CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University 'm, Library ^^ The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024538963 : THE NATIVE FLOWERS AND FERNS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THEIR BOTANICAL, HORTICULTURAL, AND POPULAR ASPECTS. BY THOMAS MEEHAN, PROFESSOR OF VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY TO THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE EOAKT OF AGRICULTURE, EDITOR OF THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY, ETC.. ETC. SERIES IL VOLUME I. ILLUSTRATED BY CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS BOSTON L. PRANG AND COMPANY. Copyright, A. D 1880, By CHAS. ROBSON & CO. PREFACE TO SERIES II. HEN the first series of "The Flowers and Ferns of the United States" was issued, the hope was expressed that although that work should be complete in itself, the public would welcome another, or even successive series ; until, peradventure, the whole Flora of the United States should be included. It is pleasant to the author to know that part of this hope is realised, indeed all of the hope that can be realised up to the present time. Not the least among the author's gratifications is the complimentary manner in which the work has been received by his botanical associates. It was a task rarely attempted, to bring exact botanical knowledge to a level with popular comprehension,—to give it a place among a great variety of the more cultivated branches of knowledge,—and, above all, to accommodate such a work to the popular purse. That this could be successfully accomplished the author had the courage to hope, but he was scarcely prepared for the cordiality with which eminent men of science have received this people's work as an acceptable contribution to scientific literature. Amongst these the author has especially to make his acknowledgments to Professor Asa Gray, who in "Silliman's Journal of the Arts and Sciences" for May, 1879, compares the drawings not unfavorably with those of Mr. Sprague, who for many years has been at the head of botanical drawing in this country. Considering the very low price at which this work is supplied, the fact that Professor Gray should have been led to compare it with the best and most expensive botanical work in our country, must be accepted as very high praise. We may now only say that while the publication of the work has been transferred to the American Natural History Publishing Company, Lim- ited, of Philadelphia, an association organized primarily for the purpose, Messrs. Prang & Co.'s excellent artist, Mr. Alois Lunzer, will still make (3) 4 PREFACE TO SERIES II, the drawings, and the same well-known firm continue to execute the Lithographic plates. The same assistance will be extended by numerous correspondents all over the United States ; and with the increased love of the task which the success of the first venture brings to the author, he hopes to make this second "General View of the Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States," at least as interesting as the first. Special acknowledgments of friendly aid will appear as the work pro- gresses; but more than this is due to Professor C. S. Sargent, of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, to Mr. Jackson Dawson, the gardener at the Arnold Arboretum of the Bussey Institute, and to Mr. John H. Red- field, the conservator of the Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for continuous and generous assistance on frequent occasions. THOMAS MEEHAN. Germantovvn, Philadelphia, May, 1870. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. SECOND SERIES. Sarracenia Drummondii. X>rummond's Pitcher Plant , . ^ . , , , , j Engelmannia pinnatifida. Cut-leaved Engelmann Flower ',,,...., 5 UlPLOPAPPUS LINARIIFOLIUS. Sand-paper Star Wort . , . , . ., ... 13 Onoclea sensibilis. Sensitive Fern ..,...„,,,. t^ Sarracenia psittacina. Parrot-headed Pitcher Plant ,.,,,,.., zi LiLlUM Canadense. American Yellovir Lily .,....,.». 25 Solanum Torreyi. Torrev's Solanum ..,,....,.., 29 iPoLYPODIUM CALIFORNICUM. Californian Polypody .......... 33 Sarracenia rubra. Red-flovpered Trumpet Leaf.—Walter's SarraceI!;^ .... 37 Impatiens fulva. Spotted Touch-me-not, or Snap weed 4' Iris verna. Spring Iris 4j Woodsia obtusa. Common Woodsia ........ vi Phacelia bipinnatifida. Bipinnate Phacelia ....... S3 (v,i) VUl CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. RUDBECKIA FULGIDA. Brilliant Cone Flower 57 Cypripedium acaule. Slemless Moccasin Flower 6i Camptosorus rhizophyllus. Walking Leaf 65 POLEMONIUM REPTAS' Creeping Greek Valerian . 69 Cypripedium pubescens. Large Yellow Moccasin Flower 73 Euphorbia marginata. Snow on the Mountain , 33 ^^PtDIUM fragrans. Sweet Shield t ern 81 Erigeron bellidifolium. Poor Robin's Plantain 8S Ptnguicula lutea. Yellow Butterwort Anemone Virginiana. Tall Anemone.—Thimble Weed 93 Cheilanthes vestita. Hairy Lip Fern 97 Iris Missouriensis. RocKy Mountain Iris Solidago ulmifolia. Elm-leaved Golden Rod 105 SiCYOS angulatus. Star Cucumber 109 ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES. Scott's Spleenwoa "3 COMMELYNA ViRGINICA. Common Day Flower 117 Nymph^a flava. Audubon's Yellow Water Lily Croomia pauciflora. Few-flowered Croomia . ASPIDIUM NeVADENSE. Sierra Nevada Shield . Fe/n 129 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I„ ix ,, PAGE Nymph^a odorata. Sweet-scented Water Lily , . „ o » , , „ .133 Lobelia Feayana. Dr. Feay's Lobelia ...,,.