ST. JOHN’S WORTS 
The leaves are opposite, stalkless, often dotted with raised glands or 
with pellucid glands looking like pinholes when the leaf is held up to 
the light. Almost without exception the flowers are yellow, and consist 
of five sepals, five petals, ovary of three, four, or five carpels and as 
many styles; stamens, a large but indefinite number, combined in 
several bundles by being connected at their base. The species are 
distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world, and eleven 
of them are indigenous to Britain. 
St. John’s Wort, in addition to its real or supposed. 
medicinal qualities, had long been an important ingredient 
in Midsummer Eve spells and incantations, and in warding off the evil 
powers of witches and warlocks! It is probable, therefore, that our 
native species—notably Hypericum Androsasmum —were the first to 
be cultivated, and not alone for their floral beauty, but for their reputed 
supernatural powers. H. calycinum , a native of the Orient, has been 
naturalised in Britain for a long period, and H. Goris and H. hircinum 
were introduced to our gardens more than two hundred and fifty years 
ago. H. hookerianum (formerly oblongifolium), however, is the most 
ancient introduction of which we have record; it was brought from 
Nepal as far back as 1523. Many others have been introduced at 
different periods—as H. olympicum from Cyprus in 1706, H. halearicum 
from Majorca in 1714, H. kalmianum from North America, 1759, H. 
degans from Siberia, 1817, and others during the present century—but 
very few of them are found frequently in cultivation. We shall 
therefore name only a few of the most desirable kinds. 
Species Hypericum Andros^emum (man’s blood —colour of 
juice). Tutsan, Sweet Amber. Stems shrubby, erect, 
four-angled, 2 feet. Leaves oval or oblong, with close minute glands. 
Flowers about f inch in diameter, clustered in corymbose cymes. 
Sepals glandular, petals oblique, styles three, curving outward. Flowers 
June to August. Native. 
H. CALYCINUM (large calyxed). Rose of Sharon, Aaron’s Beard. 
Stems shrubby, 1 to 2 feet, four-angled, rising from an extensively 
creeping rootstock. Leaves leathery, oblong, 2 to 4 inches long, pitted 
with large, scattered, pellucid glands; nearly evergreen. Flowers 3 to 
4 inches, terminal and solitary; July to September. Plate 45. 
H. elegans (elegant). Stem erect, 1 foot, winged and dotted with 
black glanda Leaves oval, lance-shaped, with pellucid dots. Flowers 
in racemes; June to August 
H. hookerianum (Hooker’s). A half-hardy evergreen shrub, with 
found stems, 2 feet high; crowded with lance-shaped leaves, which are 
