VINES AND SHRUBS 



Groundsel Tree 



Baccharis halimifblia. — Family, Composite. Color, whitish, 

 sometimes with a yellow or purple tint. Leaves, wedge - shape, 

 tapering at the base to short petioles, acute at apex, coarsely- 

 toothed; those on the main stem and large branches deeply- 

 toothed, those above and on the small branches entire. Flowers, 

 all tubular, collected in loose heads, pistillate and staminate on 

 different plants, the heads i to 5 in a panicle, on peduncles, ter- 

 minating the branches. Corolla, in the fertile blossom long, 

 narrow, thread-like; in the staminate, broader, 5-lobed. 



After the plant has gone to seed, the pappus of the fertile 

 flowers becomes long, full, and plumose, giving the shrub a 

 conspicuous, hoary look in late autumn. It is a light-colored 

 bush, 6 to 15 feet high, the only true shrub among the Com- 

 posites, found growing plentifully in marine marshes and 

 along sea-beaches from Massachusetts to Florida and Texas. 



VINES AND SHRUBS WITH YELLOW OR YELLOWISH BLOSSOMS 



Wild Yam-root 

 Dioscorea cvittosa. — Family, Yam. Color, pale greenish yellow. 

 Flowers, of two kinds, the staminate with 3 or 6 stamens and 6- 

 parted perianth; pistillate, with a 3 -celled ovary which becomes, 

 in fruit, a 3-valved, 3 -winged capsule. Fertile flowers hang in 

 drooping racemes; staminate, in long, drooping panicles, 3 to 6 

 inches long; all from the axils. Leaves, petioled, opposite or in 

 whorls of fours, broad, heart-shape at base, very acute at apex, 

 9 to n-nerved, thin, 2 to 6 inches long. June and July. 



Among the twining vines which make dense thickets this is 

 our only member of the Yam Family. Most of the species are 

 tropical, of which four form a staple article of food for the 

 half-civilized peoples of Africa and Malaysia. The fleshy 

 rootstocks are eaten baked, boiled, or fried. These plants are 

 cultivated in Japan, Siam, and the East Indies. D. villosa, 

 our species, has a large, tuberous root. It is found in damp 

 thickets from Rhode Island to Florida, and westward to 

 Texas. 4,000 feet high in Virginia. Fruit remains on the 

 vines all winter. 



American Mistletoe 



Phoradendron flavescens. — Family, Mistletoe. Color of stems, 

 yellowish; of berries, white. Leaves, opposite, leathery, thick, 

 1 -ribbed, entire, oval or oblong, blunt, with short petioles, 1 to 

 2 inches long. Staminate flowers, composed of a 3-lobed calyx, 



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