Yellow and Orange 



Stem: i to 2 ft. high, erect, much branched. Leaves: Small, 



opposite, oblong, more or less black-dotted. 

 Pre/erred Habitat — Fields, waste lands, roadsides. 

 Flowering Season — ^June — September. 

 Distribution — Throughout our area, except the extreme North; 



Europe, and Asia. 



"Gathered upon a Friday, in the hour of Jupiter when he 

 comes to his operation, so gathered, or borne, or hung upon the 

 neclt, it mightily helps to drive away all phantastical spirits." 

 These are the blossoms which have been hung in the windows 

 of European peasants for ages on St. John's eve, to avert the evil 

 eye and the spells of the spirits of darkness. "Devil chaser" its 

 Italian name signifies. To cure demoniacs, to ward off destruc- 

 tion by lightning, to reveal the presence of witches, and to 

 expose their nefarious practices, are some of the virtues ascribed 

 to this plant, which superstitious farmers have spared from the 

 scythe and encouraged to grow near their houses until it has 

 become, even in this land of liberty, a troublesome weed at 

 times. "The flower gets its name," says F. Schuyler Mathews, 

 "from the superstition that on St. John's day, the 24th of June, 

 the dew which fell on the plant the evening before was efficacious 

 in preserving the eyes from disease. So the plant was collected, 

 dipped in oil, and thus transformed into a balm for every wound." 

 Here it is a naturalized, not a native, immigrant. A blooming 

 plant, usually with many sterile shoots about its base, has an 

 unkempt, untidy look; the seed capsules and the brown petals 

 of withered flowers remaining among the bright yellow buds 

 through a long season. No nectar is secreted by the St. John's- 

 worts, therefore only pollen collectors visit them regularly, and 

 occasionally cross-fertilize the blossoms, M'hich are best adapted, 

 however, to pollinate themselves. 



The Shrubby St. John's-wort {H. prolificum) bears yellow 

 blossoms, about half an inch across, which are provided with 

 stamens so numerous, the many flowered terminal clusters have a 

 soft, feathery effect. In the axils of the oblong, opposite leaves 

 are tufts of smaller ones, the stout stems being often concealed 

 under a wealth of foliage. Sandy or rocky places from New 

 Jersey southward best suit this low, dense, diffusely branched 

 shrub which blooms prolifically from July to September. 



Farther north, and westward to Iowa, the Great or Giant St. 

 John's-wort (//. Ascyron) brightens the banks of streams at mid- 

 summer with large blossoms, each on a long footstalk in a few- 

 flowered cluster. 



316 



