Yellow and Orange 



Beach or False Heather; Poverty Grass 



{Hudsonia tomentosa) Rock-rose family 



Flowers — Bright yellow, small, about % in. across, numerous, 

 closely ascending the upper part of the heath-like branches. 

 Sepals 5, unequal; 5 petals; stamens, 9 to 18. Stem: 4 to 8 

 in. tall, tufted, densely branched and matted, hoary hairy, 

 pale. Leaves: Overlapping like scales, very small. 



Preferred Habitat—Sands of the seashore, pine barrens, beaches of 

 rivers and lakes. 



Flowering Season — May — July. 



Distribution— ^Q-^ Brunswick to Maryland, west, to Lake of the 

 Woods. 



Like the showy flowers of the frost-weed, these minute ones 

 open in the sunshine only, and then but for a single day. Never- 

 theless, the hoary, heath-like little shrub, by growing in large 

 colonies and keeping up a succession of bright bloom, tinges the 

 sand dunes back of the beach with charmmg color that artists 

 delight to paint in the foreground of their marine pictures. 



Yellow Violets 



{Fiola) Violet family 



Fine hairs on the erect, leafy, usually single stem of the 

 Downy Yellow Violet (K. pubescens), whose dark veined, bright 

 yellow petals gleam in dry woods in April and May, easily dis- 

 tinguish it from the Smooth Yellow Violet (K. scabriuscula), 

 formerly considered a mere variety in spite of its being an earlier 

 bloomer, a lover of moisture, and well equipped with basal leaves 

 at flowering time, which the downy species is not. Moreover, it, 

 bears a paler blossom, more coarsely dentate leaves, and" usually'l 

 several stems together. 



Our other'common yellow species, the Round-leaved Violet. 

 (K rotundifolia), lifts smaller, pale, brown- veined, and bearded 

 blossoms above a tuflfet of broad, shining leaves close to the 

 ground. The veins on the petals serve as pathfinders to the 

 nectary for the bee, and the beard as footholds, while she probes 

 the inverted blossoms. Such violets as have their side petals 

 bearded are most frequently visited by small greenish mason bees 

 (Osmia), with collecting brushes on their abdomen that receive 

 the pollen as it falls. Abundant cleistogamous flowers (see pp. 

 30 and 108) are borne on the runners late in the season. Bryant, 

 whose botanical lore did not always keep step with his Muse, 

 wrote of the yellow violet as the first spring flower, because he 



318 



