1868 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 1 . 
295 
The Compass-Plant or Rosin-Weed. 
In looking over a recent French work upon 
floriculture, we were surprised tasee one of our 
prairie plants introduced as desirable for orna¬ 
mental purposes. The plant is known in the 
West as the Compass-plant, or Rosin-weed, and 
to botanists as Silphium laciniatum. The first, 
or generic name, is an ancient Greek one of some 
plant, which was applied to ours by Linnaeus; 
while the specific name— laciniatum —describes 
the cut character of the leaves. It is a strong¬ 
growing perennial, from three to six feet high, 
bearing at its summit several rather coarse yel¬ 
low flowers about 2 inches in diameter. The 
root leaves, as well as those on the lower por¬ 
tion of the stem, stand erect, and have the gen¬ 
eral form of the one shown in the engraving. 
The root leaves are from one foot to two and a 
half feet in length, and, with the whole plant, of 
a dull yellowish green. The only claim that 
this plant can have to a place in the garden 
must be found in its rather striking, though 
coarse and inelegant leaves. In the present 
rage for plants with ornamental or grotesque 
foliage—“ phyllomania,” as it has been called—• 
we do not wonder that this Silphium lias been 
taken up. Burdock, if it were rare, would exceed 
in real beauty some of these highly prized and 
highly priced “foliage plants.” The common 
name, Rosin-weed, is given it on account of its 
resinous juice, which often exudes and hardens 
upon the stems and leaves in the form of small 
yellowish tears. The term Compass-plant is 
from the alleged fact that the edges of the leaves 
point north and south. This has given it other 
names of similar import, such as Polar-plant, 
Pilot-plant,, etc. The statements with regard to 
the polarity of the leaves have given rise to dis¬ 
cussions, both here and abroad. 
As we have seen the plant in 
gardens, its leaves “knew no 
south,no north, no east, no west,’’ 
but quite “boxed the compass;” 
still, evidence goes to show that 
upon the open prairies the direc¬ 
tion of the leaves is so generally 
towards north and south as to 
warrant the popular name. The 
plant is found in Michigan and 
Wisconsin, and southward and 
westward. There are five other 
species found east of the Mis¬ 
sissippi, some of which have 
been cultivated in the garden. 
The American Wistaria.— 
The beautiful Chinese Wistaria, 
now so deservedly popular, was 
figured in March, 1865. It has 
nearly crowded out of sight our 
native species— Wistaria frutes- 
cens. While we give the foreigner 
credit for being larger flowered 
and more showy, we like our 
native one for several reasons; 
it is hardier, it is later, and it is 
American. We had frequently 
seen it in gardens, where, being 
only a native plant, it was usu¬ 
ally allowed to take care of it¬ 
self. Last year we set out a 
small plant of it, and carefully 
trained it, and it rewarded the 
trouble by climbing to the liight 
of two stories with abundant side 
branches; and now, near the 
end of June, it is filled with 
a profusion of its pale lilac clusters, while 
our neighbors’ foreign vines went out of flower 
a month ago. Witli our strong partiality for 
native plants, if we could have but one Wistaria 
it should be the American. We do not say that 
it is as handsome as the other, but there is 
a delicacy, a tenderness, about the color, winch 
pleases us more than showiness. There is a 
white variety, which is as yet rather rare; it 
differs from the other only in producing flowers 
that are pure white. It is a truly beautiful climber. 
This Wistaria is a native of Illinois, Virginia, 
and southward. We believe all the nurseries 
keep it. By the way, this makes a fine pillar 
plant, when grown around a post six or eight 
feet high. Keep the new growth pinched back 
to two or three leaves, which will induce the 
formation of “ spurs.” At flowering time a 
specimen that has been treated in this way 
will be a mass of bloom from top to bottom. 
The Caper Family of Plants. 
The capers of commerce and cookery are the 
pickled flower buds of a South-European shrub, 
Capparis spinosa. A number of other plants 
much resemble this in structure, and botanists 
have brought them together into a family, which, 
Capparis being the type, they call Cappari- 
dacecc , Caper-like plants, or the Caper Family. 
There are just here more hard words than the 
Agriculturist often gets so near together, but 
we like now and then to show that botanists 
have a reason for using such words. This fami¬ 
ly is related to the Mustard Family ( Crucifem ), 
but differs in points not necessary to discuss. 
In some of its members the pistil (and some¬ 
times the stamens) is lifted upon a stalk for some 
distance above the bottom of the flower. Like 
CLEOME SPINOSA. 
plants of the Mustard Family, those belonging 
to this are pungent and often very acrid; some 
arc even poisonous, and all have a very disa¬ 
greeable smell. Our only representative east 
of the Mississippi is Polanisia graveolens , which 
is not common enough to have a popular name. 
Some members of the Family, belonging to the 
genus Cleome, are cultivated for ornament. 
They are very pretty to look at, but disagreea¬ 
ble to handle, on account of their odor; still, 
they are free bloomers, and there is an airy 
effect produced by their curious flowers, that 
renders them desirable in the garden. Some are 
perennials, but with us they are usually grown 
as annuals. Cleome spinosa , the one we figure, 
grows about four feet high, and lias a spiny 
stem. Its spike of flowers is white, or some¬ 
times purplish. C. grandijlora grows to the same 
bight as the preceding, and has a larger spike 
of pale purple. It is the most show 3 r . West of 
the Rocky Mountains there are several repre¬ 
sentatives of the Caper Family, and on the Pa¬ 
cific Coast a good-sized shrub, Isomeris arborea, 
which is notably showy and curious, but 
which probably would not stand our climate. 
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Old-Fashioned Shrubs and Flowers. 
[The Agriculturist , while it endeavors to keep 
its readers advised as to the valuable novelties 
among plants, also tries to keep the good old 
plants from falling into neglect. Mrs. “F. H. 
R.” writes us on this subject, and though her 
communication is not of the practical character 
usually given in these columns, she puts in a 
plea for “old-fashioned” flowers so pleasantly, 
and with such womanly earnestness, that we 
are sure it will gratify our flower-loving readers.] 
“We call these shrubs and flowers old-fash- 
SILPHIUM LACINIATUM. 
