THE ST. JOHN'S-WORT KAMILV. 34, 



wort, wherein there are over two hundred known species. It is rather 

 a rare one, keeping mostly to such mountainous parts of its range as the 

 summits of Craggy and Roan, where in the estimation of ilie country people 

 it passes as a St. John's-wort pure and simple. It was Buckley who first 

 made its peculiarities known. 



H. 7naculatum, spotted St. John\s-wori. grows well in the moist soil 

 of low grounds or pine-barrens, and is rather general from Te.xas to Maine. 

 It shows a stiff stem much branched above, bearing oblong or ovate-lanceo- 

 late clasping leaves which are quite smooth and conspicuously dotted. The 

 llowers are small, but many of them are produced in corymb-like cymes 

 and their petals are dotted with black. 



H. pcrfordtum, common St. John's-wort, is often a troublesome weed 

 with a stem branching from the base and bearing many small linear- 

 oblong, sessile leaves mostly blunt at their apices. Its abundant flowers 

 produced in cymes near the summit are from one-half to an inch broad, 

 vividly yellow and have their petals slightly dotted with black. It is not a 

 native but through our fields has become abundantly naturalised and pur- 

 sues a rather unscrupulous course of rapid soil exhaustion. 



It is perhaps the member of the family which in Europe has been so uni- 

 versally credited with the power of preserving people against lightning and 

 knowing the intentions and whereabouts of witches. Many women in 

 Germany wear it in an amulet about their necks, so that on St. John's eve 

 they may be saved from the spirits then wandering about with evil in their 

 eyes. Both in England and Germany it is hung over the doors and windows 

 on the same night that the devil may be prevented from entering, while 

 many fear to tread on it fearing they should be surrounded and borne away 

 by fairies. It is also known as the wonderful herb, the panacea for all 

 wounds. Early it was called " balm-of-the-warrior's wound," while the dew 

 which fell on it the eve of St. John was believed to preserve the eyesight. Its 

 blood-like spots even were credited with appearing more plainly on the leaves 

 on the anniversary of the apostle's decapitation. 



ST. JOHN'S-WORT. {Plate CIX.) 

 Hypericuui aurcu))!. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



St.Jolins-jvort. Deep yeilow. Scentless. M iddle Ceort^ia south- June-A u^ust. 



It'll tit a mi zi.Hstwa rd. 



Flowers: very large; showy; mostly solitary, at the ends of the two-edged 

 branches. Calvx : with five leaf-like bracts. Corolla: with five, broadly roiuuicd, 

 thick petals. Stamens: infiiiilc in numbers. Leaves: narrowly oblong, blunt al 

 the apex and tapering at the base; smaller leaves showing in tlicir axils; entire, 

 or wavy along the edges; glabrous; pelucid dotted underneath and glaucous, wiih 

 smooth, greyish brown bark inclined to peel in shreds. 



