re nanpes = oe om te etme nae —n tert ¥ oh nae as on - a saehenlitee kine te) — a aneeaet : : : ; ; ee : . ; - et ee = ; ame phones nemeneee yar PD Oe eee ~ 4 . - " -* 7 “ - “a e 7 . Wa Pete eee mm mee - . SON Re emu tet P - . . 7 “ — . wage ys aw 4 - : ey ee “eng he ees 7 " nan a . - " “ : ee ee “ . : ~ 5 hae e ae ; . - saan - werantaed he ee ae ms — — : wird ee ee - ng lm = =e a as . s _ - : ~ . 7 : " : : ene oe Sere te Sereeerrs Pat an tae epee ener — notte pom gustanetat a waren eezeann“ AD ve Po gettene - » =» ge I TO Tey a ot - een tetas Neha menein ty eer ee a aa See ee ee ace ee ae ec tie ny Oe, ne © > . . pe ys * os 4 JouRNAL OF THE NEW YorK BOTANICAL GARDEN, Pirate XCVIII. \N) i” WILD COLUMBINE. {Reprinted from JOURNAL OF THE NEw York BOTANICAL GARDEN, Aug., 1912. ] WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION.! 4. ‘“WiLp COLUMBINE” (Aqutlegia canadensis L.). (WiTtH PLATE XCVIII.) Nodding in the cool winds of spring-time, and so lightly poised on its slender stems, that it is almost impossible to take its photograph, the wild columbine adorns the rocks and ledges in May with its gay, red and yellow blossoms and occasionally is found in fields at middle elevations where it blooms until July. The flowers are pendent, about I-2 inches long, bright red, the five short red sepals overlapping five tubular spurs which ter- minate below in thickened honey-sacs and broaden out above into five short yellow petals attached around a long-exserted, cluster of slender yellow stamens, about fifty in number. These are attached in five rows to a disc at the base of the ovaries, which are five in number and hairy with five long slender styles; they develop into five follicles with long spreading points. Each follicle contains about fifteen shining black seeds attached along the ventral suture. The basal leaves are pale green beneath, three-parted and each leaflet again divided into three, toothed lobes; smaller, short- stalked, simpler leaves also grow on the flower stalks and diminish into bracts above. The stems vary in height from one to two feet and are smooth or slightly hairy above. The root is fibrous and easily uprooted and for this reason the plant largely depends on its seeds for reproduction and is likely to be quickly exter- 1 Tllustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. 124 minated on account of its showy flowers. Occasionally plants are found with pale yellow blossoms growing among the normal ones. It ranges from Nova Scotia to Northwest Territory south to Florida and Texas and ascends to high altitudes in the Alle- ghanies and the Rocky Mountains. It was first described and figured by Cornuti in 1635 and was called Aguilegia canadensis by Linnaeus in 1753. The generic name refers to a fancied resemblance of the spurs to the talons of an eagle; on this account and the wide range of the genus throughout the United States, it has been strenuously advocated for the honor of being called the national flower. About fifteen species of Aquilegia are known from the United States, ranging through the Rocky Mountains into Mexico and the western states; all have showy flowers varying from white to yellow and blue, and are greatly prized in cultivation. This genus belongs to the crowfoot family, Ranunculaceae, of which about thirty-five genera and one thousand and fifty species are distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world. ELIZABETH G. BRITTON. WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION e. DIRE) Se hOOT VIOLET” ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JouRNAL OF THE NEw YorK BoTANICAL GARDEN 13: 135-136. September 1912, “ BIRD’S-FOOT VIOLET” (Viola pedata L.) rile Pe 1h re oe th ary) |e eae ey {Reprinted from JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, Sept., 1912. ] WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION.! 5. ‘“Brrp’s-Foot VIOLET” (Viola pedata L.). After the spring is well advanced, and most of the other violets have been in bloom for nearly two weeks, the bird-foot violet comes to show how lovely a violet can be! Its flowers are larger and more delicate in color than any other of our wild species, the petals spread with a jaunty air, like a pansy, and vary in color from deep violet to pale lavender or white. They stand above the leaves on long stout pedicels and when growing in masses, as they used to on the Hempstead Plains of Long Island and Todt Hill on Staten Island, are as showy as any of the Alpine violets of Europe, comparing favorably with the long-spurred pansy of the Alps, Viola calcarata. The leaves give the plant its specific and common name from a ‘fancied resemblance to a bird’s foot. They are palmately divided almost to the base, into narrow segments which are entire, or again divided into 3-5 wedge-shaped subdivisions. There is great variability in the shape and size of the leaves and they also vary from nearly smooth to quite hairy. The rootstocks are erect and stout, scaly above, and bear a large number of leaves and flowers on each, so that the temptation is to pull up the _whole plant at once. When growing luxuriantly, they sometimes reach a foot in height with a dozen or more flowers open at once. The leaf-stalks and pedicels are tinted with purple and vary from 2 to 6 inches or more in length. The two upper petals are bent backward over the short spur, the two lateral ones are spreading ! Tliustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. 