200 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



nearby. This is an ideal place in which to 

 meet with many flowers not to be seen in the 

 wet and swampy area just left among oth- 

 ers our little favorite, the yellow star-grass. 

 (Fig. 2.) Our botanists have placed this 



THE YELLOW STAR GRASS 



Fig. 2. Note that the scape of this well-known little 



Klant of the meadows bears from one to four flower- 

 cads. As a rule, but one or two flowers blossom at a 

 time; but for all that, their brilliant yellow color catches 

 the eye at once. 



delicate little plant in the Amaryllis family 

 and named it Hypoxis hirsuta, the generic 

 term being from a Greek word formerly ap- 

 plied to a plant having leaves that were quite 

 sour (sub-acid) to the taste. Plenty of these 

 grow here, at least a dozen plants or more 

 growing among the thin grass several yards 

 apart. We also have a blue and a red star- 

 grass, each having smaller flowers than the 

 yellow species, which last is found over a 

 wide range of countryin the United States 

 practically all over the eastern section of the 

 country well into eastern Kansas and Texas. 

 Small bees are principally responsible for the 

 fertilization of its flowers, especially bees of 

 the genus Halictus. But it does not depend 

 upon these altogether, for it may be self- 

 fertilized, and a few butterflies visit its at- 



tractive flowers, accomplishing what the bees and the flowers them- 

 selves leave undone. 



Of course, yellow star-grass has no relation, botanically speaking, 

 to any "grass," neither has the blue-flowered species ; moreover, the 

 plants themselves belong to entirely different families. The best 

 places in which to look for this yellow star-grass are dry, open woods ; 

 diit on the prairies, and in grassy fields and waste places. Sometimes 

 the plant grows to be at least six inches high; the leaves are more 

 or less hairy, and the root is of the ovate corm variety. The form 

 of its flowers is well shown in the accompanying cut. 



Where yellow star-grass grows, we also meet with scattered colonies 



of the interesting wild 

 comfrey, and a thor- 

 ough study of Figure 

 3 of this article will 

 give one an excellent 

 idea of this plant. Its 

 flowers are of a love- 

 ly, pale blue ; it is to 

 be noted that its up- 

 per leaves are broadly 

 lanceolate heart-shap- 

 ed, and that they clasp 

 the rather stout, hairy 

 stem. Sometimes wild 

 comfrey grows to be 

 at least three or four 

 feet in height, but the 

 smaller plants are the 

 most abundant. A 

 large part of the stem 

 of this representative 

 of our eastern flora is 

 devoid of leaves, the 

 stems of its lower, 

 large ones being short 

 and more or less 

 hairy. Four depressed 

 nutlets constitute its 

 fruit, and fhey are 

 convex and hairy on 

 their upper faces. 



Where the wild 

 comfrey grows, we 

 may meet with a 

 snecimen or two of 

 the striking blazing 

 star or devil's bit 

 (Fig. 4). Gray claims 

 indeed all botanists 

 do that this plant is 

 to be found growing only in "low grounds," whereas the example 

 seen in the cut, collected in the District of Columbia, was found on 

 the margin of a wood, on land several hundred feet above the 

 datum-plane. Even Mathews says its habitat may be, and often is, in 

 swampy localities. From western Massachusetts it has wide distri- 

 bution over all parts of eastern United States, and the writer just 

 mentioned says of it : "The stem bears light green, flat, lance-shaped 

 (blunt) leaves at the base, with several shorter, narrower ones fur- 

 ther up, and terminated by a feathery spike 4-10 inches long of 



WILD COMFREY FLOURISHES IN DRY WOODS 



Fig. 3. As a representative of the curious Borage family, 

 it has received various scientific names at the hands of 

 botanists, one of which is Cynoglossum znrginicum, while 

 Gray places it in the genus Symphytum. Bugloss and 

 Heliotrope occur in the same group. 



