WILD FLOWERS [33]
name is derived from solamen, solace or consolation, referring to the relief afforded by the narcotic properties of some of these plants.
BLUE or WILD TOADFLAX; BLUE LINARIA (Linaria Canadensis) Figwort family
Flowers - Pale blue to purple, small, irregular, in slender spikes. Calyx 5-pointed; corolla 2-lipped, with curved spur longer than its tube, which is nearly closed by a white, 2-ridged projection or palate; the upper lip erect, 2-lobed; lower lip 3-lobed, spreading. Stamens 4, in pairs, in throat; 1 pistil. Stem: Slender, weak, of sterile shoots, prostrate; flowering stem, ascending or erect, 4 in. to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Small, linear, alternately scattered along stem, or oblong in pairs or threes on leafy sterile shoots. Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, gravel, or sand. Flowering Season - May-October. Distribution - North, Central, and South Americas.
Sometimes lying prostrate in the dust, sometimes erect, the linaria's delicate spikes of bloom wear an air of injured innocence, yet the plant, weak as it looks, has managed to spread over three Americas from ocean to ocean. More beautiful than the rather scrawny flowers are the tufts of cool green foliage made by the sterile shoots that take complete possession of a wide area around the parent plants.
Unlike its relative butter-and-eggs, the corolla of this toadflax is so contracted that bees cannot enter it; but by inserting their long tongues, they nevertheless manage to drain it. Small, short-tongued bees contrive to reach only a little nectar. The palate, so valuable to the other linaria, has in this one lost its function; and the larger flies, taking advantage of the flower's weakness, pilfer both sweets and pollen. Butterflies, to which a slender spurred flower is especially attractive, visit this one in great numbers, and as they cannot regale themselves without touching the anthers and stigma, they may be regarded as the legitimate visitors.
Wolf, rat, mouse, sow, cow, cat, snake, dragon, dog, toad, are among the many animal prefixes to the names of flowers that the English country people have given for various and often most interesting reasons. Just as dog, used as a prefix, expresses an idea of worthlessness to them, so toad suggests a spurious plant; the toadflax being made to bear what is meant to be an odious name because before flowering it resembles the true flax, linum, from which the generic title is derived.
MARYLAND FIGWORT; BEE PLANT; KNOTTED FIGWORT; HEAL-ALL; PILEWORT (Scrophularia Marylandica; S. nodosa of Gray) Figwort family
Flowers - Very small, dull green on outside; vivid, shining brownish purple within; borne in almost leafless terminal clusters on slender stems; Calyx 5-parted.; corolla of 5 rounded lobes, the 2 upper ones erect, side ones ascending, lower one bent downward; 5 staroens, 4 of them twin-like and bearing anthers, the fifth sterile, a mere scale on roof of the globular corolla tube; style with knot-like stigma. Stem: From 3 to 10 ft. high, square, with grooved sides, widely. branching. Leaves: From 3 to 12 in. long, oblong, pointed, coarsely toothed, on slender stems, strong smelling. Preferred Habitat - Moist, shady ground. Flowering Season - July-September. Distribution - New York to the Carolinas, westward to Tennessee and Kansas; possibly beyond.
An insignificant little flower by itself, conspicuous only because it rears itself in clusters on a level with one's eyes, lacking beauty, perfume, and all that makes a blossom charming to the human mind - why has it been elevated by the botanists to the dignity of lending its name to a large and important family, and why is it mentioned at all in a popular flower book beside the more showy ornaments of nature's garden? Both questions have the same answer: Because it is the typical flower of the family, and therefore serves as an illustration of the manner in which many others are fertilized. Beautiful blossoms are by no means always the most important ones.
It well repays one to observe the relative times of maturing anthers and stigmas in the
BLUE or WILD TOADFLAX; BLUE LINARIA (Linaria Canadensis) Figwort family
Flowers - Pale blue to purple, small, irregular, in slender spikes. Calyx 5-pointed; corolla 2-lipped, with curved spur longer than its tube, which is nearly closed by a white, 2-ridged projection or palate; the upper lip erect, 2-lobed; lower lip 3-lobed, spreading. Stamens 4, in pairs, in throat; 1 pistil. Stem: Slender, weak, of sterile shoots, prostrate; flowering stem, ascending or erect, 4 in. to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Small, linear, alternately scattered along stem, or oblong in pairs or threes on leafy sterile shoots. Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, gravel, or sand. Flowering Season - May-October. Distribution - North, Central, and South Americas.
Sometimes lying prostrate in the dust, sometimes erect, the linaria's delicate spikes of bloom wear an air of injured innocence, yet the plant, weak as it looks, has managed to spread over three Americas from ocean to ocean. More beautiful than the rather scrawny flowers are the tufts of cool green foliage made by the sterile shoots that take complete possession of a wide area around the parent plants.
Unlike its relative butter-and-eggs, the corolla of this toadflax is so contracted that bees cannot enter it; but by inserting their long tongues, they nevertheless manage to drain it. Small, short-tongued bees contrive to reach only a little nectar. The palate, so valuable to the other linaria, has in this one lost its function; and the larger flies, taking advantage of the flower's weakness, pilfer both sweets and pollen. Butterflies, to which a slender spurred flower is especially attractive, visit this one in great numbers, and as they cannot regale themselves without touching the anthers and stigma, they may be regarded as the legitimate visitors.
Wolf, rat, mouse, sow, cow, cat, snake, dragon, dog, toad, are among the many animal prefixes to the names of flowers that the English country people have given for various and often most interesting reasons. Just as dog, used as a prefix, expresses an idea of worthlessness to them, so toad suggests a spurious plant; the toadflax being made to bear what is meant to be an odious name because before flowering it resembles the true flax, linum, from which the generic title is derived.
MARYLAND FIGWORT; BEE PLANT; KNOTTED FIGWORT; HEAL-ALL; PILEWORT (Scrophularia Marylandica; S. nodosa of Gray) Figwort family
Flowers - Very small, dull green on outside; vivid, shining brownish purple within; borne in almost leafless terminal clusters on slender stems; Calyx 5-parted.; corolla of 5 rounded lobes, the 2 upper ones erect, side ones ascending, lower one bent downward; 5 staroens, 4 of them twin-like and bearing anthers, the fifth sterile, a mere scale on roof of the globular corolla tube; style with knot-like stigma. Stem: From 3 to 10 ft. high, square, with grooved sides, widely. branching. Leaves: From 3 to 12 in. long, oblong, pointed, coarsely toothed, on slender stems, strong smelling. Preferred Habitat - Moist, shady ground. Flowering Season - July-September. Distribution - New York to the Carolinas, westward to Tennessee and Kansas; possibly beyond.
An insignificant little flower by itself, conspicuous only because it rears itself in clusters on a level with one's eyes, lacking beauty, perfume, and all that makes a blossom charming to the human mind - why has it been elevated by the botanists to the dignity of lending its name to a large and important family, and why is it mentioned at all in a popular flower book beside the more showy ornaments of nature's garden? Both questions have the same answer: Because it is the typical flower of the family, and therefore serves as an illustration of the manner in which many others are fertilized. Beautiful blossoms are by no means always the most important ones.
It well repays one to observe the relative times of maturing anthers and stigmas in the