(Plate CXIX.)

Family

Figwort.

Colour

Pale yellow.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

Maine southward.

Time Of Bloom

August, September.

Flowers: large, in a terminal leafy panicle. Calyx: irregularly cut; five-lobed; pubescent. Corolla: funnel-form; inflated; with five slightly irregular lobes; within woolly; pubescent. Stamens: four in pairs, one pair shorter than the other; woolly. Anthers: lavender. Pistil: one. Leaves: pinnati-fid; the divisions much incised. Stem: branched; leafy. Root: parasitic.

The blossoms from which the accompanying illustration was made were picked in North Carolina; and there, as along the Atlantic coast, the fern-leaf foxglove is very lovely. There is a sensitiveness about the plant that makes us fancy it to be one of the timid spirits of nature. It resents being picked, and the leaves and stems then turn quickly black and die.

Plants Growing in Sandy Soil

There are flowers that delight in sandy soil, and they are as well adapted to it as the white water-lily is to its home in the pond. When they desire moisture they are fashioned so as to retain it within themselves, and have succulent, non-porous foliage. If it is unpleasant to them their leaves are small or thin, and sometimes close at the approach 6f a storm, or when the air is laden with moisture. This sense or instinct that flowers possess seems to be somewhat akin to that of the carrier pigeon; or of a dog that will follow a trail over rocks even after they have been washed by the rain. We all know that the Indian's senses are much better developed than those of civilised man and they are ever in sympathy with the flowers.