358 THE MEADOW-BEAUTY FAMlLV. 



small evening primroses, and possess a characteristic trait in the curving of 

 their unusually long anthers. There is an upward toss to their heads as 

 though they had an aversion to drooping, and while some of them have to 

 be sought amid the grass of moist meadows, others occur along the road- 

 sides, seeming to follow one all the way. The Maryland meadow-beauty 

 grows through the swamps of pine-barrens and in the autumn becomes 

 most noticeable w^hen its calyx has turned to deep red. 



R. cilibsa, ciliate meadows-beauty, another sw^amp species which occurs 

 from Florida and Louisiana to Maryland and westward, is tall, abundantly 

 feafy and rather coarse looking with the exception of its delicate deep ma- 

 genta bloom, the pedicels of which are very short. Its ovate leaves have 

 bristly ciliate margins, while the calyx is glabrous, having only a few bristly 

 hairs on its lobes. 



R. glabella^ a most beautiful individual v^ith large, deep magenta and 

 very showy flowers, may be found in the low pine-barrens of Florida, or as 

 far northward as North Carolina. It grows quite high, at most about three 

 feet and is throughout very smooth. Its lanceolate, sessile leaves point 

 upward and have about them quite a sweet odour. 



R. liitea flaunts a corolla so brilliantly yellow or orange that one forgets 

 to look at its anthers, usually so conspicuous a feature of the meadow- 

 beauties. They are, however, short and in any case would not be very 

 noticeable. Usually the gay petals are persistent, longer than those of 

 other species, and the foliage, lanceolate or obovate in outline, is more 

 bronze and golden than it is green. From the base the plant branches, 

 sending up four-angled hairy stems which become often a foot high. Its 

 range is from Florida to North Carolina and westward. 



R. fiUfbrmis, in Florida and Georgia, opens in August its dainty pale 

 purple or white flowers, and deeply tinted are the anthers which curve as 

 gracefully as crescents. The foliage is abundant ; the little leaves being 

 narrowly linear, or threadlike and only on the stems are to be seen fine, 

 bristle-like hairs. 



Among the meadow-beauties it is a new species of Dr. Small, who about 

 it has written : " While collecting along the southern border of Georgia, I 

 met this delicate little species of Rhexia at various places." 



The truly common species, distributed well over the country, is Rhexia 

 Virginiana, meadow-beauty, or quite as frequently called, deer grass. 



