Madder Family. — Rubiaceæ
| Innocence. | Houstonia cærulea. |
| Quaker Ladies. | |
| Bluets. |
Found in grassy meadows, pastures, and waysides during May; generally in poor soil.
The slender, little, pale green flower-stems, from 2 to 6 inches in height, sometimes branch, bear but few leaves, and rise from a foot-tuffet of leaves.
These foot-leaves are very small, with little rounded tips, while the stem-leaves are still smaller, long, narrow, and clasping in pairs. They are entire, thin, and light green.
The flower has a tiny 4-parted, green calyx, and a tubular corolla which spreads at the top into a 4-pointed star; very delicate in texture, and varying from pure white to a deep china blue, with a dainty ring of yellow in the center.
A very communistic plant is the Innocence, growing in great patches along pasture fences and in meadow rifts and hollows, powdering the greening slopes of early May with its many blossoms like a belated spring snow-fall. Its buds droop, but the opened flowers lift up their faces to reflect the sky; its calices hug the corollas, and after they have fallen still guard the enlarged oval seed-boxes. It is not unusual to find 3- or 5-pointed stars, and even 6- or 7-pointed variations are occasionally discoverable. Tufts of seedlings found in the late autumn will flower all winter, if well-potted and watered and given plenty of fresh air.
| Partridge-berry. | Mitchella repens. |
| Twin-berry. | |
| Fox-berry. | |
| Box-berry. | |
| Two-eye-berry. |
Found in June, in dry woods, about the roots of pine trees.
This little running vine, 4 to 10 inches in length, is smooth and slender, leafy and occasionally branching. In color, a pale green or dark bronze-green.
The leaf is small, round-oval, widest at the base, thin but tough of texture, with a smooth surface that shines when new-grown; the margin is entire, and the midrib important. The young leaves are a bright cool green, lighter underneath; the older growths become dark and bluish green, the ribs and veins marking them with a light tracery. The leaves, on short stems, are arranged in pairs.
The corolla, in the shape of a slender tube spreading into 4 points, is covered thickly in the inside with cottony down, while the outside is smooth; the color is creamy-white, the outside delicately tinted creamy-pink. The little green calyx is 4-parted. The flowers bloom in pairs, their seed-boxes united and set on a single stem, placed terminally. The buds are pink.
Two kinds of flowers are borne on this plant, in one the 4 stamens protrude from the tube and the pistil does not show, in the other the 2-parted pistil is very noticeable and the stamens are retired. The delicious fragrance of the blossoms perfumes the whole woods where it grows. The small oval berry with its two openings is loved by children, because it is of a light coral-red color, and edible, though rather tasteless.
Button-bush. Cephalanthus occidentalis.
Found on low, moist ground, and along borders of ponds, in June and July.
A shrub from 3 to 5 feet high, with a stout, woody stem, covered with a smooth reddish-brown bark.
The leaf, tapering at both ends, is 3 or 4 inches long, on a short foot-stem; the surface is usually smooth, and the texture tough; of a strong green color.
The small, tubular flower is 4-parted at the top, and of a dull, white color. Many flowers are set together in a dense, round head, with the pistils radiating in all directions. These sweet-scented flower-balls grow on foot-stems, 2 or 3 inches long, in clusters of 3 to 5 or 7, from the ends of the branches.
The Button-balls ripen in October, and are then noticeable among the plentiful pods and berries of the season. They are dull red and green in color, turning to a fine brown with the touch of frost. Picked early in the season they make a pleasing addition to the pod-gatherer’s winter collection.
| Small Bedstraw. | Galium asprellum. |
| Cleavers. |
Found in blossom through August and September, in moist or swampy tangles and thickets.
The stalk is branching, but very weak-fibred, leaning on sturdier plants for support, or lopping over; it is square, and closely set along the angles with many minute downward-pointing prickles, by means of which it clings or “cleaves” to its neighbors; color, a light green.
The small leaf is rounded at the tip, has an entire margin, and a smooth upper surface; beneath, the edges and midrib are set with prickles. The leaves grow in whorls of 4 or 6, close upon the stalk, at regular intervals. The color is a pretty yellow-green.
The minute white corolla is 4-pointed, or occasionally 3-pointed, with the same number of stamens; the calyx is green, and the foot-stems are very small. The flowers grow in branching clusters from the whorls of leaves.
Though a pretty plant growing, it is not a pickable one, as its weak stems get themselves inextricably entangled and caught on their own armor.