HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Pennywort 



Obolkria <virginica. — Family, Gentian. Color, white or pur- 

 plish. Calyx of 2 spreading sepals. Corolla, bell-shaped, 4- 

 cleft. Stamens, 4 inserted between the divisions of the corolla. 

 Style, short with a 2 -divided stigma. Fruit, a capsule whose inner 

 surface is covered with seeds. Leaves, reduced to scales on the 

 stem below, but leaf-like under the raceme of flowers, opposite, 

 wedge-shaped. Stem, somewhat fleshy, simple, or branched, gen- 

 erally of a purplish color, 3 to 6 inches high. April and May. 



A rather curious plant, with thick, roundish leaves, sessile 

 flowers terminating the stem, or about 3 in the axils, found 

 in cool, moist woods from New Jersey southward to Georgia, 

 in mountains of Virginia 2,600 feet high. 



Floating Heart 



Nymphoides Ucunosam. — Family, Gentian. Color, white. Calyx, 

 of 5 long, narrow divisions. Corolla, with a short tube and 

 spreading, 5 -parted border, 5 small glands appearing at the 

 fringed bases of the lobes. Pedicels long and slender. Leaves, 

 roundish, heart-shaped at base, thick, on thread-like, very long 

 petioles. June to August. 



A perennial aquatic, with roots in the mud of shallow 

 waters everywhere in the Eastern States. From the roots 

 in spring arise very long stems bearing a heart-shaped leaf, 

 from the notch of wmich an umbel of flowers on short pedicels 

 comes up, accompanied by a cluster of elongated tubers or 

 thickish roots. The heart-shaped leaves float on the water. 



Whorled-leaved Milkweed 



Asctepias <vertici1lata. — ■ Family, Milkweed. Color, greenish 

 white. Flower, already described (p. 10). Leaves, simple, 

 thread-like, whorled, 3 to 6 together, turned-back margins, 2 or 

 3 inches long. 



This is the most ethereal and exquisite of the milkw T eeds. 

 I first saw it on the top of Federal Hill, Pomp ton, New Jersey. 

 It is more common southward. A small umbel of delicate 

 flowers terminates a stem, generally, unbranched. The 

 needle-like leaves give it a delicate appearance. Open, 

 rocky woods, and westward in the prairies. 



Waterleaf 



Hydrophyllum canadense. — Family, Waterleaf. Color, nearly 

 white. Calyx, 5-cleft, minute teeth between the lobes. Corolla^ 



118 



