IS8 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWA'MP 



blue borrowed from a June day. So Bryant says, in his well- 

 known poem : 



" Thou waitest late, and com'st alone 

 When woods are bare and birds are flown. 

 And frosts and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end. 



" Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through its fringes to the sky, 

 Blue — blue — as if that sky let fall 

 A flower from its cerulean wall." 



In places this flower grows abundantly, but it is by no means 

 common. 



40 



Not far from it may be found the Closed Gentian or Bottle 

 Gentian {G. Andr£wsii'). The corolla of this species lies in 

 folds and remains closed. 



Dr. Gray says, " Its proper lobes are obliterated, the apparent 

 lobes consisting of the broad, fringe-toothed, and notched ap- 

 pendages." The leaves are stiff and joined to the stem, as in the 

 fringed gentian. The color is a beautiful blue, and with age the 

 flowers turn a reddish purple. 



41. Centaury 



Erythraea ramos'issima.— Family, Gentian. Color, crimson. 

 Leaves, small, ovate, or oblong. Time, summer. 



Calyx, 4- to 5-parted. Corolla, tubular, with a 4- to s-parted, 

 spreading border. Stamens, same number as petals, their 

 anthers twisted spirally. 



Less than 6 inches high, these plants are yet worthy of a trip 

 into the wet meadows to find. The flowers have a cymose ar- 

 rangement, and are bright in color. New Jersey and southward. 



42. Snake-head, Turtle-head 

 Che/bne glabra. — Family, Figwort. Color, white, often with 



