Part 20 (1/2)
Distribution - British Possessions from ocean to ocean; southward in the United States to Georgia, Tennessee, and Minnesota.
”Borage and h.e.l.lebore fill two scenes - Sovereign plants to purge the veins Of melancholy, and cheer the heart Of those black fumes which make it smart.”
Such are the antidotes for madness prescribed by Burton in his ”Anatomie of Melancholy.” But like most medicines, so the homeopaths have taught us, the plant that heals may also poison; and the coa.r.s.e, thick rootstock of this h.e.l.lebore sometimes does deadly work. The s.h.i.+ning plaited leaves, put forth so early in the spring they are especially tempting to grazing cattle on that account, are too well known by most animals, however, to be touched by them - precisely the end desired, of course, by the h.e.l.lebore, nightshade, aconite, cyclamen, Jamestown weed, and a host of others that resort, for protection, to the low trick of mixing poisonous chemicals with their cellular juices. Pliny told how the horses, oxen, and swine of his day were killed by eating the foliage of the black h.e.l.lebore. Flies, which visit the dirty, yellowish-green flowers in abundance, must cross-fertilize them, as the anthers mature before the stigmas are ready to receive pollen. Apparently the visitors suffer no ill effects from the nectar. We nave just seen how the green arrow-arum bores a hole in the mud and plants its own seeds in autumn. The h.e.l.lebore uses its auger in the spring, when we find the stout, s.h.i.+ning, solid tool above ground with the early skunk-cabbage.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM; TEN O'CLOCK (Ornithogalum umbellatum) Lily family
Flowers - Opening in the suns.h.i.+ne, white within, greenish on the outside, veined, borne on slender pedicels in an erect, loose cl.u.s.ter. Perianth of 6 narrowly oblong divisions, 1/2 in. long or over, or about twice as long as the flattened stamens; style short, 3-sided. Scape: Slender, 4 to 12 in. high, with narrow, blade-like bracts above. Leaves: Narrow, gra.s.s-like with white midvein, fleshy, all from coated, egg-shaped bulb.
Preferred Habitat - Moist, gra.s.sy meadows, old lawns. Flowering Season - May-June.
Distribution - Escaped from gardens from Ma.s.sachusetts to Virginia.
The finding of these exquisite little flowers, growing wild among the lush gra.s.s of a meadow not far from some old homestead where their ancestors, with crocuses and grape hyacinths, once brightened the lawn in early spring, makes one long to start a Parkinson Society instantly. Some school children not far from New York, receiving their inspiration from Mrs. Ewing's little book, ”Mary's Meadow,” have spread the gospel of beauty, like the true missionaries they are, by systematically planting in lanes and fields sweet violets, golden coreopsis, hardy poppies, blue corn-flowers, j.a.panese roses, orange day-lilies, larkspurs, and many other charming garden flowers that need only the slightest encouragement to run wild. Immense quant.i.ties of seed, that go to loss in every garden, might so easily be sprinkled at large on our walks. Nearly all the beautiful hardy perennials cultivated here grow in Nature's garden in Europe or Asia, and will do so in America if they are but given the chance. The Star of Bethlehem is a case in point. Several members of the large group of charming spring flowers to which it belongs grow in such abundance in the Old World that for centuries the bulbs have furnished food to the omnivorous Italian and Asiatic peasants. If we cannot spare offsets from the garden, and will wait a few years for seeds to bear, the rich, light loam of our gra.s.sy meadows, too, will be streaked with a Milky Way of floral stars, as they are in Italy.
The Greek generic name of the Star of Bethlehem, meaning ”bird's milk” (a popular folk expression in Europe for some marvellous thing) was applied by Linnaeus because of the flower's likeness to the wonderful star in the East which guided the Wise Men to the manger where Jesus lay.
STAR-GRa.s.s; COLIC-ROOT (Aletris farinosa) Lily family
Flowers - Small, oblong-tubular, pure white or yellowish, about 1/4 in. long, set obliquely in a long, wand-like, spiked raceme, at the end of a slender scape 2 to 3 ft. tall. Perianth somewhat bell-shaped, 6-pointed, rough or mealy outside; 6 stamens, inserted below each point; style 3-cleft at tip. (A Southern form or distinct species (?) has yellower, fragrant flowers.) Leaves: >From the base, lance-shaped, 2 to 6 in. long, thin, pale yellowish green, in a spreading cl.u.s.ter.
Preferred Habitat - Dry soil; roadsides; open, gra.s.sy, sandy woods.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - From Ontario and the Mississippi eastward to the Atlantic.
