BLUE AND PURPLE GROUP 



U. resupinata. — Color, purple. This is a species with showy 

 flowers, single, borne upon the summit of a scape from 2 to 7 

 inches long. The plant roots in the mud and sends up a scape 

 springing from shoots 1 or 2 inches above the soil. Leaves and 

 bladders small. August. 



In borders of ponds and sandy bogs, Maine to Florida. 

 Rare. 



Beech-drops. Cancer-root 



Epifagus virginiana Family, Broom - rape. Color of both 



flowers and stem, a purplish or brownish tint hard to describe. 

 Xo green in the plant shows it to be a parasite. This one is para- 

 sitic on beech tree roots. No leaves, but brownish scales scat- 

 tered on the stem. Flowers, in a spike terminating the branches, 

 the upper ones sterile, with a 4-toothed, tubular corolla; the lower 

 cleistogamous, fertile, the corolla not expanding, but remaining 

 like a hood on the tip of the ovary. Calyx, 5-toothed. August 

 to October. 



New England to Florida, westward to Michigan and Louisi- 

 ana. I have found this singular plant in chestnut woods, 

 where apparently no beeches grew. 



One-flowered Cancer-root 



Orobanche uniflora. — Family, Broom - rape. Color, purplish. 

 Calyx, tubular, sharply 5-toothed. Corolla, a curved tube pass- 

 ing into a 5-lobed limb or border. Stem, short, 1 inch long, un- 

 derground, with a few scales instead of leaves. Flower- scapes, 3 

 to 8 inches high, 1 to 4 arising from the root, leafless, with a single 

 flower at the tip. No leaves. April to July. 



Whole plant a brownish purple, parasitic on the roots of 

 various herbs, in damp woods and thickets. Common. 

 Looking into the flower one sees 2 folds bearded with 

 yellow, not without some pretensions to prettiness. 



Hairy Bedstraw 



Galium pilbsum* — Family, Madder. Color, purplish. Calyx, 

 tubular. Corolla, with a short tube and spreading border of 4 

 divisions. Stamens, 4. Flowers, in cymes, the peduncles twice 

 or thrice-forked. Leaves, in whorls of fours, ovate, acute, dotted, 

 with stem quite hairy. Fruit, bur-like. June to August. 



Dry, sandy soil, Massachusetts to Florida and westward to 

 Texas. 



Bluets. Innocence 



Haustbnia caerixlea Family, Madder. Color, bluish white. 



(See White Flowers, p. 129.) 



23 35i 



