HARPERS GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Featherfoil. Water Violet 



Hotibnia inflata — Family, Primrose. Color, white or whitish. 

 Calyx, of 5 long, narrow divisions. Corolla, with short tube, 

 spreading, with a 5-parted border. Stamens, 5. Capsule, 5- 

 valved, with many seeds. Leaves, crowded at the base of the 

 fluster of flower-stalks, very much cut into thread-like segments. 

 Flowers, whorled at the swollen joints of stems floating or rooting 

 in mud. Stems, often 2 feet long. May to August. 



An aquatic, found in pools and shallow ponds, Massa- 

 chusetts to Florida. This is a curious-looking plant, owing 

 to the thick, hollow peduncles which spring in a cluster from 

 the submerged stem, coming out of the water and bearing at 

 the joints and on their tips whorls of many small flowers. 

 The lowest joint may be 2 inches long and 1 inch thick. 

 They decrease in size toward the top. The leaves under 

 water look like fine ferns. 



Brook-weed. Water Pimpernel 



Simolus floribundus. — Family, Primrose. ("Ancient name of 

 Celtic origin, said to refer to curative properties of this genus 

 in diseases of cattle and swine.") Calyx, 5-cleft. Corolla, tu- 

 bular, 5-divided, with 5 stamens standing in the clefts. Leaves, 

 entire, inversely ovate, tapering into a short petiole. June to 

 September. 



A delicate, white flower growing in racemes on slender, 

 smooth stems, about 6 to 8 inches high. Round pods form 

 below, while the blossoms continue above. Found growing 

 on the edge of, or quite in, water, throughout the United 

 States. (See illustration, p. 115.) 



Chickweed Wintergreen. Star Flower 



TrientMis americkna Family, Primrose. Calyx and corolla 



mostly 7-parted, sometimes 6. Leaves, whorled on the stem, just 

 below the flowers, thin, veiny, lance-shaped, sessile. A few 

 scale-like leaves below. May to July. 



A very delicate flower, on small, wiry stems, 2 or more 

 blossoms arising from a whorl of comparatively large leaves. 

 The diminutive, open flower contrasts strikingly with the 

 handsome leaves. (See illustration, p. 117.) 



The plant grows by means of a slender rootstock about 2 

 feet long, from which the flower stem springs. In shaded 

 woods, New England to Virginia and westward. 



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