Presently fruit begins to set, and we can approach the luxuriant vine without offence to our noses.The beautiful glossy green foliage takes on resplendent tints in early autumn - again with interested motives, for are there not seeds within the little bluish-black berries, waiting for the birds to distribute them during their migration?
The vicious CATBRIER, GREENBRIER, or HORSEBRIER (S.
rotundifolia), similar to the preceding, except that its four-angled stem is well armed with green prickles, its beautiful glossy, decorative leaves are more rounded, and its greenish flower umbels lack foul odor, scarcely needs description.Who has not encountered it in the roadside and woodland thickets, where it defiantly bars the way?
In the most inaccessible part of such a briery tangle, that rollicking polyglot, the yellow-breasted chat, loves to hide its nest.Indeed, many birds can say with Br'er Rabbit that they were "bred en bawn in a brier-patch." Throughout the eastern half of the United $tates and Upper Canada the catbrier displays its insignificant little blossoms from April to June for a miscellaneous lot of flies - insects which are content with the slightest floral attractions offered.The florist's staple vine popularly known as "SMILAX" (Myrslphyllum asparagoides), a native of the Cape of Good Hope, is not even remotely connected with true Smilaceae.
YELLOW STAR-GRASS
(Hypoxis hirsuta; H.erecta of Gray) Amaryllis family Flowers - Bright yellow within, greenish and hairy outside, about 1/2 in.across, 6-parted; the perianth divisions spreading, narrowly oblong; a few flowers at the summit of a rough, hairy scape 2 to 6 in.high.Leaves: All from an egg-shaped corm;mostly longer than scapes, slender, grass-like, more or less hairy.
Preferred Habitat - Dry, open woods, prairies, grassy waste places, fields.
Flowering Season - May-October.
Distribution - From Maine far westward, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
Usually only one of these little blossoms in a cluster on each plant opens at a time; but that one peers upward so brightly from among the grass it cannot well be overlooked.Sitting in a meadow sprinkled over with these yellow stars, we see coming to them many small bees - chiefly Halictus - to gather pollen for their unhatched babies' bread.Of course they do not carry all the pollen to their tunneled nurseries; some must often be rubbed off on the sticky pistil tip in the center of other stars.The stamens radiate, that self-fertilization need not take place except as a last extremity.Visitors failing, the little flower closes, bringing its pollen-laden anthers in contact with its own stigma.
BLACKBERRY LILY
(Gemmingia Ciminensis; Pardanthus Chinensis of Gray) Iris family Flowers - Deep orange color, speckled irregularly with crimson and purple within (Pardos = leopard; anthos = flower); borne in terminal, forked clusters.Perianth of 6 oblong, petal-like, spreading divisions; 6 stamens with linear anthers; style thickest above, with 3 branches.Stem: 1 1/2 to 4 ft.tall, leafy.Leaves: Like the iris; erect, folded blades, 8 to 10 in.
long.Fruit: Resembling a blackberry; an erect mass of round, black, fleshy seeds, at first concealed in a fig-shaped capsule, whose 3 valves curve backward, and finally drop off.
Preferred habitat - Roadsides and hills.
Flowering Season - June-July.
Distribution - Connecticut to Georgia, westward to Indiana and Missouri.
How many beautiful foreign flowers, commonly grown in our gardens here, might soon become naturalized Americans were we only generous enough to lift a few plants, scatter a few seeds over our fences into the fields and roadsides - to raise the bars of their prison, as it were, and let them free! Many have run away, to be sure.Once across the wide Atlantic, or wider Pacific, their passage paid (not sneaking in among the ballast like the more fortunate weeds), some are doomed to stay in prim, rigidly cultivated flower beds forever; others, only until a chance to bolt for ******* presents itself, and away they go.Lucky are they if every flower they produce is not picked before a single seed can be set.
This blackberry lily of gorgeous hue originally came from China.
Escaping from gardens here and there, it was first reported as a wild flower at East Rock, Connecticut; other groups of vagabonds were met marching along the roadsides on Long Island; near Suffern, New York; then farther southward and westward, until it has already attained a very respectable range.Every plant has some good device for sending its offspring away from home to found new colonies, if man would but let it alone.Better still, give the eager travelers a lift!
LARGE YELLOW LADY'S SLIPPER; WHIPPOORWILL'S SHOE; YELLOW MOCCASINFLOWER
(Cypripedium hirsutum; C.pubescens of Gray) Orchid family Flower - Solitary, large, showy, borne at the top of a leafy stem to 2 ft.high.Sepals 3, 2 of them united, greenish or yellowish, striped with purple or dull red, very long, narrow; 2 petals, brown, narrower, twisting; the third an inflated sac, open at the top, 1 to 2 in.long, pale yellow, purple lined white hairs within; sterile stamen triangular; stigma thick.Leaves: Oval or elliptic, pointed, 3 to 5 in, long, parallel-nerved, sheathing.
Preferred Habitat - Moist or boggy woods and thickets; hilly ground.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Alabama, westward to Minnesota and Nebraska.