448 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 239. 



shaded and cool elevations of elevated parts of the Sierra, I 

 doubt if it would succeed on exposed places in a climate so 

 different as that of the Coast-hills and plains. 

 University of California. Edward L. Greene. 



The PolemoniacejE of the Lake Region. 



NINE species belonging to the Polemonium family are in- 

 digenous to the region of the great lakes. They repre- 

 sent two genera, Phlox and Polemonium. Besides these, 

 Gilia coronopifolia, the standing Cypress of the garden, a native 

 of the southern states, is reported as an escape from cultiva- 

 tion on the north shore of Lake Erie. These are all that I can 

 ascertain as included within the limits, though one or two 

 species of Phlox may be found within the southern border. 



Taking the Phloxes about as they flower, the first to appear 

 in the region of the upper lakes is Phlox bifida, or Beck's 

 Lychnidia. It is apparently confined to Illinois and the west- 

 ern part of Indiana. It comes into the lake region at the head 

 of Lake Michigan, being found in the nari'ow belt of sandy 

 land which encircles it. Here it is not uncommon in open, 

 grassy places in the woods, or along their margins. I have 

 never seen it at any distance from the woods, though it is called 

 a plant of the prairie. It likes a dry soil, where the most 

 common plants of the season associated with it are Ranun- 

 culus fascicularis, Viola pedata, Oxalis violacea and Claytonia 

 Virginica. It comes into bloom near the end of April, and 

 lasts till the early part of June. Phlox bifida is of a diffuse 

 and prostrate habit, the main stem frequently half-hardy and 

 persisting through the winter under a covering of dried grass 

 and leaves. Hence the plants may be disfigured at the time 

 of flowering by the partially dead leaves of the preceding year. 

 The stems are from three to eight or ten inches long, provided 

 with several erect or ascending branches, three or four inches 

 high. The pale purple or white flowers are so abundant as to 

 largely conceal the foliage and cover the ground when grow- 

 ir>g close together with a carpet of bloom. The lobes of the 

 corolla are 'wedge-shaped, each deeply cleft into two oblong 

 divisions, giving to the limb a ten-rayed outline. At the base 

 of each lobe are usually two more deeply colored blue or 

 purple spots, sometimes uniting to form a ring with a raised 

 point for each segment, forming a pretty eye to the flower. 

 The slender tube is quite uniform in color, of a bluish purple 

 tinge. But the limb varies considerably, from white to various 

 shades of purple. Those found near Chicago are prevailingly 

 white, at least when the flowers open, though they may be- 

 come colored with age, or when picked and placed in a vase 

 change to purple or even to blue. 



P. bifida is a western representative of the better-known and 

 much more widely distributed P. subulata, or Moss Pink, of 

 localities east and south. The western limit of the Moss Pink 

 is in Indiana, where it comes into the neighborhood of P. bi- 

 fida in the vicinity of Lafayette. In the lake region it extends 

 from western New York, through Ontario, to southern Michi- 

 gan. It is also a plant of dry locations, generally growing in 

 sandy or rocky soil. Being an evergreen, the creeping and 

 matted stems and assurgent branches have a brighter look 

 than those of P. bifida. The segments of the corolla are ob- 

 cordate, or slightly notched, but are sometimes entire, and the 

 flowers lack the radiate appearance seen in those of P. bifida. 

 They are about as variable in color, the wild forms showing 

 pink, pale rose, purple and white shades, usually with a darker 

 centre. The depressed mats and cushions of plants are cov- 

 ered with flowers in May and June, and enliven many stretches 

 of sand or chert or thinly coated rock with beautiful splashes 

 of color. 



The earliest of the taller Phloxes is P. divaricata. It starts a 

 little later than the two preceding, its period of inflorescence 

 being mostly limited to May and early June. Then the damp 

 rich woodlands where it grows are bright with the large and 

 fragrant flowers, often massed in extensive beds. It is a pro- 

 fuse bloomer, displaying from ten to twenty flowers at once 

 in its showy, corymbose cymes. The stems are from one to 

 two feet higli, the lower part smooth and often colored with 

 purple ; the upper part, with the peduncles and calyx of the 

 flowers, is glandular pubescent. The leaves are but slightly 

 glandular, becoming smooth and somewhat glossy with age. 

 After the flowers are gone, and especially in the early fall when 

 the floral stems have disappeared, the barren, summer shoots 

 springing from the root are a pleasing feature to be met with 

 in the shady woods. Then these prostrat-; stems, bearing 

 rather short, sessile, ovate leaves somewhat whorled at their 

 ends, and with a shining half-evergreen look, strikingly re- 

 semble those of the pretty Fringed Polygala, and may be mis- 

 taken for that plant. 



