WILD FLOWERS [157]
with it a number of common names, every one may associate whatever bird and berry that best suit him. The delicious little twin-flower, beloved of Linnaeus, also comes in for a share of lost identity through confusion with the partridge vine.
CLEAVERS; GOOSE-GRASS; BEDSTRAW (Galium Aparine) Madder family
Flowers - Small, white, 4-parted, inconspicuous, in clusters of 1 to 3 on peduncles from the axils of upper leaves. Stem: 2 to 5 ft. long, scrambling, weak, square; bristly on the angles. Leaves: in whorls of 6 or 8, narrow, midrib and edges very rough. Fruit: Rounded, twin seed-vessels, beset with many hooked bristles. Preferred Habitat - Shady ground. Flowering Season - May-September. Distribution - Eastern half of United States and Canada.
Among some seventy other English folk names by which cleavers are known are the following, taken from Britton and Brown's "Illustrated Flora": "CATCHWEED, BEGGAR-LICE, BURHEAD, CLOVER-GRASS, CLING-RASCAL, SCRATCH-GRASS, WILD HEDGE-BURS, HAIRIF or AIRIF, STICK-A-BACK or STICKLE-BACK, GOSLING-GRASS or GOSLING-WEED, TURKEY-GRASS, PIGTAIL, GRIP or GRIP-GRASS, LOVEMAN, SWEETHEARTS." From these it will be seen that the insignificant little white flowers impress not the popular mind. But the twin burs which steal a ride on every passing animal, whether man or beast, in the hope of reaching new colonizing ground far from the parent plant, rarely fail to make an impression on one who has to pick trailing sprays beset with them off woollen clothing.
Several other similar bur-bearing relatives there are, common in various parts of America as they are in Europe. The SWEET-SCENTED BEDSTRAW (G. trifolium), always with three little greenish flowers at the end of a footstalk, or branched into three pedicels that are one to three flowered, and with narrowly oval, one-nerved leaves arranged in whorls of six on its square stem, ranges from ocean to ocean on this continent, over northern Europe, and in Asia from Japan to the Himalayas. It will be noticed that plants depending upon the by hook or by crook method of travel are among the best of globe trotters. This species becomes increasingly fragrant as it dries.
COMMON ELDER; BLACK-BERRIED, AMERICAN or SWEET ELDER; ELDERBERRY (Sambucus Canadensis) Honeysuckle family
Flowers - Small, creamy, white, numerous, odorous, in large, flat-topped, or convex cymes at ends of branches. Calyx tubular, minute; corolla of 5 spreading lobes; 5 stamens; style short, 3-parted. Stem: A shrub 4 to 10 ft. high, smooth, pithy, with little wood. Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compounded of 5 to 11 (usually 7) oval, pointed, and saw-edged leaflets, heavy-scented when crushed. Fruit: Reddish-black, juicy "berries" (drupes). Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist soil; open situation. Flowering Season - June-July. Distribution - Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward 2,000 miles.
Flowers far less beautiful than these flat-spread, misty clusters, that are borne in such profusion along the country lane and meadow hedgerows in June, are brought from the ends of the earth to adorn our over-conventional gardens. Certain European relatives, with golden or otherwise variegated foliage that looks sickly after the first resplendent outburst in spring, receive places of honor with monotonous frequency in American shrubbery borders.
Like the wild carrot among all the umbel-bearers, and the daisy among the horde of composites, the elder flower has massed its minute florets together, knowing that there was no hope of attracting insect friends, except in such union. Where clumps of elder grow - and society it ever prefers to solitude - few shrubs, looked at from above, which, of course, is the winged insect's point of view, offer a better advertisement. There are people who object to the honey-like odor of the flowers. Doubtless this is what most attracts the flies and beetles, while the lesser bees, that frequent them also, are more strongly appealed to through the eye. No nectar rewards visitors, consequently butterflies rarely stop on the flat clusters; but
CLEAVERS; GOOSE-GRASS; BEDSTRAW (Galium Aparine) Madder family
Flowers - Small, white, 4-parted, inconspicuous, in clusters of 1 to 3 on peduncles from the axils of upper leaves. Stem: 2 to 5 ft. long, scrambling, weak, square; bristly on the angles. Leaves: in whorls of 6 or 8, narrow, midrib and edges very rough. Fruit: Rounded, twin seed-vessels, beset with many hooked bristles. Preferred Habitat - Shady ground. Flowering Season - May-September. Distribution - Eastern half of United States and Canada.
Among some seventy other English folk names by which cleavers are known are the following, taken from Britton and Brown's "Illustrated Flora": "CATCHWEED, BEGGAR-LICE, BURHEAD, CLOVER-GRASS, CLING-RASCAL, SCRATCH-GRASS, WILD HEDGE-BURS, HAIRIF or AIRIF, STICK-A-BACK or STICKLE-BACK, GOSLING-GRASS or GOSLING-WEED, TURKEY-GRASS, PIGTAIL, GRIP or GRIP-GRASS, LOVEMAN, SWEETHEARTS." From these it will be seen that the insignificant little white flowers impress not the popular mind. But the twin burs which steal a ride on every passing animal, whether man or beast, in the hope of reaching new colonizing ground far from the parent plant, rarely fail to make an impression on one who has to pick trailing sprays beset with them off woollen clothing.
Several other similar bur-bearing relatives there are, common in various parts of America as they are in Europe. The SWEET-SCENTED BEDSTRAW (G. trifolium), always with three little greenish flowers at the end of a footstalk, or branched into three pedicels that are one to three flowered, and with narrowly oval, one-nerved leaves arranged in whorls of six on its square stem, ranges from ocean to ocean on this continent, over northern Europe, and in Asia from Japan to the Himalayas. It will be noticed that plants depending upon the by hook or by crook method of travel are among the best of globe trotters. This species becomes increasingly fragrant as it dries.
COMMON ELDER; BLACK-BERRIED, AMERICAN or SWEET ELDER; ELDERBERRY (Sambucus Canadensis) Honeysuckle family
Flowers - Small, creamy, white, numerous, odorous, in large, flat-topped, or convex cymes at ends of branches. Calyx tubular, minute; corolla of 5 spreading lobes; 5 stamens; style short, 3-parted. Stem: A shrub 4 to 10 ft. high, smooth, pithy, with little wood. Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compounded of 5 to 11 (usually 7) oval, pointed, and saw-edged leaflets, heavy-scented when crushed. Fruit: Reddish-black, juicy "berries" (drupes). Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist soil; open situation. Flowering Season - June-July. Distribution - Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward 2,000 miles.
Flowers far less beautiful than these flat-spread, misty clusters, that are borne in such profusion along the country lane and meadow hedgerows in June, are brought from the ends of the earth to adorn our over-conventional gardens. Certain European relatives, with golden or otherwise variegated foliage that looks sickly after the first resplendent outburst in spring, receive places of honor with monotonous frequency in American shrubbery borders.
Like the wild carrot among all the umbel-bearers, and the daisy among the horde of composites, the elder flower has massed its minute florets together, knowing that there was no hope of attracting insect friends, except in such union. Where clumps of elder grow - and society it ever prefers to solitude - few shrubs, looked at from above, which, of course, is the winged insect's point of view, offer a better advertisement. There are people who object to the honey-like odor of the flowers. Doubtless this is what most attracts the flies and beetles, while the lesser bees, that frequent them also, are more strongly appealed to through the eye. No nectar rewards visitors, consequently butterflies rarely stop on the flat clusters; but