AMERICAN PLANTS FOR AMERICAN GARDENS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO . DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

AMERICAN PLANTS FOR AMERICAN GARDENS

Plant Ecology — The Study of Plants in Relation to Their Environment

BY

EDITH A. ROBERTS, ph.d.

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AT VASSAR COLLEGE

and

ELSA REHMANN

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND AUTHOR OF "GARDEN MAKING"

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Copyright, 1929, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and printed. Published March, 1929.

rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SET UP BY BROWN BROTHERS LINOTYPERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In 1924, the Conservation Committee of The Gar- den Club of America published with the Bulletin a booklet by Edith A. Roberts and Margaret F. Shaw on The Ecology of the Plants Native to Dutchess County, New York. This booklet with its lists of plants ar- ranged according to ecological associations suggested the idea for a series of articles which appeared in House Beautiful under the title of Plant Ecology and are now presented in this book.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013

http://archive.org/details/americanplantsfoOOrobe

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

L Introduction I

II. The Open Field 9

III. The Juniper Hillside 24

IV. The Gray Birches 35

V. The Pines 39

VI. The Oak Woods 43

VII. The Beech-Maple-Hemlock Woods ... 57

VIII. The Hemlock Ravine 66

IX. The Stream-side 75

X. The Pond 88

XI. The Bog 98

XII. The Seaside 103

Index 117

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The glistening effectiveness of flowers scattered all over

the field 10

The black haw with its angular habit and horizontal

branches grows close against the cedars .... 24

Gray birches of slender form gather together in fairy-like

groups 34

The pine branches stretch out horizontally in wide-spaced

drooping tiers 38

Wide-branched trees suggest a natural entrance ... 45

The maples whose open branching allows the light to filter

through 56

The hemlocks may be in a secluded spot with a stream near

by to trickle over the stones 67

Marsh marigolds can outline the entire stream ... 74

Marsh marigolds have blossoms that seem like captured

sunlight 80

Within this setting of arrow-heads and pickerel-weeds

water lilies can be planted 89

The pitcher plant has pitcher-like, water-filled leaves from which erect flower stalks arise and are terminated by solitary globose flowers 98

AMERICAN PLANTS FOR AMERICAN GARDENS

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AMERICAN PLANTS FOR AMERICAN GARDENS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The beauty and variety of plants native to America have ever been recognized and have made a deep impression upon the plant lover. Plant ecology, a comparatively new study of plants in relation to their environment, contributes toward a keener understand- ing of this natural vegetation and its use in garden making. It draws attention to the native plants as they appear in the landscape and suggests their inher- ent appropriateness to grounds and gardens.

It is almost unbelievable that the native plants should ever have been overlooked. Yet little use of them was made in the seventeenth century gardens where plants from the Old World flourished. And even during much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were neglected.

Many outstanding native plants have, however, been in use now for a long time. They have been planted as specimens, in miscellaneous groups, in formal arrangements and in naturalistic compositions. Some of these have, indeed, been collected into what are called native gardens. And the demand for them

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American Plants for American Gardens

is ever increasing. They fit into the informal, inti- mate, seemingly unstudied effects that are sought for in many grounds and gardens to-day where flowers are luxuriantly intermingled, boundaries are freely planted, trees are irregularly grouped and lawns are sometimes left undipped. More than this, the very landscape of which they are so vital a part is begin- ning to be retained and recreated as a setting for the house. Great trees are kept as a background for it. And all around, there are rocky slopes, shady woods, sunny meadows, ponds and stream-sides, and some- times even bogs, that make natural gardens. When these scenes have to be recreated, the choice of the plants may be focused upon those that really belong to the particular scene and the compositions made of them may be true reproductions or sympathetic interpretations of the landscape. In such preserva- tion and in such recreation, then, plant ecology can be of invaluable assistance and suggestion.

In plant ecology, observations are made as to what plants grow together and how they compose the groups known as plant associations. Observations are also made of what the plants in each association have in common as to soil, light, moisture and tem- perature, all of which are the factors which make up what is called the plants' environment. These observations draw attention to the fact that every slight variation in any one of these factors changes the members of each association and brings about the infinite variety that exists in the natural grouping of plants.

[*]

Introduction

The natural distribution of plants over the world is controlled in part by temperature, moisture and light ; that is, by climatic conditions. This is made evident by the distinctive regional segregation of plants in the United States; by the palms of semitropical Florida; by the grasslands of the Mississippi Valley; by the gray-green vegetation of the Southwest; by the cacti, yuccas and agaves of the desert; by the coniferous forests of the West Coast; and by the dominantly deciduous growth of the Northeastern States.

It is the vegetation of the Northeastern States, from the Atlantic west over the Alleghenies and south to Georgia, that is discussed in this book to show the use of ecology in selecting American plant material for American grounds and gardens.

