COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 





MIST FLOWER 



Eupatorium coelestinum L. 



The Mist Flower grows in rich soil in partly exposed places 

 from New Jersey to Michigan, Kansas and southwest. In Illinois 

 it is found only along streams and in wet places of the south, but 



it is often cultivated elsewhere. 

 This plant blooms in August and 

 September and in gardens blends 

 well with Phlox and other hardy 

 native plants lacking blue colors. 

 It can be propagated by seeds, 

 or readily by dividing the roots 

 in fall or spring. 



This is a branching perennial 

 herb G-i^^ inches high. The stems 

 are more or less hairy, tinged 

 red to brown and bearing oppo- 

 site round-toothed leaves on 

 short petioles. Below each of the 

 many-flowered heads, which are 

 arranged in rather compact 

 clusters, is a broadly bell-shaped 

 involucre of linear-lanceolate, 

 acuminate bracts that are green 

 at the bases and brownish at the 

 tips, equal or nearly so and in 

 I or 2 series. 



The smaller figure shown is a 

 single flower. The pappus is com- 

 posed of soft white hairs. The 5 

 lobes of the corolla are intensely 

 blue or violet. The stamens are 

 mconspicuous but the 2 long stigmas are colored like the corolla 

 and give a misty appearance to the flower cluster. The single- 

 seeded 5-sided fruits are well adapted to wind dissemination. 

 The receptacle in this species is distinctly conic, a difference 

 from other species of Eupatorium. 



Dreaming of light till our dream became 

 Aureate bells and beakers of flame — 

 Splashed with the splendor of wine of flame. 



Columhines — Arthur Guitermax 



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