HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Angelica Tree. Hercules' Club 



Aralia spinbsa. — Family, Ginseng. Color, white. Leaves, 

 alternate, compound, the leaflets ovate, serrate, acute at apex, 

 short-petioled, pale underneath. Stem, stout, and with the 

 branches and petioles bearing spines. Flowers, resembling those 

 of the Parsley Family, and, like them, in compound umbels ter- 

 minating the branches. Peduncles, softly downy. Fruit, black. 

 June to August. 



Low grounds near streams from southern New York to 

 Florida and westward to Texas. 



White Alder. Sweet Pepper Bush. Alder-leaved 

 Clethra 



Clethra alnifblia. — Family, Heath. Color, white. Leaves, 

 toothed from below the middle to the apex, entire toward the 

 base, alternate, sharp -pointed, ovate or wedge -shape. Calyx, 

 of 5 sepals united into a cup, which closes around the ovary. 

 Corolla, of 5 spreading petals. Stamens, 10, of unequal length, 

 with arrow-shaped anthers, which are upright in the bud, turned 

 downward in the flower. Flowers, very fragrant, almost too 

 sweet, in long, terminal, erect spikes, remaining long on the bush 

 before withering. They are followed by dry, 3 -celled capsules. 

 July and August. 



A beautiful shrub, 2 to 8 feet high, seeking wet soil by slow 

 streams, massing in thickets. Near the coast, from New 

 England to Virginia and southward. (See illustration, p. 

 409.) 



C, acuminata is a shrub or small tree, 10 to 20 feet high, found 

 in the Alleghany Mountains, southward to Georgia. Leaves, oval. 

 pointed, finely toothed, 3 to 7 inches long, pale green underneath, 

 on rather short and slender petioles. Flowers, in drooping ra- 

 cemes, with long bracts, sweet-scented. 



Labrador Tea 



Ledum groenlandicum. — Family, Heath. Color, white. Leaves, 

 evergreen, oblong or elliptical, alternate, entire, margins revolute. 

 with reddish wool underneath, on short petioles. Calyx, 5- 

 toothed. Corolla, of 5 distinct oblong, spreading petals. Stamens, 

 5 to 10. Style, white, turning red. Flowers, in umbel-like clus- 

 ters terminating the branches. 



A shrub, 2 to 3 feet high, whose leaves when crushed ex- 

 hale a pleasant, tea-like fragrance. The clusters of flowers 



408 



