HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



as many or twice as many as petals. Leaves, linear, opposite, 

 sessile, one-ribbed. Summer. 



A curious, pale green plant, 2 to 4 feet high, growing on 

 the borders of salt marshes in New Jersey, south to Florida. 



Willow Herb 



Epilbbium densum. — Family, Evening Primrose. Color, usual- 

 ly pink, but occasionally white. (See Pink Flowers, p. 273.) 



Enchanter's Nightshade 



Circaea Ittteiiana. — Family, Evening Primrose. Color, white or 

 cream. Low perennials, 1 to 2 feet high, with small flowers in 

 terminal and side racemes, each flower composed of 2 petals, a 

 2 -parted, hairy calyx, 2 stamens, and a 2 -celled ovary. Fruit 

 covered with bristly, hooked hairs. Leaves, opposite, sharply 

 pointed at apex, rounded at base, long-petioled, distantly toothed, 

 3 or 4 inches long, growing smaller toward the top, where they 

 become mere bracts under each flower. Stem, swollen at the 

 joints. June to August. 



In all our woods, especially those which are open and dry. 



Wild Sarsaparilla 



Ar alia, nudicaulis. — Family, Ginseng. The root of this plant, 

 although not the officinal root which the soda-fountain clerk uses 

 (officinal meaning that which has commercial value) , is sometimes 

 used to flavor summer drinks. A single, long-stalked leaf rises to 

 the height of a foot, divided into oblong, pointed leaflets, 5 leaflets 

 on each of 3 divisions. To the unbotanical eye there are 3 com- 

 pound leaves, each 5 -divided, springing from the stem. Lower 

 down the flowers grow on separate scapes in umbels, 2 to 7 

 umbels springing from the same center. May and June. 



In the autumn these large, handsome leaves, with their 

 dark purple attendant bunches of fruit, are very conspicuous. 

 The roots are several feet long, and spread horizontally. 

 (See illustration, p. 95.) 



Spikenard 



A, racemosa has very long, large leaves (I have found them 2 

 or 3 feet across), decompound, with ovate, heart-shaped, pointed 

 leaflets, somewhat downy and toothed. Flowers in drooping 

 umbels or racemes, stamens and pistils in different blossoms. 

 Roots large, spicy, fragrant. July and August. 



Ginseng 



Panax quinquefbliutn. — Family, Ginseng. Color of flowers 

 white, of fruit red. Flowers, staminate and pistillate on different 



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