„ o,.. 137 Cynthia Dandelion. The ,- Dandelion Cynthia . ^ „ , ^ „ ,. 141 CeRATOPTERIS THALICTROIDES. The Homed Fern ....„.,.,. 145 ArISjEMA triphvllum. Three-leaved Indian Turnip . , , „ „ , , , .149 Geranium maculatum. Spotted Crane's-bill .'.,.„ .00 ^ . 153 OENOTHERA MlSSOURIENSIS. Large-fruited Evening Primrose . „ o ^ o o . "'57 ASPIDIUM MUNITUM. Chamisso's Shield Fern , . , , „ « o » = . 161 Stenosiphon virgatus. The Stenosiphon . « » » o .> « = . 165 Androstephium violaceum. Crowned Lily ...ooooooo. 169 Cassia Cham^crista. Sensitive Pea . „ „ » o o o - . 173 Gymnogramma triangularis. California Gold Fern , . , o o « » 177 LONICERA SEMPERVIRENS. Scarlet Trumpet Honeysuckle . o ' . ° = ° l8i ChELONE GLABRA. Turtle-head ....... c = o „. 185 TOWNSENDIA SERICEA. Silky Townsend Flower . , <> o » o c « 189 POLYPODIUM FALCATUM. Sickle-leaved Polypod, or Liquorice Fani. 193 Plate l. Vol III Sarracenia Drummondii L Prang sc Company, Be in .4. if; : SARRACENIA DRUMMONDII. DRUMMOND'S PITCHER-PLANT. NATURAL ORDER, SARRACEMACE^. Sarracenia Drummondii, Croom. — Leaves elongated, erect, trumpet-shaped, narrowly winged; lamina erect, rounded, short-pointed, hairy within, and like the upper portion of the tube white, variegated with reticulated purple veins. Leaves two feet long. Scapes longer than the leaves. Flowers three inches wide. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States. See also Wood's Class-Book of Botany, under the name of S. Gronovii, var. Drummondii.) ONGFELLOW, in describing an old-time slave hiding from his pursuers in a southern swamp, says " Where will-o'-lhe-wisps and glow-worms shine. In bulrush and in brake : Where waving mosses sliroud the pine, And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine Is spotted like the snake : •' Where hardly a human foot could pass. Or a human heart would dare, On the quaking turf of the green morass He crouched in the rank and tangled grass, Like a wild beast in his lair." It is not often tliat a poet writing with one subject only in view, at the same time happens to paint the portrait of something entirely absent from his mind. Yet every one who has collected Drummond's pitcher-plant will recognize a very fair picture of it amidst its surroundings in the lines quoted. It is a car- nivorous plant, secreting in its pitcher-like leaves water into which insects are enticed, drowned, and eaten, as some botanists say. Besides growing among poisonous vines spotted like the " snake, it is itself spotted ; and just where the waving Spanish moss" shrouds the pine, and in swamps where a human foot can (5) 6 SARRACENIA DRUMMONDII. DRUMMOND S PITCHER-PLANT. scarcely pass, it seems as like a wild beast as it "crouches" and waits for its prey as any plant can be. The genus is confined wholly to the Atlantic portion of the United States, and because of their very remarkable form must have been among the first of America's plants to receive marked attention from the white man on his arrival in the new world. It is believed to have been referred to by John Henry Bauhin, who published a history of plants in Switzerland, about the year 1650. The name Sarracenia is, however, of comparatively recent origin, having been given to the genus by Tournefort, a distinguished French botanist who flourished at the opening of our present century, in honor of Dr. Sarrazin, whom Milne calls "an ingenious French- man, and who introduced several Canadian plants into Euro- pean gardens." Our text-books tell little more than this of him. Gray's " School Botany " merely says, " named for Dr. Sarrasin, of Quebec," and this is repeated in the same author's " Manual," except that the name is spelled Sarrazin. Professor Wood makes it " Dr. Sarrazen," so that the student has the choice of three orthographic forms. The Botanical Editor of Rees' " En- cyclopaedia" uses the form employed by Professor Gray in the " Manual," and does not seem to think that the credit of intro- ducing " several Canadian plants " does him justice, for he gives " the following account of him : Sarracenia was so named by Tournefort, in honor of his friend, Dn Sarrazin, of Quebec, who collected numerous plants in Canada, specimens of which are still In the Herbarium of the Museum of Natural History at Paris. While they lay there for ages unnoticed, the discovery of the same plants has been attributed to more recent travellers, who, indeed, could know nothing of Dr. S.'s acquisitions." Having given some account of the origin of its botanical name, we may devote a short space to its common one of " Side- saddle flower," by which many of the family, as well as this particular species, are often known. The stigma of the Sarracenia " consists of a broad plate ; or, rather, there are five stio-mas united into a large peltate persistent membrane, covering the SARRACENIA DRUMMONDII.— DRUMMOND S PITCHER-TLANT.