222 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



with a dark spot in the middle. They have narrow fringed 

 stipules. The involucre has glands which give the flower a 

 reddish tint. The flowers grow in heavy clusters, on rather 

 long stems, along the sides of the branches. 



97. Three-seeded Mercury 



Acalypha Virginica. — Family, Spurge. Color, greenish. 

 Leaves, alternate, petioled, ovate or oblong, with stipules. 

 Time, July to September. 



In this plant the stamens and pistils are in different flowers, 

 each with a calyx, 3- to 5-parted. The minute, staminate 

 flowers are clustered in front of a small bract. The pistillate, 

 either singly or 2 or 3 together, grow in the axils of " fruiting 

 bracts." These bracts are expanded, like a large cut-lobed 

 leaf. The plant is somewhat hairy, 18 or 20 inches high, 

 turning reddish or purplish late in the season. It is a home- 

 ly, nettle-like weed. Capsule 3-seeded. 



New England to Minnesota and southward to Florida. 



98. Colic -root. Star- grass 



Aletris farinosa. — Fatnily, Lily. Color, white or yellowish. 

 Leaves, thin, pale, greenish yellow, lance-shaped, clustered at 

 the root. Time, July, August. 



A plant with many small, bell-shaped flowers terminating a 

 tall, leafless scape, 2 or 3 feet high, in a narrow raceme often 

 nearly a foot long. One or 2 bracts, longer than the pedicels, 

 subtend each flower. Stamens, 6, on short filaments. Style, 1, 

 but 3-divided at the top. 



A special mealy look about the flowers has given this plant its 

 name, aletris, meaning a slave grinding corn. Along roadsides, 

 on the edges of dry woods, in sandy soil, often thickly, this plant 

 grows from New England to Florida and in the mountains of 

 Virginia. 



