White and Greenish 



tra! type to the purple color which Sir John Lubbock, among other 

 scientists, considers the highest step in chromatic evolution. This 

 species has heart-shaped, saw-edged leaves which taper acutely. 

 From May even to July is its regular blooming season ; but the 

 delightful family eccentricity of flowering again in autumn appears 

 to be a confirmed habit with the Canada violet. 



Enchanter's Nightshade 



{Circaea Lutetiana) Evening-primrose family 



Flowers — Very small, white, slender pedicelled, in terminal and 

 lateral racemes. Calyx 2-parted, hairy ; 2 petals, 2 alternate 

 stamens. Stem : i to 2 ft. high, slender, branching, swollen 

 at nodes. Leaves : Opposite, tapering to a point, distantly 

 toothed, 2 to 4 in. long, slender petioled. Fruit :' Pear-shaped, 

 2-celled, densely covered with stiff, hooked hairs. 



Preferred Habitat — Woods ; shady roadsides. 



Flowering Season — June — August. 



Distribution — Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward to Nebraska. 

 Europe and Asia. 



Why Circe, the enchantress, skilled in the use of poisonous 

 herbs, should have had her name applied to this innocent and 

 insignificant looking little plant is not now obvious ; neither is 

 the title of nightshade any more appropriate. 



Each tiny flower having a hairy calyx, that acts as a stockade 

 against ants and other such crawling pilferers, we suspect there 

 are abundant sweets secreted in the fleshy ring at the base of the 

 styles for the benefit of the numerous flies seen hovering about. 

 Among other visitors, watch the common house-fly alighting on 

 the knobby stigma, a most convenient landing place, where he 

 leaves some pollen carried on his underside from other nightshade 

 blossoms. In clasping the bases of the two pliable stamens, his 

 only available supports as he sucks, he will surely get well 

 dusted again, that he may fertilize the next blossom he flies to for 

 refreshment. The nightshade's little pear-shaped seed-vessels, 

 armed with hooked bristles by which they steal a ride on any 

 passing petticoat or trouser-leg, reveal at a glance how this plant 

 has contrived to travel around the globe. 



A smaller, weaker species (Circaea alpina), found in cool, 

 moist woods, chiefly north, has thin, shining leaves and soft, 

 hooked hairs on its vagabond seeds. Less dependence seems to 

 be placed on these ineffective hooks to help perpetuate the plant 

 than on the tiny pink bulblets growing at the end of an exceed- 

 ingly slender thread sent out by the parent roots. 



219 