Herb gatherers have searched far and wide for this plant's bitter, fibrous root, because of its supposed medicinal virtues.
What decoctions have not men swallowed from babyhood to old age to get relief from griping colic! In partial shade, colonies of the tufted yellow-green leaves send up from the center gradually lengthening spikes of bloom that may finally attain over a foot in length. The plant is not unknown in borders of men's gardens.
The Greek word (aletron = meal) from which its generic t.i.tle is derived, refers to the rough, granular surface of the little oblong white flower.
WILD SPIKENARD; FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL; SOLOMON'S ZIG-ZAG (Vagnera racemosa; Smilacina racemosa of Gray) Lily-of-the-Valley family
Flowers - White or greenish, small, slightly fragrant, in a densely flowered terminal raceme. Perianth of 6 separate, spreading segments; 6 stamens; 1 pistil. Stem: Simple, somewhat angled, 1 to 3 ft. high, scaly below, leafy, and sometimes finely hairy above. Leaves: Alternate and seated along stem, oblong, lance-shaped, 3 to 6 in. long, finely hairy beneath. Rootstock: Thick, fleshy. Fruit: A cl.u.s.ter of aromatic, round, pale red speckled berries.
Preferred Habitat - Moist woods, thickets, hillsides.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Georgia; westward to Arizona and British Columbia.
As if to offer opportunities for comparison to the confused novice, the true Solomon's seal and the so-called false species - quite as honest a plant - usually grow near each other. Grace of line, rather than beauty of blossom, gives them both their chief charm. But the feathery plume of greenish-white blossoms that crowns the false Solomon's seal's somewhat zig-zagged stem is very different from the small, greenish, bell-shaped flowers, usually nodding in pairs along the stem, under the leaves, from the axils of the true Solomon's seal. Later in summer, when hungry birds wander through the woods with increased families, the wild spikenard offers them branching cl.u.s.ters of pale red speckled berries, whereas the latter plant feasts them with blue-black fruit, in the hope that they will drop the seeds miles away.
By cl.u.s.tering its small, slightly fragrant flowers at the end of its stem, the wild spikenard offers a more taking advertis.e.m.e.nt to its insect friends than its cousin can show. A few flies and beetles visit them; but apparently the less specialized bees, chiefly those of the Halictus tribe, which predominate in May, are the princ.i.p.al guests. These alight in the center of the widely expanded blossoms set on the upper side of the branching raceme so as to make their nectar and pollen easily accessible; and as the newly opened flower has its stigma already receptive to pollen brought to it while its own anthers are closed, it follows the plant is dependent upon the bees' help, as well as the birds', to perpetuate itself.
The STAR-FLOWERED SOLOMON'S SEAL (V. stellata), found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Newfoundland as far south as Kansas, has larger, but fewer, flowers than the wild spikenard, at the end of its erect, low-growing stem. Where the two species grow together - and they often do - it will be noticed that the star-flowered one frequently forms colonies on rich, moist banks, its leaves partly clasp the stem, and its berries, which may be entirely black, are more frequently green, with six black stripes.
The TWO-LEAVED SOLOMON'S SEAL, or FALSE LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY (Unifolium Canadense), very common in moist woods and thickets North and West, is a curious little plant, sometimes with only a solitary, long-petioled leaf; but where many of these sterile plants grow together, forming s.h.i.+ning beds. Other individuals lift a white-flowered raceme six inches above the ground; and on the slender, often zig-zagged flowering stem there may be one to three, but usually two, ovate leaves, pointed at the apex, heart-shaped at the base, either seated on it, one above the other, or standing out from it on distinct but short petioles.
This flower has only four segments and four stamens. Like the wild spikenard, the little plant bears cl.u.s.ters of pale red speckled berries in autumn.
HAIRY or TRUE or TWIN-FLOWERED SOLOMON'S SEAL (Polygonatum biftorum) Lily-of-the-Valley family
Flowers - Whitish or yellowish green, tubular, bell-shaped, 1 to 4, but usually 2, drooping on slender peduncles from leaf axils.
Perianth 6-lobed at entrance, but not spreading; 6 stamens, the filaments roughened; 1 pistil. Stem: Simple, slender, arching, leafy, 8 in. to 3 ft. long. Leaves: Oval, pointed, or lance-shaped, alternate, 2 to 4 in. long, seated on stem, pale beneath and softly hairy along veins. Rootstock: Thick, horizontal, jointed, scarred. (Polygonatum = many joints). Fruit: A blue-black berry.
Preferred Habitat - Woods, thickets, shady banks.