HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Gaura 

 Gaura biennis, — Family, Evening Primrose. Color, white at 

 first, turning pink. Calyx-tube, much prolonged beyond the ovary, 

 4-lobed. Corolla of 4 petals, clawed. Stamens, 8, drooping, their 

 long filaments with a scale at the base of each. Stigma, 4-lobed, 

 surrounded by a curious, raised border, capping a long style 

 which droops also with the stamens. Flowers, small, in slender 

 spikes on the ends of the upper branches. Leaves, alternate, 

 sessile, oblong to lance-shaped, slightly toothed, 2 to 4 inches 

 long. Fruit, rather large, softly hairy, 4-ribbed, acute at each 

 end. July to September. 



Dry soil, New England to Minnesota, southward to Geor- 

 gia and Arkansas. 



Prince's Pine. Pipsissewa 



Chimaphita umbettata (name from two Greek words signifying 

 "to love winter." One of its popular names is wintergreen) . — 

 Family, Heath. Color, light pink with a purple tinge from the 

 anthers. Sepals, 5. Petals, 5, round, concave, open. Stamens, 

 10, with hairy filaments, and purple, 2 -horned anthers which open 

 by means of chinks. Pistil, 1, with a broad, sticky stigma 5- 

 divided along the border. Leaves, shining, smooth, evergreen, 

 acute at apex, lance-shaped, sharply toothed, whorled or scat- 

 tered on the stem, from 1 to 2i inches long. The branches are 

 stout, rising from a stem lying on or under the ground, reach- 

 ing sometimes a foot in height. 2 to 8 flowers in umbels, each on 

 slender pedicels. June to August. 



A beautiful plant embodying the very essence of the 

 woods. Later in the season, when the blossoms are gone, 

 by pulling up one of the long, just underground stems cov- 

 ered with the leaf branches, we have a pretty bit of festoon- 

 ing for the house. Let only one out of many be taken. 



Spotted Wintergreen 



C. maculkta. — Color, pink or almost white. This woodsy plant 

 resembles the last except that its leaves are spotted or striped 

 with white. Leaves, widely toothed, the lowest being smaller 

 than the others. Flowers, 1 to 3 on long peduncles, their pedicels 

 becoming much elongated in fruit. Petals, waxy, with a slight 

 fragrance. 3 to 10 inches high. June and July. 



Late in the summer it should become a pleasant pastime 

 with us to seek out and study the fruit of our flowers, es- 

 pecially after the pods have grown to full size. Dry, open 



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