NATIVE PLANTS IN FIELD, FOREST AND GARDEN. 



289 



among the mountains of our southern states, and they 

 are among the most beautiful of our native deciduous 

 shrubs. S. Virginica (Fig. 8) is found in shady woods, 

 sparingly, from Carolina to Florida. It forms a shrub 



six to twelve feet 

 high, has oblong- 

 ovate serrulate 

 leaves, with 

 large, short pe- 

 ^ duncled flowers, 

 solitary in their 

 axils. Its pet- 

 als are white, 

 five in number, 

 crumpled on the 

 margin, and the 

 filaments and 

 anthers purplish 

 blue, the pod 

 globular. In 

 shape and text- 

 ure the stuartia 

 flower much re- 

 sembles the tea, 

 and both are 

 members of the 

 camellia family. 

 The genus stuar- 

 tia was named 

 Fig. 10. Zanthorrhiza apiifolia, by Mark Catesby 

 OR Yellow-root. honor of John 



Stuart, third 



Earl of Bute, a liberal patron of the sciences, especially 

 botany, although a most unpopular man. 



AttdromeJa Mariana is an attractive plant here. 

 Drooping ivy it is commonly called, and very beautiful 

 it is, with thickly shining evergreen leaves, lance-oblong 

 with a long taper point. Its thickly set racemes of 

 white flowers are crowded into panicles and somewhat 

 hidden by the leaves, which droop downward, bending 

 the whole slender pliant stem, which often branches or 

 trails upon the ground. These stems are often eight to 

 ten feet long, and curving outward from the 

 center all around, form a great, shining, shape- 

 ly clump of handsome leaves and flowers. It 

 blooms in April, but the buds are formed the 

 previous summer. 



Not properly a shrub, but belonging to the 

 same genus as the shrubby spireas, is queen 

 of the prairie [Spircea lobata), a perennial herb, 

 with pinnate leaves and panicled cymose flow- 

 ers. The leaves when bruised send out the 

 spicy odor of the sweet birch. Its handsome 

 four to five petaled flowers are a deep peach 

 blossom in color, and right well does this little 

 blossom deserve the royalty of its common name. Once 

 plentiful, it is now becoming quite rare, perhaps on ac- 

 count of the root digger. 



Halesia teiraptera, the beautiful silver bell or snow- 



drop tree, is well known, but its relative, the styrax, one 

 rarely sees or hears of. It is a handsome little shrub, 

 five to seven feet high, growing in sandy, pine barrens, 

 with the same pendulous bell-shaped white flowers as 

 halesia, and one species, 6". pulverulcnta , is delightfully 

 fragrant. — L. Greenlee, N. C. 



The Rediscovery of Shortia. — Although the history 

 of the rare shortia has often been told, I wish to repeat 

 some parts of it. 



During one of many interesting conversations Professor 

 Hyams told me of the rediscovery of Shortia galacifolia in 

 McDonnell county, N. C. , by one of his sons, out on a bo- 

 tanizing tour. The specimen plant was brought to him to 

 analyze, and he appealed to Dr. Gray to aid him in its 

 identification, who promptly recognized it as identical with 

 a mutilated specimen in the Michaux herbarium in Paris. 

 The flowers are small, purple, and disposed in long, 

 drooping, divided racemes, placed immediately below 

 the first leaves. The nectaries are obovate and bi-lobed, 

 the styles usually about six or eight in number. These 

 "ovate-lanceolate, acute doubly serrate leaflets" make 

 up beautiful terminal clusters of green, indescribably 

 lovely and graceful, almost fern-like in beauty. Im- 

 mediately beneath the top cluster of leaves are found 

 the flowers, which must be seen to be fully appreciated. 

 Imagine a thread-like petiole from four to eight inches 

 long, eight to ten in number, studded with chocolate- 

 brown stars with pure gold eyes, hanging like a fringe 

 from a common center. It is almost lace-like in delicacy 

 and beauty. I am acquainted with many wild-wood 

 beauties, but none compare in grace and delicacy with 

 this, unless it is the CJiionanthus Virginica , the white 

 fringe or old man's beard. 



The zanthorrhiza or yellow-root is a low shrub, a foot 

 or two hi^h, and it belorgs to the Ranunculaceaj or but- 



Thvrse of Catalpa. 



tercup family. Its roots yield a good yellow dye. It 

 grows in shady woods and by streams from southern 

 New York to the southern states. Fig. 10 shows a little 

 sprig of it, half size. — Mrs. J. S. R. Thomson, S. C. 



