224 PLANTS GROWING IN LIGHT SOIL. 



NEW JERSEY TEA. RED-ROOT. 



Ceanbthus Americ&nus. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Buckthorn. White. Scentless. General. July. 



Flowers : crowded in a dense umbel-like cluster. Calyx : of five rounded 

 lobes coloured like petals. Corolla : of five hood-shaped petals. Stamens : 

 five. Pistil: one; stigma, three-lobed. Leaves : alternate on short petioles ; 

 oblong ; triple-ribbed ; serrated; downy underneath. A low shrub ; one to three 

 feet high. Root: bright red. 



New Jersey tea is not so named because that much-abused 

 State knows no other, or is especially partial to the use of 

 red-root as a beverage ; but because in Revolutionary times the 

 little political difficulty that made tea rather scarce was felt less 

 poignantly by thrifty housewives who had bags of its dried 

 leaves hung in the garret. The root-bark is also known in 

 medicine, and it yields a brown dye. 



PROSTRATE TICK-TREFOIL. (Plate CXVI^) 



Meibbmia Michduxii. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pulse. Purple. Scentless. Florida to Miss, and northward. August. 



Flowers: growing in terminal racemes on axillary branches. Calyx: five- 

 cleft. Corolla: papilionaceous. Pods: with scalloped margins. Leaves: of 

 three rounded, ovate leaflets. Stem : prostrate ; pubescent. 



When the Meibomias or Desmodiums, as they were formerly 

 called, held their family council as to the best way for them to 

 disperse their seeds, they decided upon a plan no doubt grat- 

 ifying to themselves but just a little trying to humanity at 

 large. It seems as though they had considered the question 

 from their point of view alone. They then provided them- 

 selves with jointed pods that are covered with bristly hooks, 

 and cleverly designed to fasten in the fleece of sheep, or hair of 

 animals. In fact, they do not despise clothing of any de- 

 scription. In this way they secure a very wide distribution, 

 and often fall upon ground at a great distance from the original 

 plants. They are not well-bred like the rattlesnake, who al- 

 ways gives a friendly warning of his intentions ; and the first 