135 136 and the lower is broader and keeled, paler and veined with dark purple stripes, the base projecting to form a spur, in which a fragrant honey is found. The stamens are five, the two lower ones spurred, and all bear an orange-colored prolongation beyond the anthers, which project and surround the green club-shaped stigma, with a very small central stigmatic surface. The ovary is superior, one-called, three-angled, three-parted when ripe and bears the seeds in three rows on the walls. The five sepals also are unequal, thickened at base and auricled. The peculiar structure of the stamens and the fact that two of them have claws extending down into the honey-bearing spur are evidently aids in the fertilization by insects, and many of the violets are known to hybridize. Viola pedata was named by Linnaeus in 1753 in his Species Plantarum but it was first described and figured by Plukenet in 1691 as ‘‘ Viola virginiana tricolor, foliis multifidis, cauliculo aphylla.”’ In the vicinity of Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the form known as bicolor, in which the two upper petals are dark purple, is more common. About one hundred and fifty species of violets are known from all the temperate parts of the globe. A few occur at high altitudes in the tropics. The Violaceae comprise fifteen genera and three hundred species, widely distributed; some of them are trees. ELIZABETH G. BRITTON. WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION Ge WE De AZ ARE AS ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JOURNAL OF THE New York BotanicaL GARDEN 14; 79-81. April 19173. A anal fy pray | i + JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN PLATE CXIV WILD AZALEA [ Reprinted from JOURNAL OF THE NEw YorK BOTANICAL GARDEN, Apri.], 1913. ] WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION* 6. ‘““WiL_p AZALEA”’ (Azalea nudiflora L.) WITH PLATE CXIV About the end of May, when the snow-balls are in bloom and the dandelions have gone to seed, with their exquisite balls of fruit standing up tall among the grasses and buttercups; when the wild cherries scent the air with their bitter-sweet fragrance, then the wild azaleas brighten the gloom of the woodlands with their exquisite colors. In the region about New York City, it is known as “wild honeysuckle’’ from the shape of its flowers, which have a long tube filled with nectar. The flowers vary in color from pale pink to deep rose-color and grow about ten in a cluster at the summits of long naked branches, which usually arise in clusters from the stem. These shrubs sometimes attain a height of from two to six feet, and once were abundant in open woodlands in Greater New York, particularly in the Bronx and on Staten Island, though on account of their showy color and fragrance they are often ruthlessly broken. The flowers are large with long exserted stamens and with the tube, the pistil and the filaments darker-colored. The 5-parted limb of the corolla is unequally lobed, the two upper divisions spreading, the lowest being the broadest and overlapping the two narrower lateral ones. The pedicels and tube are quite hairy as well as the short green calyx. The ovary also is hairy and the style is over two inches long, curved upward and terminating in a disc- * Illustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. 79 80 shaped stigma. The five long stamens are inserted with the corolla at the base of the tube, and a deep hairy groove extends down the center of each lobe of the corolla to the nectar, at its base. The leaves are oval or obovate, tapering to a short petiole and unequal in shape and size; usually five to seven are borne at the summits of naked branches, like the flowers forming an unsymmetrical rosette. Azalea nudiflora was described by Linnaeus in 1762 in the second edition of his ‘‘Species Plantarum” and he cites Peter Kalm’s description. In Kalm’s travels under the date of May 5, 1749, he says: ‘‘Early this morning I went to Rapaapo, New Jersey which is a great village, inhabited by Swedes. . . . The Mayflowers, as the Swedes call them, were plentiful in the woods wherever I went to-day; especially on a dry soil, or one that is somewhat moist. The Swedes have given them this name, be- cause they are in full blossom in May. Some of the Swedes and the Dutch call them Pinxterbloem (Whitsunday flowers) as they really are in blossom about Whitsuntide. The English call them Wild Honeysuckles; and at a distance they have some similarity to the Honeysuckle, or Lonicera. Dr. Linnaeus, and other botanists, call it an Azalea. Its flowers were now open, and added a new ornament to the woods, being little inferior to the flowers of the Honeysuckle and Hedysarum. They fit in a circle round the stem’s extremity, and have either a dark red or a lively red color; but, by’standing for some time, the sun bleaches them, and at last they get a whitish hue.”’ This species.ranges from Maine to Florida and Texas, ascends to 3,000 feet altitude in Virginia and has been reported from Canada. About forty species of Azalea have been described from North America and Asia, many have been cultivated for their beauty, and many hybrids are known. Seven species are known to grow in the United States, of which the orange-colored Flame Azalea of the Southern States is the showiest and the White Swamp Azalea the most fragrant. The Heath Family or Erica- ceae, to which they belong, includes about fifty-five genera and one thousand and fifty species, widely distributed, mostly in cool temperate regions in which the Laurel and Rhododendrons are 8] our most familiar and exquisite members of this most charming family of plants. ELIZABETH G. BRITTON. WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION 7, “PINK MOCCASIN FLOWER” ELIZABETH G. BRITTON ST Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JOURNAL OF THE New York BoTANIcAL GARDEN 14: 97-99. May, 1913. JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN PLATE CXVI PINK MOCCASIN FLOWER [Reprinted from JouRNAL OF THE New York Bowanicat, GARDEN, May, 1: vie | WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION* 7. “Pink Moccasin FLOWER” (Cypripedium acaule Aiton) WitH PLaTE CXVI From the middle of May to the middle of June the ‘‘Stemless Pink Moccasin” or ‘‘Two-leaved Lady’s Slipper”’ blooming in moist woods and on the borders of swamps or on may be found drier hillsides in pine wocds. ‘It comes when the orchards are in bloom, beginning with the violets, anemones and wake-robins and in colder, more northern, hilly regions may still be found when the laurel and the roses are just unfolding. It is probably the most common of all the Cypripediums, having the greatest range, extending through British America from Newfoundland to Winnipeg and North West Territory, and is even supposed to have been one of the species recorded by Dr. Richardson from Arctic America. It also occurs sparingly in the United States from Minnesota to Kentucky and Tennessee. The flower is large and showy, pendent on a long stalk, about a foot high, with two large basal leaves: they taper down to and clasp the base of the flower stalk and are in turn enclosed in a thin brown bract; there are five prominent parallel veins and both surfaces of the leaf are pubescent with short glandular hairs. Arching over the flower at the top of the scape is a single lanceolate bract, about 2 inches long, covering the ovary * Illustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants, 97 98 which is curved, strongly ribbed and glandular hairy; the large brown calyx is composed of two united sepals, the two lateral petals also are brown, narrow and twisted. The lip is a large showy pouch, 2-3 inches long, of a_ bright purplish pink color veined with darker lines, it is deeply split above with the aperture closed by the downward and inward curving of the sides; there are also minute short glandular hairs on the outside, but within the hairs are white and longer, becom- ing rigid and bent downward as they approach the anthers, serving to attract and direct the movements of insect visitors who come in search of nectar. When the insects reach the anthers, the two viscid sacs adhere to their backs and are thus carried off to some other flower, where they are brushed against the roughly papillose stigma and thus accomplish cross-fertiliza- tion. One sterile stamen is expanded into a heart-shaped bract, which is bent downward and inward covering the stigma and effectually preventing all exit, except by the apertures on each side of the anthers. The capsules when mature, are large, about I-1.5 inches long and produce numerous small seeds, but they are nowhere very abundant, as the very- showiness which insures fertilization by insects, defeats its object through the greediness of children and some selfish older people, who pick all they can find no matter how few there may be! Cypripedium acaule was named by Aiton in a catalogue of the plants grown at Kew in 1789 from plants introduced by Wm. Hamilton, Esq., in 1786, from North America. He cites Pluke- net’s figures and description published in 1769 who described it as ‘‘ Helleborine Calceolus Mariae dicta Caroliniensis, bifolia.”’ Catesby in his Natural History of North Carolina in 1748 figured it in colors and says of it: ‘This plant produces the most elegant flower of all the Helleborine tribe, and is in great esteem with the North American Indians for decking their hair, ete. They call it the Moccasin Flower, wes also signifies in their language, a shoe or slipper.”’ It was formerly found in the wilder portions of Greater New York,' on Staten Island and in Van. Courtland. Park, but is becoming extinct, on account of its showy flowers, which are 99 ELIZABETH G. BRITTON. e ne » 2 sede Ce Se WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION 8. “AMERICAN OR MOUNTAIN LAUREL” (Kalmia latifolia L.) ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JouRNAL OF THE New YorK BoTanicaAL GARDEN 14; 121-123. June, 1913. aly 7 +o) Ma SQ, % JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN PLATE CXVII AMERICAN OR MOUNTAIN LAUREL [ Reprinted from JOURNAL OF THE NEW YoRK BOTANICAL GARDEN, June, 1913. ] WILD PLANTS “NEEDING PROTECTION* 8. “AMERICAN OR MOUNTAIN LAUREL” (Kalmia latifolia L.) WiTH PLATE CXVII In the beginning of June, when the days are long and warm and the daisies and clover in the tall grass are waving in the breeze, when the tulip-trees are in bloom and the roses and paeonies fill the gardens with their perfume and color, then the flowers of the laurel may be found, rivalling in their delicacy of color and perfect symmetry of form any of the more showy blossoms of cultivation. It seems as if the climax of all that is dainty and lovely had been reached in this beautiful American wild flower. | But where the laurel once was abundant it is rapidly becoming scarce or extinct. On account of its evergreen leaves, it is gathered in winter for Christmas decorations and other festivities; all the year round it is used to decorate fruit-stands and its wood * Illustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. 122 is eagerly sought for rustic furniture, for tools and as a substitute for making brier-wood pipes. It once grew abundantly on the banks of the Harlem River at High Bridge and Inwood; there is still a little of it left in Bronx Park, but it seldom blooms, which probably accounts for there being any of it still indigenous. The flowers grow in clusters at the ends of last year’s branches, forming large cymes of white and pale pink. Each flower isa study in itself and most difficult to draw or paint, on account of the numerous ridges and projections on the outside of the buds and the delicate curves and depressions of the open flower. The pedicels are about one inch long, and glandular hairy; the calyx is also glandular and small, with five narrow sepals; the corolla has a short basal tube and ten prominent dorsal ridges, five of which are longer and also glandular, the limb is five-lobed with shallow notches between the lobes and ten dark red blotches, marking the indentations in which the anthers are held; the filaments are white and curved. They spring upward around the pistil, if suddenly released by the visit of a bumble-bee, or other large insect, dusting his back with a white pollen which escapes from the anthers, through two apical pores. The pistil is at first curved, later becoming erect, with five greenish- yellow stigmatic surfaces and a superior glandular ovary, which develops into a five-lobed capsule. An unusual form of the laurel has been found near Deerfield, Massachusetts, with the corolla divided to the base into five long narrow petals. This freak has been cultivated, though not nearly as beautiful, and produces seed. The leaves are thick and glossy and keep their dark green color and brilliancy throughout the winter. They are from two to five inches long and sometimes nearly two inches wide and when young have minute black glandular hairs on the upper surface; the petioles are short and thick, opposite or alternate and clus- tered at the ends of the branches, which are stout and woody, often spreading and usually making a small dense shrub about two to six feet high. Rarely, in sheltered inaccessible valleys of the southern Alleghanies, it is said to become a tree having a trunk thirty to forty feet high with a diameter of 18 inches; but this is probably a thing of the past. 123 The laurel is usually found on rocky or barren soil in hilly regions, ranging from New Brunswick and Ontario southward to Florida and Louisiana and blooms in May to July according to its range. The earliest account of Kalmia latifolia appeared in 1705 in the “‘Almatheum Botanicum”’ of Plukenet, who figured it very poorly and it was named by Linnaeus in 1753. It was also described and figured in a colored plate by Marc Catesby in 1771 in his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, who introduced it into cultivation. The following is his account: “As all plants have their peculiar beauties, it is difficult to assign to any one an elegance excelling all others; yet, considering the curious structure of the flower, and beautiful appearance of this whole plant, I know of no shrub that has a better claim to it. After several unsuccessful attempts to propagate it from seeds, I procured plants of it at several times from America, but with little better success; for they gradually diminished, and pro- duced no blossoms, till my curious friend, Mr. Peter Collinson, excited by a view of its dried specimens and description of it, procured some plants of it from Pennsylvania; which climate being nearer to that of England, than from whence mine came, some bunches of blossoms were produced in July, 1740, and in 1741, in my garden at Fulham.” The laurel belongs to the Ericaceae, or Heath family, as do the azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries and arbutus, and it has been conclusively shown by Mr. Coville, Botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, that what they need for successful