HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



aril, containing several seeds in an orange-colored, 3-parted 

 saucer. Underneath is a 5-parted, persistent calyx. 



A twining shrub, growing often 15 or 20 feet in length, and 

 covering rocks, bushes, and trees. It buries its roots by the 

 waters of some roadside spring, and its yellow leaves, with its 

 rich, golden fruit, make one of the most beautiful touches of 

 autumn. 



Buckthorn 



Rhamnus alnifolia. — Family, Buckthorn. Color, greenish. 

 Calyx-tube, urn-like, crowned with 5 lobes, 5 short stamens stand- 

 ing between the lobes. No petals. Flowers, small, single or 2 or 3 

 together in the leaf-axils, staminate and pistillate, usually in dif- 

 ferent plants. Fruit, a 3 -seeded, black, fleshy, pear-shaped drupe. 

 Leaves, oval, prominently veined, acute at both ends, with short 

 petioles, finely toothed, 2 to 4 inches long. June. 



A low and spreading shrub, found in swamps from New 

 Jersey to Illinois, Nebraska, Montana, and California, north- 

 ward. 



R. carolinikna. — Flowers, perfect, in fives, single in the axils, or 

 clustered, larger than the last, on peduncles. Leaves, appearing 

 before the flowers, oblong, pinnately veined, pointed at base, 

 somewhat rounded at apex, petioled, broadly toothed. May and 

 June. 



A shrub or small tree, without thorns, in swamps or along 

 river-banks, sometimes on dry hillsides, New Jersey to Vir- 

 ginia and Kentucky, south to Florida. 



Common Buckthorn 



R* cathartica. — Parts of the flower in fours. Leaves, smooth, 

 ovate, petioled, finely serrate. Small branches, rigid, like spines. 

 May and June. 



A thorny bush often cultivated for hedges. Grows from 6 

 to 20 feet high. 



Virginia Creeper. Woodbine 



Psedera quinquefolia. — Family, Vine. Color, green. Calyx, 

 with 5 short teeth. Petals, 4 or 5, thick, widely open. Flowers, 

 clustered in rather large panicles. Leaves, compound, with, 

 generally, 5 leaflets attached to the apex of the stalk. Leaflets, 

 oval, elliptical, stalked, 2 to 6 inches long, acute at apex, rather 

 coarsely toothed above the middle. 



A well-known vine, with woody stems, climbing by means 

 of rootlets and suckers on the ends of branching tendrils. 



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