RUBIACE.E 



MADDER FAMILY 



Houstonia ccerulea, L. 



Sometimes blue, Quaker-ladies, 



generally whitish Quaker-bonnets, 



Bluets, 



May-October Innocence (said to be the only 



common name they do not share 

 with any other flower), 

 Eyebright, 

 Venus' Pride, 

 Angel-eyes, 

 Blue-eyed Babies, 

 Bright-eyes, 

 Star of Bethlehem. 



Houstonia: in honour of Dr. William Houston, an English 



botanist, who collected in tropical America. 

 Ccerulea: Latin for sky-blue. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons. 



THE PLANT: erect, three inches to seven inches high, 

 sometimes so branched at the base as to form dense tufts; 

 stem slender, smooth or nearly so. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; the lower and root-leaves broader 

 than the upper; oblong-lanceolate to spatulate; hairy 

 above; obtusish at the apex; sessile or sometimes nar- 

 rowed into a petiole; entire; hairy on the margins. 



THE FLOWERS : solitary, on slender stems, terminal or in 

 the axils, the tube of the flower yellowish; petals white or 

 tinged with purple, yellow, or light-blue; two forms of 

 flowers occur on different plants, one form with projecting 

 style, the other with the style shorter than the corolla-tube. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



This is the delicate and ingenuous, yet noticeable, and 

 open-eyed, little, white flower just tinged with blue, that 



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