig. 5. This well-known flower is also called "Soapwort," hence its scientific 

 name Saponaria (sapo, soap), it being Saponaria officinalis of the pink family 

 i,CaryophyUacea); the "Cowherb" is the only other representative of the same 

 genus (S. vaceria). Both plants came originally from Europe, and, as Gray 

 remarks, they are "coarse annuals or perennials, withlarge flowers," having in 

 their stems a "mucilaginous juice forming a lather with water." In the Pink 

 family, in this country, also occur several species of Carnation plants {Dtanthus); 

 .he Campions and Chickweeds. of which there aie many kinds; the Snurrey, 

 Pearlworts, and a number of species of Sandworts; finally the Corn Cockle, 

 which has already been described and figured in American Forestry. (May, 

 1917). The insect shown on the flower below the crowning bunch is one of the 

 Damsel-flies of the Dragon-fly group (genus Calopleryx) ; it is the black species 

 of feeble flight, so frequently seen about the small streams that find their 

 way througb the shady forests of Eastern United States. Dr. L. O. Howard 

 says that tfteir "large pop-eyes which seem almost stalked like those of a crab" 

 are distinctive of them. 



The leaves of Bouncing Bet are smooth and from 

 three to five-ribbed, and have an ovate or even oval- 

 lanceolate outline. The most interesting relatives of the 

 Saponaria are the Campion or Catchflies curious plants 

 with very interesting histories. Their generic name is 

 from a Greek word meaning saliva, which refers to the 



viscid juice found in the 

 calyx and stems of some of 

 the species ; in this small in- 

 sects are frequently en- 

 tangled. 



Some of the wild carna- 

 tions also belong to this 

 Pink family, and some of 

 these have been domesti- 

 cated for ornamental pur- 

 poses. 



EASTERN FOREST 

 RESERVES BOUGHT 



HE National Forest 

 Reservation Com- 

 mission has ap- 

 proved the purchase of 

 51,916 acres of land in the 

 White Mountains and 

 Southern Appalachians 

 for inclusion in the Na- 

 tional Forests of those re- 

 gions. The two largest 

 and most important tracts 

 whose purchase was au- 

 thorized are one of 11,000 

 acres on the White Top 

 National Forest in Smyth 

 County, Va., and another 

 of 10,000 acres on the Sa- 

 vannah National Forest 

 on the Tallulah River in 

 Rabun and Habersham 

 Counties, Ga. The pur- 

 chase of three additional 

 tracts, with a total of 

 1203 acres, was authorized 

 on the Savannah National 

 Forest. 



On the White Moun- 

 tain National Forest 

 11,270 acres, chiefly in 

 Carroll and Grafton Coun- 

 ties, N. H., were approved for purchase. By the ac- 

 quisition of this land the purchases which have here- 

 tofore been made in the White Mountains are con- 

 nected and rounded out. 



The purchase of 40 different tracts comprising ap- 

 proximately 7750 acres on the Alabama National Forest 

 in Lawrence County, Ala., was ordered. This will raise 

 the total Government holdings on this forest to about 

 30,000 acres. In Rockbridge, Amherst, and Botetourt 

 Counties, Va., 7454 acres were approved for purchase. 



