HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Prince's Feather 



P. orientate, — Color, bright rose. Leaves, with petioles, ovate, 

 pointed or oblong, sheathing the stem. 



Better known in gardens, from which it has escaped and 

 become wild in some places. It is tall, covered with soft, 

 hairy down. Heavy, dense spikes of flowers are borne, 

 drooping and showy. Sheaths, hairy, often turned back 

 along the upper edge, i to 8 feet high. Originally from 

 India. 



Lady's Thumb 



P. Persicaria. — Color, pinkish. This species, which is a com- 

 mon weed in almost everybody's garden, may be known by the 

 acute, lance-shaped leaves, which have a reddish-brown triangular 

 or roundish spot near the middle. Flowers, in erect, dense, pe- 

 duncled spikes. All summer. 



Waste places, especially if damp. 



Mild Water Pepper 



P. hydropiperotdes Color, pale pink or nearly white. Slender, 



erect spikes of small flowers, flesh color, terminate the branches. 

 Leaves, narrow, lance-shaped, with soft hairs along the midrib 

 underneath. Sheaths, narrow, bristly-fringed, marked with short 

 lines, i to 3 feet high. If tasted the juice is acid and pungent. 

 June to September. 



In wet places, swamps, and even growing quite in water, 

 over all the country. 



P. arifdlium, described on page 58, may be taken for a pink 

 flower since its calyx is green, edged with pink. 



Buckwheat 



Fagopyrum esculentum. — Family, Buckwheat. Color, greenish, 

 white or rose. This is the cultivated buckwheat famous in New 

 England buckwheat cakes, whose seeds often take root in 

 neighboring fields and copses, the plant reappearing as a weed. 

 Flowers in corymbose racemes. Between the stamens there are 

 8 yellow, honey-bearing glands, making this a favorite flower of 

 the bee tribe. The grain is 3-angled, resembling a beech-nut. 

 Hence the generic name, from fagus, a beech. 



Coast Jointweed 



Polygonetta articulata. — Family, Buckwheat. Color, light rose, 

 almost white. (See White Flowers, p. 58.) 



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