Magenta to Pink 



peduncles at ends of branches. Calyx lobes very narrow ; 

 corolla of ^ rounded segments ; stamens 5 ; style 2-cleft. 

 Stem : Sharply 4-angled, 2 to 3 ft. high, with opposite 

 branches, leafy. Leaves: Opposite, 5-nerved, oval, tapering 

 at tip, and clasping stem by broad base. 



Preferred Habitat — Rich soil, meadows, thickets. 



Flowering Season — J u ly — A ugust. 



Distribution — New York to Florida, westward to Ontario, Michi- 

 gan, and Indian Territory. 



During the drought of midsummer the lovely rose-pink blooms 

 inland with cheerful readiness to adapt itself to harder conditions 

 than most of its moisture-loving kin will tolerate ; but it may be 

 noticed that although we may oftentimes find it growing in dry 

 soil, it never spreads in such luxuriant clusters as when the roots 

 are struck beside meadow runnels and ditches. Probably the plant 

 would be commoner than it is about populous Eastern districts 

 were it not so much sought after as a tonic medicine. 



It was the Centaurea, represented here by the blue ragged 

 sailor of gardens, and not our Centaury, a distinctly American 

 group of plants, which, Ovid tells us, cured a wound in the foot 

 of the Centaur Chiron, made by an arrow hurled by Hercules. 



Three exquisite members of the Sabbatia tribe keep close to 

 the Atlantic coast in salt meadows and marshes, along the borders 

 of brackish rivers, and very rarely in the sand at the edges of 

 fresh-water ponds a little way inland. From Maine to Florida 

 they range, and less frequently are met along the shores of the 

 Guif of Mexico so far as Louisiana. How bright and dainty they 

 are ! Whole meadows are radiant with their blushing loveliness. 

 Probably if they consented to live far away from the sea, they 

 would lose some of the deep, clear pink from out their lovely 

 petals, since all flowers show a tendency to brighten their colors 

 as they approach the coast. In England some of the same wild 

 flowers we have here are far deeper-hued, owing, no doubt, to 

 the fact that they live on a sea-girt, moisture-laden island, and 

 also that the sun never scorches and blanches at the far north as 

 it does in the United States. 



As might be expected, blossoms so bright of hue as the marsh 

 pinks attract many insects. Guided by the yellow eye that serves 

 as a pathfinder to the nectary, they feast on the generous supply 

 of sweets ; but all unwittingly they must pay for their entertain- 

 ment by carrying pollen from early to later flowers. Like so 

 many other blossoms, the sabbatias guard themselves against the 

 evils of self-fertilization by shedding their pollen before they ma- 

 ture and spread their two-cleft style, which is now ready to receive 

 the golden, quickening dust on its stigmatic inner surfaces. 



The Sea or Marsh Pink, or Rose of Plymouth (S. stellaris), 



132 



