48 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



Leaves, clustered at the root, round or oblong, on long stems, 

 glandular, hairy. Time, July, August. 



Petals, sepals, and stamens, 5, or sometimes 6. Styles, 3 to 

 5, so deeply divided as to seem like twice the number. 



Flowers are borne on prolonged leafless stems, on one side. 

 They open only in sunshine, and must be pressed for the herba- 

 rium as soon as gathered. The curious leaves resemble in shape 

 a long-handled frying-pan. They are covered with reddish hairs 

 tipped with purple glands. 4 to 10 inches high. 



Our pretty, bejewelled bog-herb is carnivorous. It craves ani- 

 mal food, and employs wily means for obtaining it. An insect 

 alighting upon the open leaves instantly arouses the glands to 

 activity, as food in the stomach excites the gastric juices. Red 

 tentacles close upon and hold fast the prisoner, pouring the con- 

 tents of the glands upon it, and the process of digestion and ab- 

 sorption begins at once. Only very small insects can thus be en- 

 trapped, because of the smallness of the leaves. 

 ■ A cranberry marsh near my summer cottage on Long Island is 

 almost carpeted with this sundew, so as to give it a reddish hue, 

 The young leaves are rolled up, like ferns, from apex to base. 



27. Spatulate -leaved Sunderd 



D. intermedia (variety, Americana) has white flowers also, 

 and oblong rather than round leaves, with leaf-stalks from 

 which the glandular hairs are wanting. It is rarer than the 

 last, and also grows in bogs, or even in water. 3 to 8 inches 

 high. 



28. Deer-grass. Meadow-beauty 



Rh^xia Virginica. — Family, Melastoma. Color, deep rose- 

 pink. Leaves, opposite, stemless, lance-shaped, pointed, bristly 

 around the edges. Time, August. 



Calyx tube, long and narrow, 4-divided, purplish and hairy 

 outside at the top. Petals, 4, joined to the rim of the calyx 

 tube. Stamens, 8, large, prominent. The anthers open by a 

 hole in the top. They bear a tiny spur where they are joined 

 to the filaments. 



