HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



water. Flowers, of 2 sorts, the staminate with a short calyx-tube 

 and 4 stamens; pistillate, 2 to 4 petals, 4 styles, and a 2 to 4-celled 

 ovary. Flowers in spikes, 4 to 8 inches long, seen above the 

 water. Leaves, those accompanying the flowers linear, cut- 

 toothed, whorled, 4 or 5 in a whorl, or scattered; those below on 

 the slender stem, finely cut into thread-like divisions, also 

 whorled. 



Rhode Island to Florida and westward, near the coast in 

 shallow ponds with muddy bottoms. 



Low Water Milfoil 



M. humile. — Color, purplish. Few or no leaves on the flowering 

 stems. Those under water pinnately parted into narrow, thread- 

 like divisions. Stems, slender, 1 foot long, with small, sessile, 

 spiked flowers. 



Ponds, ditches, and pools, Maine and Vermont to Mary- 

 land, and locally westward. 



Sea Lavender. Marsh Rosemary 



Limbnium caroliniknum — Family, Leadwort. Color, lavender. 

 Parts of the flowers in fives. Ovary, 1 -celled, containing a single 

 seed. Petals, with long claws. Flowers, small, growing on one 

 side of naked branches, in panicles, 1 to 3 flowers together, 1 to 

 2 feet high. The calyx dries and remains through the winter, 

 making this a plant much sought after for dried, winter bouquets. 

 Leaves, all from the root, thick, oblong, tapering into long petioles, 

 tipped with a bristly point. July to October. 



Salt marshes, along the coast, from Labrador to Texas. 

 A familiar plant on Long Island. 



Pennywort 



Obolkria virginica — Family, Gentian. Color, white or purple. 

 (See White Flowers, p. 118.) 



Fringed Gentian 



Gentikna crintta — Family, Gentian. Color, blue. Calyx, 4-cleft. 

 Corolla, 2 inches long, a tube with 4 spreading lobes finely fringed 

 around their edges. Stamens, 4, with glands between the fila- 

 ments at their bases. Style, 1 or none. Stigmas, 2. Leaves, 

 opposite, acute at apex, broader, somewhat rounded or heart- 

 shaped at base. Flowers, solitary, or a few at top of a stem, 1 

 to 2 feet high, standing stiffly erect. September and October. 



The famed beauty of this plant lies chiefly in its clear blue 

 color, for it is scarcely graceful. The corolla opens only in 



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