452 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME COMMON PLANTS. 



blossom has a curved tube with a slightly irregular 

 border, and might remind one of some members of the 

 mint family so far as form is concerned. 



In beech woods in season with the later Indian-pipes, 

 and sometimes occupying the same ground with them, is 

 found another curious form of plant-growth, popularly 

 known in some parts of the country as "beech-drops." 

 Reference is often made to the uncertainty of popular 

 names as a means of identification of plants; here we 

 have an example of it. The plant in question differs 

 from the "Carolina beech-drops," from the "Albany 

 beech-drops," from the "false beech-drops," and from 

 the "beech-drops" of the writer's childish desire, which 

 last were merely the young beeches in the seed-leaf stage. 

 The beech-drops, Efiphcgus ]~irgitiiana, derive their 

 name from th'> fact thnt they are parasitic on the roots of 



A Field Under Glass, (see page 453-) 



the beech, although they have the appearance of growing 

 independently from the ground. The peculiar flowers' 

 of two kinds, one of which opens but is fertilized in the 

 bud, are borne all along the stem, which is often a foo*^ 

 high and much branched. The whole plant is of a dull, 

 reddish brown color, smooth and shining. It is usually 

 more or less stiff and has little grace. As the plants dry 

 and remain where they bloom, they are often a source of 

 wonder to uninitiated wood-rangers. The rigid bunch 

 of brittle rootlets is also an odd formation. The epiphe- 

 gus is related to the aphyllous, before noticed, belonging 

 with them in the broom-rape family, and to the order 

 orobanchaceae. 



A plant, not a parasite, yet one which children are apt 

 to notice, and which appeals to them because they so 

 readily grasp the application of its popular name, lizard- 

 tail, is common in marshes and wet places along the edges 

 of ponds and sluggish streams from New York north- 



ward and westward. The stem is angular and furrowed ; 

 the veins on the under side of the heart-shaped leaves 

 become ribs, and the "tail" consists of a densely 

 flowered spike, weak and bent, or drooping near the top. 

 The white flowers having neither calyx nor corolla, are 

 made up of the ovaries, fringed with the stigmas and 

 stamens, and surround the stalk closely. Satu-urus 

 ccrnuus, as it is formally known, occupies, as given in 

 our botanies, an order by itself. 



Few plants please the popular taste for something a 

 little out of the common order better than those which 

 show a sensitive disposition, and the mimosa, or sensi- 

 tive-plant of the catalogues, is somewhat frequent in col- 

 lections. This is a native of tropical climates, but the 

 pea family furnishes several other species of sensitive 

 growths, wild in the United States, which are of delicate 

 appearance, having leaflets in pairs. 

 One of these, Cassia 7iiclitans, 

 known as the wild sensitive-plant 

 (in distinction from another of the 

 same genus known as the sensitive- 

 pea), is common in dry sandy places 

 throughout the coast states from 

 Massachusetts to Louisiana, espec- 

 ially south. The small, pale yellow 

 flowers are almost sessile, and set 

 in bunches of two or three. The 

 leaflets are thickly set along the 

 common petiole. They close at 

 night and when touched, although 

 not irritably sensitive. The sensi- 

 tive-pea is found in similar situa- 

 tions, in Massachusetts and the mid- 

 dle, western and southern states. 

 It is called a really handsome 

 plant, with bright yellow flowers 

 sometimes reaching a breadth of 

 one and one-half inches, and why 

 should it not aspire to a place 

 among ' ' elegant " wild plants? The 

 two upper petals show a purple 

 spot ; the season of bloom is August. 



The convolvulus family, best known, doubtless, through 

 its common representatives, the morning-glory and the 

 sweet-potato, includes a curious, wide-spread genus which 

 is leafless, parasitic and twining, yet which germinates 

 in the ground. Although in many parts the plants of 

 this genus are well known, its odd characteristics may be 

 seldom noted. The genus is cuscuta, called familiarly 

 dodder, of which something like a dozen species engage 

 the attention of our botanists, although there are perhaps 

 50 in all. Should we closely observe, in its season, a 

 single .species, the one most common both east and west, 

 and the only one in the northwest, we should find that 

 while the soil nourishes it at first, it soon seeks and 

 embraces some coarse herb near at hand, and severs its 

 connection with the ground by withering at the root_ 

 Its bright orange stems bind with choking tenacity, and 

 have been compared to fine, wet catgut. The white 



