442 THE PHLOX FAMILY. 



thought them to be rather ugly plants, too stilted and conventional looking 

 to approach the beautiful. But to do away with this idea one has only to 

 see the little one, Phlox subulata, covering hundreds of acres, or the crawling 

 one, Phlox reptans as it lays over the ground its carpet of bloom. Thus 

 truly they are an enchanting sight. There are also many species of them, 

 each with a more or less distinctive personality. In our study of the flowers 

 we could in no circumstances pass them by. 



Phldx pilbsa prefers to grow in dry uplands or in sandy soil of the pine- 

 barrens and over a range of considerable extent. Those that I saw in 

 Florida were not branched, and while their very pubescent stems were as- 

 cending they appeared unusually weak. 



P. reptafis, crawling phlox, a beautiful dwarf form, shows its large flowers 

 in one of the delicate pink, or purple, shades and through our range is mostly 

 to be found in the mountains, where on moist slopes or valleys it sometimes 

 covers the ground. Although the flowering stems are ascending, it is to be 

 noticed that creeping and sterile shoots also start off from its base. Their 

 leaves are obovate and narrowed into a petiole, while those of the regular 

 stems are mostly oblong, or lanceolate. In fruit the linear and downy calyx 

 segments become much recurved. 



P. ovata, mountain phlox, is another species occurrent through the moun- 

 tains. In fact on the high peaks of western North Carolina it was so pro- 

 lifically in bloom in late August that it fairly coloured with its pinkish 

 lavender corolla the roadside banks and brightened immense patches 

 through the woods. Its upper ovate or lanceolate-ovate leaves clasp the 

 stem with slightly cordate bases, w^hile the lower ones and those of the 

 sterile shoots usually taper into long petioles. It is always a very erect 

 plant and at most about two feet high. 



P. siibiildta, ground or moss pink, than which no other phlox is hand- 

 somer, spreads over rocky, dry soil a carpet of fine, moss-like foliage, the 

 tiny leaves being linear, lanceolate, and abundant, and from their midst 

 arise the flowering stems. Of the small corolla the lobes are quaintly 

 obcordate and occur in either white, pink or purple. From April until June 

 the little plant blooms prolifically, and it possesses the further charm of being 

 evergreen. Its range extends from Florida to the southern part of New 

 York. 



RAVEN FOOTED GILIA. {Plate CXLVIII.) 

 Gili'a rubra. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Phlox. Scarlet. Scentless. Florida to South Carolina Jitty. 



and westward. 



Floivers : very showy, growing in a long terminal and leafy compound raceme. 

 Calyx: bell-shaped; with five-linear lobes. Corolla: tubular, funnel-form \ spread- 



