802 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and somewhat in ranks owing to the twisting of the stem. 

 The tiny flowers are greenish white, and grouped in a 

 loose, spike-like terminal cluster ; the five minute petals are 

 finely toothed along the edge, and the five stamens are in- 

 serted on a cup-shaped disc in the manner explained." 



Bitter-sweet vine is often seen growing over the old stone 

 walls in New England, the deep gray of the latter affording 

 a fitting background for the matured fruit in the autumn. 

 It would appear that it is not found in nature further 

 south than North Carolina, while it ranges westward to 

 New Mexico and north to the Dakotas. 



It is a wide span between Celastrus and any of the Iris 

 family, a species of which is next to be considered though 

 only in part; that is, attention is invited to its remarkable 

 fruit, which, in any instance, so closely resembles a big 



THE IRIS FAMILY IS KNOWN AS THE Iridaceae, AND ITS BEST 

 KNOWN GENUS IS Iris, WHICH HAS BEEN CREATED TO CONTAIN 

 THE IRISES, THE FLAGS, AND THE FLEUR-DE-LIS 



Fig. 3 One of the daintiest plants of this group is the Blackberry Lily 

 (Btlamcanda chinensis), shown here just before the seed pods open up. 



ripe blackberry. (Figs. 3 and 4.) Next summer its flowers 

 will form the subject of one of our illustrations, as speci- 

 mens of them were not obtained during 1918. We may 

 say here, however, that its flat, blade-like leaves closely 

 resemble those of the common iris or Fleur-de-Lis, the 

 favorite flower of France; some of these leaves may be 

 seen, in part, in the cuts. In passing, it may be said that the 

 flowers of the lily are of a deep orange, finely 

 and irregularly speckled with deep crimson and 

 purple. On an unnumbered plate, Neltje Blan- 

 chan gives us a pretty illustration of them, though 

 it has suffered through undue reduction in repro- 

 duction. This authority informs us that the plant 

 originally came from China, and was first re- 

 ported as a wild flower at Eas>t Rock, Con- 

 necticut ; next on Long Island, and then at Suf- 

 em, New York. It is surely a very beautiful 

 addition to our native flora, and it is hoped that 

 the Orient will favor us in a similar way with 

 still other plants. 



The genus of the Iris family containing the 

 greatest number of species is Sisyrinchium, the 

 Blue-eyed grasses, of which Gray gives some 

 fourteen different kinds for eastern United 

 States alone, against the single species of the 



Blackberry lily 

 described 

 above. The 

 flowers of 

 these two gen- 

 era are some- 

 what alike in 

 form, and quite 

 different from 

 an iris or 

 Fleur-de-Lis. 



Our remark- 

 able parasitic 

 plant, the com- 

 mon Dodder 

 ( Cuscuta gro- 

 novii), was fig- 

 ured and de- 

 scribed in a re- 

 cent issue of 

 American 

 Forestry; but 

 who would for 

 a moment 

 think that this 

 curious mur- 

 derer of other 

 plants was a 



OUR Cclastraceae OR STAFF TREE FAMILY 

 HAS SOME CURIOUS PLANTS GROUPED 

 IN IT. THIS IS THE SHRUBBY BITTER- 

 SWEET, A STOUT VINE, NAMED THE 

 "STAFF TREE" (Celastrus scandens) 



Fig. 2 It has also been called the Climbing 

 Bittersweet, or the Wax-work vine. Its leaves 

 are beautiful and so are its remarkable berries. 



member of the 

 same family as the beautiful morning glories (Ipo- 

 moea), or the bindweeds, and the sweet potato vine? 

 Yet all these plants and still others have not a few 

 characters in common, which, from the viewpoint of 

 the scientific botanist, certainly throw them into one 

 and the same assemblage the Convolvulus family; 

 they owe this name to the fact that in all of them the 

 corolla is convolute or twisted in the bud. Two such 

 buds are here shown in Figure 5, which illustrates our 

 common Bindweed. All morning glory buds are 

 twisted up like this, as are the little scarlet ones of our 

 Cypress Vine; and there are a great many plants of 



SOME OF THESE CERTAINLY LOOK LIKE RIPE BLACKBERRIES, AND SO 

 WILL ALL OF THEM WHEN THEY FULLY OPEN 



Fig. 4 The 

 origin. 



plant originally came from Asia, and its generic name is of East Indian 

 It is known as the Blackberry Lily (Belamcandra chinensis). 



