HARPER'S GUIDE T< ) WILD FLOWERS 



Spotted Spurge 



E. ma.cula.ta.. — Since this plant has a reddish tinge in its leaves, 

 stems, and in the glands of the flowers, it will be described under 

 red flowers. (See p. 265.) 



Flowering Spurge 



E. corollkta. — A tall species, 2 to 3 feet high, with leaves gen- 

 erally whorled around the upper part of the stem. The upper 

 leaves are margined with white, giving the plant a showy ap- 

 pearance. Flowers grouped in umbels, surrounded by white in- 

 volucres. Umbels are many times forked, each fork again forked. 

 No stipules. July to August. 



Erect but delicate and slender-looking. Sandy, dry soil 

 along the coast southward to Florida, westward to Texas. 

 Ascends to 4,000 feet in North Carolina. 



Common Mallow. Cheeses 



Maboa. rotundifolia. — Family, Mallow. Color, white, with pink 

 or lavender veins, sometimes with a bluish tinge. Calyx of 5 

 sepals, under which are 3 narrow bracts. Petals, 5, twice the 

 length of the calyx, notched. Stamens united by their filaments 

 into a tube. Styles, several, with their stigmatic surfaces on 

 the inner sides. In fruit they make a "cheese," about 15 

 carpels being united into a ring, each carpel 1 -seeded. Leaves, 

 on long petioles, round, heart-shaped at base, with broadly 

 toothed margins. May to November. 



This homely weed, found in all our dooryards, will repay 

 an examination under the magnifying-glass. Stem, 4 to 12 

 inches long. The althaea and hollyhock are members of 

 this Family. 



Curled Mallow 



M. crtspa. — In this species the leaves are roundish, wrinkled, 

 and crisped. Flowers, whitish, small, sessile, crowded in the leaf- 

 axils. Leaves on quite long petioles. 



An erect, smooth annual, flowering all summer in waste 

 places; ranked as a weed. 



Musk Mallow 



M. moschkta. — Color, white or a pale pink (see p. 265). For 

 this genus the flowers are large, on short peduncles, crowded on 

 the branches or clustered at the ends of the stems. Petals, much 

 longer than the calyx lobes, inversely heart-shaped, notched on 

 the tip. Leaves, much divided into about 5 segments, these again 



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