cultivation, is an acid soil and an abundance of leaf mould. The arbutus has been grown in pots from seed and it may be that at no distant date, it may be forced as tulips and hyacinths are now, for Easter. Rhododendrons and laurel are being shipped in carload lots by dealers from the moun- tains of Pennsylvania and the southern Alleghanies, who supply florists and nurserymen from wild sources. How long can they last? ELIZABETH G. BRITTON. vere A : akan ua ae : en 3 . a ie ere ne wie re fe Ge" re / * ribet iene . s7hF Tht ee ‘ rated, Be ie: 7 Se RN ti asad ese ae a ¥ be iS. < fi ? RF Oy vee Ba ET ED WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION 9. “FLOWERING DOGWOOD” ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JouRNAL oF THE New YorxK BoTanIcaL GARDEN 14; 133-134. July, 1913. “a JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN PLATE 304 VIRGINIA COWSLIP or BLUEBELLS Reprinted, without change of paging, from the JouRNAL or THe New York BOTANICAL GARDEN 30: 209-211. pl. 304. September, 1929. WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION! 14. “ VIRGINIA CowsLip” or ‘“‘ BLUEBELLS ” [ MerTEenstra vircinica (L.) DC.] (With plate 304) This is one of the most beautiful members of the Borage Fam- ily, which includes also the Forget-me-nots and that attractively repellent weed, naturalized from Europe, the “Blueweed’” or “Viper’s Bugloss.” The exquisite delicacy and grace of their pendent clusters of flowers and their dainty coloring, varying from pink in the bud to pale blue when fully opened, render this one of the most attractive of our American wild flowers. Their beauty has only recently begun to be appreciated and at last they have been discovered by our commercial dealers and the “‘fash- ionable, feminine landscape architects.”” This may spell their decimation or doom, for the commercial supplies all come from wild sources, and, as far as we know, no one has attempted, in the trade, to raise them from seed. Eight North American spe- cies of Mertensia have been described, ranging from Hudson Bay to Alaska, and in the Rocky Mountains from Colorado and Utah, south to Wyoming and New Mexico. Our eastern species occurs from Ontario to Minnesota, south to Nebraska and Kansas and seems to be more abundant in the Middle States, in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Though fine illustrations, like the one accompany- ing this article, have been made from photographs taken in Penn- sylvania, we know of only one station near New York City where 1Jllustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. The last previous number (Jour. New York Bot. Gard. 23: 137, 138. pl. 277. 1922) of this series was erroneously numbered 14. 209 “AVISIOAIUEF) 9121S OTYO dy} JO AsoyINOD Aq poonposdo.4 d19y pue Aueduioy purpre,joyy sde1077 “f oy) Aq erueayAsuusg ur usye} ydersojoyd & wol,y ‘DIUM DIsuaJAIPE “lL AMINO . i ae ede * . oa mop es oy | 2 21II it grows in such abundance. It used to grow on the Orange Mountains near Montclair, New Jersey, but has long been gone from that locality. It prefers damp and shady places along streams and wet hillsides, and apparently seeds freely and grows readily from seed. If planted in shady moist places along streams or even in low swampy woodlands that are frequently overflowed in springtime, it will flourish and prove a permanent decorative feature. It has a thickened storage rootstock which enables it to with- stand ill treatment for a while, but it will ultimately dwindle and disappear if planted in uncongenial locations, or with unsuitable companions. If associated with tulips which have to be lifted and replaced each year, the Mertensias, if grouped around them, are sure to suffer and ultimately disappear. Their delicacy and charm are enhanced by natural surroundings and the ideal loca- tion is a shady bed of ferns, which gradually unfurl their fronds and hide the yellow and dying leaves of the ‘Bluebells.” For Mertensia virginica blooms early, from March to May, and dis- appears entirely when the trees are in full leaf. The taller spe- cies, M. paniculata and M. lanceolata, bloom from June to August, but they also prefer thickets and woodlands and are entirely un- suited to sunny dry borders. The flowers are clustered at the top of the stems, and have a tube with a lobed corolla, and a very short 5-parted calyx. The stamens also are free and inserted on the tube of the corolla. There are four round nutlets in each fruit. Dr. Southwick has successfully established a group of them, brought from the colony on the Raritan River in New Jersey. They are planted in shade along one of the rills at the northern end of the Rock Garden, an ecological habitat much like their natural one. There are several exotic species, which are said to be “not easy to cultivate, but are offered by some American dealers.” These are natives of Siberia and Kashmir and prefer high moun- tain districts, as do several of our Rocky Mountain species. EvizaBetH G. Britton. New York Botanical Garden Library lants needin “TH 3 Ht . af i 4 a — oa aed open se + “0. —*s ee - eee Sep ana = ~ -_ a ean aa a iy gg ya tag ap ON