AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS 



515 



bol of purity, and the Easter lily is the symbol 

 of the Christian faith in the hope of a life be- 

 yond the grave. 



TURK'S CAP LILY (Lilium superbum L.) 



(See page 499) 



Lilium superbum is the Latin name for that 

 beautiful flower we call the Turk's cap, and it 

 deserves the name, for of all the "lilies of the 

 field," it is tallest, stateliest, most prolific of 

 bloom, most variable in form, color, and size. 

 Its domain reaches from Maine to the Caro- 

 linas and westward to and including Tennessee 

 and Minnesota. Like many other wild flowers, 

 it loves to be petted by the horticulturist, and 

 responds with wonderful alacrity to good 

 treatment. Growing wild, from three to seven 

 leaves appear in a terminal group on the lily 

 stock. Pampered by the horticulturist, it will 

 crown itself with as many as 40 blossoms and 

 grow to a height of 9 feet. July and August 

 are the months when the Turk's-cap lily lends 

 its flowers to the enrichment of the landscape. 



WITCH HAZEL (Hamamelis virginiana 

 L.) 



(See page 500) 



With its home in thicket and low-lying wood- 

 land and its range reaching from Nova Scotia 

 to the north of Mexico, the witch hazel is the 

 rear guard of the flower army that marches in 

 panoplied splendor through the spring and 

 summer and fall. Where the trailing arbutus, 

 the jonquil, the crocus, and the buttercup lead 

 the invading hosts of beauty, the witch hazel 

 is so far behind the procession that one might 

 almost wonder whether it be rear guard or 

 istraggler. 



It follows the fringed gentian, whose beau- 

 ties have been acclaimed by many poets, and 

 it seldom lends its blossom to the scene before 

 September is well on toward the equinox. 

 From that time until Christmas, even, it glad- 

 dens the wood. Surely one may feel when be- 

 holding it that time has indeed "grown sleepy 

 at his post and let the exile summer back," or 

 else that it is "her regretful ghost" that stalks 

 abroad. The witch hazel is about the last feast 

 that nature prepares for the insect world. Even 

 its leaves have gone, and it has joined the 

 ranks of the "brown and sere" before its 

 flowers come. 



As soon as the insect hosts have rendered 

 their toll of pollen-carrying in exchange for 

 the nectar of the flower, it begins to fade and 

 fall. Then comes the seed pod, which hangs 

 on to the tree all the year following, and does 

 not turn loose its seeds until the witch-hazel 

 flowers come again. Then the large, hard, 

 black seeds are discharged through the rupture 

 of the capsule, whose walls pinch them out. 

 They are discharged with enough force to 

 sting the face sharply if they hit an observer. 

 Thoreau once wrote that he heard in the night 

 a strange snapping sound and the fall of some 

 small body on the floor from time to time. 

 Getting up to investigate, he found it was pro- 



duced by the witch-hazel nuts on his desk 

 springing open and casting their seeds across 

 his chamber. 



We owe our knowledge of the value of 

 witch-hazel bark for medicinal purposes to the 

 Indians, and it is now used in the making of 

 many kinds of extracts. 



For generations the branches of the witch 

 hazel have been used as divining rods for the 

 location of waters and precious ores. 



A good story is told on Linnaeus in relation 

 to the divining rod made of the branches of 

 the European cousin of the American witch 

 hazel. On one occasion, on one of his trips, 

 his secretary highly extolled the powers of a 

 witch-hazel divining rod. Linnaeus was sure 

 that it had no virtue, and to prove it concealed 

 a purse containing one hundred ducats under a 

 flower which grew by itself in a meadow. The 

 divining rod could not locate it, and the assem- 

 bled company, watching the experiment, tram- 

 pled down the plant under which it was hidden. 

 When Linnaeus went to take it from its hiding 

 place, he could not locate it. His secretary 

 again brought his divining rod into play and 

 told him that it lay somewhere in the opposite 

 direction. Going in the direction the divining 

 rod pointed, Linnaeus finally found his gold, 

 and declared that another such experiment 

 would be sufficient to make a proselyte of him. 



WOODY NIGHTSHADE OR BITTER- 

 SWEET (Solanum Dulcamara L.) 



(See page 501) 



Like the great bindweed, the woody night- 

 shade has almost girdled the globe in the north- 

 ern hemisphere. In the United States it has 

 followed the northern part of the country as 

 far westward as Kansas. It is also found in 

 Canada and came to us as a plant immigrant 

 from Europe. It belongs to the potato family 

 and is also a relative of the tomato and the 

 egg-plant. It used to be asserted that the 

 berries were poisonous, even to the touch. 

 Thoreau declared "they hang more gracefully 

 from the river's brim than any pendant in a 

 lady's ear, yet they are considered poisonous; 

 but not to look at, surely. . . . But why 

 should they not be poisonous? Would it not 

 be bad taste to eat these berries which are 

 ready to feed another sense?" It loves the 

 moist thicket and fence row and flowers from 

 May to September. Possessed of no nectar 

 with which to attract the insects, the purple 

 flowers of the nightshade are wall-flowers in 

 the carnivals of floral lieauty, and they get 

 few visits from the gallants of the insect world. 



PURPLE FLOWERING RASPBERRY 

 (Rubus odoratus L.) 



(See page 502) 



Growing in rocky woodlands, dells, and 

 shady roadsides, flowering from June to Au- 

 gust, and claiming as its own a territory reach- 

 ing from northern Canada to southern Georgia 

 and from the coast to Michigan and Tennessee, 

 the purple flowering raspberry has a beauty all 



