i86 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



low flowers are insignificant, and the petals soon drop. Most of 

 our species of cinquefoils have s leaflets. 



20 



A stout, high species is P. argiiia, with brown and quite 

 hairy stems, fiowers yellow, or sometimes white, as large as a 

 small strawberry blossom. Height, 4 feet or less. Leaflets, 



7 to II. 



21. Silvery Cinquefoil 



P. argentea, has a palmate leaf of 5 leaflets, very white and 

 velvety underneath, shiny, dark-green above. The stems are 

 woolly white. Handsome, with large, yellow flowers. 



22. Common Cinquefoil 



P. Canadensis runs upon the ground or grows erect. The 

 stems are brown, smooth, and wiry. The flowers are on long 

 peduncles, single, from the leaf-axils. Runners are produced 

 as from strawberry vines. The leaflets number apparently 5, 

 by the deep division of the two side leaflets. All these are 

 common species, found in dry fields and meadows, along road- 

 sides and footpaths. 



23, Common Evening Primrose 



Oenothera biennis. — Family, Evening Primrose. Color, yel- 

 low, leaves, alternate, long, narrow or oblong, pointed, the 

 lowest with petioles. Time, June to September. 



Calyx tube, 4-lobed, narrow, much prolonged beyond the 

 ovary. Petals, 4. Stamens, 8. Fruit, a 4-valved capsule. 



The evening primroses may be known by a long calyx-tube, at 

 the end of which is the flower. The flowers are short-lived, and 

 are followed by rough pods on the lower part of the spike. 

 Hence, though a showy flower, generously brightening dry and 

 dusty places, the aspect of the whole plant is coarse and un- 



