THE MADDER FAMIL\. 475 



Often on the high mountains these tiny bluets cling so lightly to the 

 ground that they make but little showing even when in bloom. They creep 

 in under damp rocks and here cover many a cool and shady place with their 

 baby blossoms. In such spots, or even those more exposed, we found it in 

 the early autumn near the summit of Roan Mountain, still blooming spar- 

 ingly. Sometimes it mingled with, or grew beside, the mountain heather. 

 Dendrium buxifolium prostratum, when its tiny leaves often formed close 

 mats ; dainty, sweet companions they seemed on this great peak. 



H. purpurea, X^x^Q houstonia, a southern species and also especially of 

 the mountains, is distinctively marked 'by its broad, ovate or ovate-Ianceolale 

 leaves and because its purple or lilac flowers grow in terminal, cyme-like 

 clusters. It lingers late in bloom, and while very attractive has hardly the 

 daintiness of the already-mentioned species and the one that follows. 



H. coeriilca, bluets, innocence, Quaker ladies, or bonnets, is much more 

 generally distributed than the mountain species — therefore better known and 

 of more widely acknowledged charm. It is readily distinguished by many 

 up-pointed, obovate, oblong or spatulate leaves of which only the lower ones 

 narrow into petioles. The species, besides, grows erectly, often many of 

 the plants together producing through moist, grassy places a most enchanting 

 stretch of ethereal blue. 



H. angiistifblia, narrow-leaved houstonia, occurring westward and from 

 Florida to Tennessee, is peculiar in that its linear leaves grow thickly in 

 clusters and because its w^hite, or purplish, flowers are produced abundantly 

 on short pedicels in cyme-like clusters. 



Most of these quaint flowers are what is called dimorphous, — that is, they 

 occur in two forms. Under a lens we see that in certain of the flowers the 

 pistil is long and the stamens short, while in others just the reverse order is 

 evident. This is not so without a purpose. It is simply a scheme of 

 arrangement by which self-fertilization may be prevented. 



BUTTON, OR RIVER, BUSH. GLOBE FLOWER. 

 HONEY=BALLS. 



Ccphald)iihus oicidoilalis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Madder, White. Very fragrant. Florida to Sew Hrunswick J unf-A Uj^Hit. 



and westward. 



Flowers: small ; sessile ; clustered in a rounded head. Calyx-tuh: with four, 

 blunt lobes. Corolla: tubular, funnel-form, with four spreading lobes. Stiimens: 

 four, on the throat of the corolla. Pistil: one, with exsertcd style and button-like 

 stigma. Leaves: opposite, or whorled in threes : pctiolcd; oval, or ov.Tte ; 

 entire ; mostly smooth. A shrub three to twelve feet high with rough, grey bark. 



Perhaps in midsummer we attempt to cross a meadow, dry about the out- 



