MANDRAKES; WILD LUPINE, AND NOTES ON 

 THE AMERICAN SNAPPING TURTLE 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D., C. M. Z. S., ETC. 



(PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



SO FAMILIAR are the May Apples to every one 

 who lives in the country where they grow, that a 

 detailed description of the plant is hardly called for 

 in this place. Then, too, the illustrations of it as si.^wn 

 in the present article, at various stages of its growth, 

 furnish all that may be necessary to refresh the memory 

 of those who 

 fail to remem- 

 ber this most 

 interesting rep- 

 resentative of 

 our eastern 

 flora. It is gen- 

 erally called 

 the Mandrake, 

 or more rarely 

 the Hog Apple, 

 and still more 

 rarely the Wild 

 Lemon. Its 

 generic name 

 in botany is de- 

 rived from two 

 Greek w o rds, 

 meaning a foot 

 and a leaf ; and 

 it is said that 

 one of its 

 earlier names 

 {Anapodophyl- 

 lum), bestowed 

 upon it by Lin- 

 naeus, car ried 

 this idea still 

 further, for it 

 likened the leaf 

 to the foot of 

 a duck. Pro- 

 fessor Gray, 

 however, claims 

 that it referred 

 to the "stout 

 petioles," which 

 hardly seems 

 likely. Al- 

 though Man- 

 drakes may, as 

 a rare thing, 

 come up singly 

 in the woods 

 where they oc- 



cur or perhaps only a few together it is the rule for 

 them to appear suddenly in more or less extensive 

 patches, often covering a very considerable area. Their 

 appearance is quite simultaneous, as is their flowering 

 and, later, their fruiting, to which may also be added their 

 death in the autumn. In the North, the plant is not seen 



until along in 

 May; while, as 

 we advance 

 sou thward in 

 the spring, we 

 often find them 

 up in the 

 month of April 

 in the District 

 of C o 1 u mbia, 

 and still fur- 

 ther south very 

 much earlier. 

 It is an abun- 

 d a n t species 

 throughout the 

 entire range of 

 the Gulf States, 

 to include large 

 areas in Texas. 

 When the 

 fruit of the 

 Mandrake rip- 

 ens in the sum- 

 mer, children 

 are extremely 

 fond of eating 

 it, the slightly 

 acid and sweet- 

 ish taste espe- 

 cially attracting 

 them. By them 

 it is sometimes 

 called the 

 "Umbrella 

 Plant," and for 

 the reason that 

 the leaves "un- 

 furl during 

 April showers." 

 With respect to 

 this Gray says 

 that the "flow- 

 erless stems 

 terminated by a 



Ml 



Fig 1. WE HAVE IN THIS PICTURE A VERY BEAUTIFUL EARLY SPRING COMBINATION OF 

 AN OLD JUDAS TREE (Cards canadensis), WITH A PATCH OF MANDRAKES OR MAY APPLES 

 (Podophyllim peltatum) BENEATH IT. THIS IS JUST BEFORE THE FLOWERS COME OUT. 



Note the flowers of the Judas Tree, how they have blossomed out only on certain limbs of the tree and 

 that long before the leaves appear. They are bright pink and very conspicuous during the earliest days 

 of spring. This particular tree is well known to many Washingtonians; it is on the right-hand side of 

 the road as we approach the Pierce's Mill bridge. 



