Magenta to Pink 



marshes with torches that lengthen even as they glow. It is not 

 a spring flower, even in England ; and so when Shakespeare, 

 whose knowledge of floral nature was second only to that of 

 human nature, wrote of Ophelia, 



" With fantastic garlands did she come, 

 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples," 



is it probable he so combined flowers having different seasons of 

 bloom ? Dr. Prior suggests that the purple orchis (O. mascula) 

 might have been the flower Ophelia wore ; but, as long purples 

 has been the folk name of this loosestrife from time immemorial 

 in England, it seems likely that Shakespeare for once may have 

 made a mistake. 



Blue Wax-weed; Clammy Cuphea; Tar-weed 



{Parsoma petiolata) Loosestrife family 

 {Cuphea viscosissima of Gray) 



Flowers — Purplish pink, about % in. across, on short peduncles from 

 leaf axils, solitary or clustered. Calyx sticky, tubular, 12- 

 ribbed, with 6 primary teeth, oblique at mouth, extending into 

 a rounded swelling on upper side at base ; 6 unequal, wrinkled 

 petals, on short claws ; 1 1 or 12 stamens inserted on calyx 

 throat ; i pistil with 2-lobed stigma. Stem: 6 to 20 in. high, 

 branched, very sticky-hairy. Leaves : Opposite, on slender 

 petioles, lance-shaped, rounded at base, harsh to the touch. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry soil, waste places, fields, roadsides. 



Flowering Season — July — October. 



Distribution — Rhode Island to Georgia, westward to Louisiana, 

 Kansas, and Illinois. 



A first cousin of the familiar Mexican cigar plant, or fire-cracker 

 plant [Cuphea platycentra), whose abundant little vermilion tubes, 

 with black-edged lower lip tipped with white, brighten the bor- 

 ders of so many Northern flower-beds. Kyphos, the Greek for 

 curved, from which cuphea was derived, has reference to the pe- 

 culiar, swollen little seed pod. From a slit on one side of the 

 clammy cuphea's capsule the placenta, set with tiny flattened seeds, 

 sticks out like a handle. Probably the flower has already fertil- 

 ized itself in the bud, although, from thefact that the plant has taken 

 such pains to punish crawling insect foes by coating itself with 

 sticky hairs, one might imagine it was wholly dependent upon 

 winged insects to transfer its pollen. What an unworthy relative 

 of the purple loosestrife, whose elaborate scheme to insure cross- 

 fertilization is one of the botanical wonders ! 



117 



