ROCK-ROSE FAMILY 



Fruit. — Capsule enclosed in the calyx, obovate-oblong, gla- 

 brous, slightly three-sided, one-celled, three-valved, one to three- 

 seeded. 



The Downy Hudsonia is a little gray bush very 

 common on the sea shore of New England and New 

 Jersey ; also found on the shores of the Great Lakes. 

 Because of its long, slender, delicate root fibres it is 

 enabled to hold its own and flourish despite the hard 

 conditions of changing winds and drifting sands. 



Every morning during the blooming season which 

 lasts two or three weeks, the plant is covered with a 

 sheet of golden yellow flowers, from which the petals 

 fall by two o'clock in the afternoon, fresh flowers 

 opening each day. 



Mr. J. H. Hill writes in Garden and Forest concern- 

 ing the Downy Hudsonia as follows : " Another plant 

 of the sand hills will lead one to stop and inspect it 

 when met with in winter. It is the smallest shrub of 

 the flora of the lakes. The bush rises but little above 

 the ground, six or eight inches high, its stem usually 

 bending to one side. It branches so excessively as to 

 have a tuft-like crown. The bark is very dark, almost 

 black, and the branches near their ends, and all the 

 twigs are covered with a gray tomentum. When 

 seen in the winter the plant seems dead and uninvit- 

 ing ; the slender twigs break square off as if dry, thus 

 adding to the deception. But under a thick covering 

 of hairy scales are the small green buds, and the wood 

 of the fresh fracture shows a green color when closely 

 examined. These dry shrubs make their home in 

 exposed positions where little else grows, striking 

 their roots firmly in the sand, and the apparently dead 



20 



