HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



umbels, on nodding peduncles, 3 to 10 growing from the side of 

 the stem. Berries black, round, smooth. Leaves, petioled, 

 ovate, wavy, thin. An ill-looking weed found in shady, damp 

 spots, especially in cultivated soil. 



The deadly nightshade is an English plant with bright-red 

 berries, not found here. The tomato, egg-plant, and cap- 

 sicum, also the Irish potato, belong to this Family, which 

 contains, besides these useful and edible plants, many that 

 are very poisonous. The berry of the potato is said to be 

 poisonous. 



Jimson or Jamestown Weed. Thorn Apple 



Datura. Stramonium — Family, Nightshade. Color, white. Calyx, 

 5-toothed, the upper part falling away in fruit. Corolla, 3 inches 

 long, funnel-form, the border 5-toothed. Stamens, 5. Fruit, a 

 prickly 2-celled capsule. Flowers on peduncles growing in the 

 forks of the branching stems. Leaves, large, ovate, toothed. 



Too well known to need much description. Large, coarse, 

 rank plants, often found in barnyards and around old door- 

 yards. They are narcotic, poisonous, and ill - smelling. 

 Flowers showy, resembling a morning glory, on short 

 peduncles, growing where the stem branches or forks. 



Moth Mullein 



Verbascum Blattaria Family, Figwort. Color, yellow, or in 



one variety (albifldrum) white, with a purplish stain in the center 

 (see p. 204). Calyx, 5-parted. Corolla, 5-lobed, open in ma- 

 turity, its lobes reflexed. Stamens, 5, their filaments fringed with 

 purple wool. Leaves, those below petioled, deeply cut, oblong; 

 those above clasping, oblong, or lyre-shaped. Summer. 



Dry fields, roadsides, waste places, over the Eastern States. 

 This plant has not the extreme woolliness of, and there is 

 nothing in its appearance that should indicate its near rela- 

 tion to, the common mullein. It is low and smooth, with 

 flowers almost nodding and loosely spiked, making some pre- 

 tensions to prettiness. 



White Mullein 



V. Lychriitis is a rarer species, with white or yellow flowers in a 

 tall panicle (see p. 204). Leaves, greenish above, woolly be- 

 neath, ovate, not clasping, pointed. 



The whole plant is covered with a soft, whitish woolliness, 



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