The flowers of P. divaricata are among the largest in the 

 genus, being from an inch to an inch and a half across. Many 

 shades occur, prevailingly those with a bluish tinge. The most 

 common are bluish purple, purple, pale or deep lilac, pink, 

 white, or white tinged with blue or pink. The large flowers, 

 their delicious odor, and the deep green of the shapely leaves, 

 make this one of the most charming of the wild Phloxes. It 

 is the most widely spread of any in the Lake region, extending 

 throughout except in the extreme northern part. It goes as 

 far east as Owebe, the most easterly range of any of the native 

 Phloxes. South of this region it is very common. 



P. pilosa is found from the head of Lake Erie to the Sas- 

 katchewan, and south-eastward to the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Atlantic. It accommodates itself to a wider range of soil and 

 other conditions than the rest of the Phloxes of the region — 

 from quite dry sand to the damp, rich soil of the prairie. It is 

 the only Phlox common in the Pine Barrens. It is a denizen 

 of the meadow, the copse and the open wood. The flowers 

 appear a little later than those of P. divaricata, and continue 

 till the middle of July or even later. The whole plant is hairy, 

 the upper part, especially the branches and pedicels of the 

 broad cymes, very glandular-pubescent, so that light bodies 

 adhere to them, and small insects are held fast, as in species of 

 Silene and Pentstemon. The linear, or lanceolate, leaves are 

 very sharp-pointed. The corolla lobes are from round-obo- 

 vate to oblong, and each is marked at the base with brownish 

 purple spots, forming a handsome eye. The predominating 

 colors are red, but white is not at all rare. The present year the 

 white flowers were in excess at the opening of the season, the 

 brighter ones coming in later. This may have been due to the 

 unusual number of cloudy and rainy days, since the phenom- 

 enon was exceptional, and the colored kinds suddenly replaced 

 the white ones when the days became warm and sunny. The 

 most common floral tints are rose, bright pink to nearly red, 

 rose-purple, pale blue and lilac, all shading into one another 

 and into white, in almost endless variety. When the plants 

 are massed in spots scattered about in the damp prairie, some- 

 times so thickly covering the ground that little else is seen, and 

 in areas to be measured by the acre, they furnish the eye with 

 the richest glow of color, and in brightness verify the fitness 

 of the name. Phlox, which means a flame. 



From the latter part of June well on into August P. glaber- 

 vima is the most common Phlox of the prairies or the open 

 woods and their sunny borders ; usually in moist grassy localities, 

 or where there is enough of sunlight for grass to grow freely. 

 It is essentially a prairie or meadow Phlox. The plants are 

 very smooth, and of a pale but glossy green. They are from 

 one to four feet high. The slender stems, stretching up among 

 the grass, lift the bunches of flowers, from three to six or eight 

 inches long, well into the sunlight. The leaves are long and 

 very narrow, and the pairs are so far apart upon the stem as to 

 give it a naked look. The plants are often massed in extensive 

 beds, but their pink flowers are less striking than those of P. 

 pilosa. The lobes of the corolla are quite uniformly roundish, 

 and the flowers in form and size are more nearly like those of 

 P. Drummondii than in most of our wild species, but lack 

 their richness of color. There is often a deeper-colored pink 

 or reddish line traced upon each lobe, a five-rayed star on a 

 paler ground, or the lobes may have a white or pale base per- 

 vaded by a red crenellated line. 



Two of the panicled Phloxes are represented in the lake 

 flora — P. paniculata and P. maculata. They are mainly south- 

 ern in their range, coming into the lake-region south of Lake 

 Erie and Lake Michigan. P. maculata is native as far north as 

 southern Minnesota. As both are often cultivated they readily 

 escape, and may be more widely spread in consequence. The 

 wild plants are sparsely found in northern Illinois in rich 

 woods and by the shaded banks of streams. 



Polemonium is represented by one species, P. reptans, the 

 Greek Valerian, often cultivated. It is found from western 

 New York to central Minnesota and southward. It is most 

 plentiful in the rich open woods and along their borders, as it 

 does not like dense shade. Some of the finest plants may be 

 seen in clearings, where it flourishes among the litter, or are 

 found persisting by the fence-rows lined with brambles and 

 Hazel. The diffuse stems, ten to twenty inches long, with sev- 

 eral often rising from a single root, and the pinnate leaves, 

 with their three to ten pairs of ovate or oblong leaflets, form 

 handsome clumps of lively green. When richly furnished with 

 flowers in May and June, few plants of the woods are more at- 

 tractive. The short tube and flaring limb make the flowers 

 somewhat bell-shaped, and from this, with the color, they are 

 generally known as Bluebells by country people. They have 

 a light blue color, varying toward lilac, either sky-blue, or 

 more often that peculiar restful shade which the French 