All vegetation is assembled into distinct groupings through its inherent adaptation to the environment in which it grows. For convenience, each of these groupings, or plant associations, is given the name of some tree which is prominent in the group, or is described by the situation in which it is found. Many different associations may be seen in any trip along a country road in this region, as the road winds up hill and down dale, from mountain top to river valley ; as it passes rocky wooded uplands, sunny fields, cool ravines and low-lying meadows with bogs, ponds and streams. The associations will be recognized when attention is given to the various plant groups that are gathered together, and to the topography of the land- scape as a whole.

Asters and the golden-rods, prominent though they

[3]

American Plants for American Gardens

are, are only two among the many plants that grow together in the open fields; and the juniper, for all its importance, is one of a small number that adapts itself to exposed slopes. Gray birches belong in a group composed of delicate ground covers and but this one tree. The pines are the only trees of their group. The dogwoods, that have such an outstanding decorative quality, grow in upland areas of oak woods along with a rich variety of trees and shrubs, such as aza- leas, laurels, huckleberries, maple-leaved viburnums, witch-hazels, sassafras, hickories and tulip trees. Beeches, maples and hemlocks are the prominent trees in other forests on the hillsides, and the hemlocks belong with ferns and other plants in cool, shady ravines. Other groups of plants are found in low- lying places. The marsh marigold is but one of many herbaceous plants that grow with trees and shrubs along streams. The water lily is surrounded by plants that require quiet, aquatic conditions. The pitcher plant belongs to an unusual vegetation that can endure the adverse conditions of the bog; and the bay- berry is found with the plants that thrive on windy seashores.

Each of these groups is given a chapter in this book. The most important plants are mentioned, the fundamentals that underly each association are indi- cated, the natural compositions that they make are suggested, and the way they can be used about the house and in relation to it are outlined. In order to emphasize the outstanding characteristics, the descrip- tions are focused upon the period in the life of

[4]

Introduction

each association when its dominant members reach maturity.

Nature is, however, always in transition. One plant group is no sooner established than its very develop- ment changes the light, the temperature and moisture conditions to such a degree that a new group comes in and succeeds the first. The definiteness of these transitions is shown by the way in which the junipers, the gray birches, the pines, the oaks and the maple, beech or hemlocks follow one another in succession. On the uplands the open fields are filled with sun- loving herbs and shrubs. They make a congenial place for the germination of juniper seeds. The shade and protection of the junipers encourages the develop- ment of the seed of the birches. Birch copses in their turn are nurseries for the pines. The pine green, too dense for its own seed, provides the right conditions for the oaks. In their maturity the oaks make an excellent environment for the development of the maple, beech and hemlocks. All three of these spring up within their own shade, but where the shade becomes deepest and where it is coolest the hemlocks dominate.

The abandoned farm illustrates what happens to an environment, within a generation or two, when nature is left to run its own course. The once cultivated fields are soon covered with shrubs and herbs, then junipers, which are followed quickly by gray birches, and then pines. The wood lot left to itself, changes from pine to oak. The rarer old, old woods that have never been touched by woodcutters have gone through

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American Plants for American Gardens

these successions and remain as rich forest lands of beech, maple or hemlock.

Nature is ever tending toward the most luxuriant form of vegetation which environmental factors per- mit, and in the region described it is reached in the beech-maple-hemlock forest. Such factors as the exposure upon the seashore, the lack of water on the dry hillside, or the severe cold of the northern moun- tains, may never permit the successions to reach this association. They are often held back by fire. When an oak woodland is severely burned over and no humus remains, nature courageously starts again with a group of open field plants. When pines are cut down, nature accommodates herself to this change in the environment and the conditions are such that gray birches can develop.

The harbingers of the new association and rem- nants of the old meet. Groups of birches spring up amid the junipers. Groups of old pines are found remaining among the oaks, or the oaks show their slender trunks in the midst of the pine forest.

The evidence of such transition is not found in the trees and shrubs alone. The flowers bear testimony by carrying their pictures from association to associa- tion. Aster novse-anglise, for instance, is found, if there is sufficient sun, in the open field, with the juni- pers, and under the slight shade of the birches.

The ever-changing topography of the land, too, has its influence. The gradual filling up of the ponds causes the changes in the location of the submerged, floating and emergent aquatic plants, for each requires

[6]

Introduction

a certain depth of water for its best development. The gradual deepening of the ravine has its influence upon plants that grow there. Only those which can adapt themselves to the increasing shade and coolness sur- vive.

Many an extensive area, with sweeping acreage and varying topography, is a natural setting for a country house. The fields and meadows, the woods, the streams, ponds and ravines about it can bring together all the different plant associations, for they adjoin one another and intermingle. Property lines may enclose a less varied scene and be limited to a single association. The pines around the Adirondack lakes offer an example, where every tree and every partridge vine can be retained and the building hidden in the shelter of the great trees can become an integral part of the forest. There are other scenes which make settings for summer cottages, winter lodges, for all- year-round homes, such as the mountains of Pennsyl- vania with their hemlocks and rhododendrons, the beech slopes of Vermont, the juniper hillsides of Con- necticut, the rocky coasts of Maine and Massachu- setts, the seaside of New Jersey, and the dunes of Long Island. They may be retained in their full beauty, with all of their individual characteristics. Sometimes this is a problem of preservation, some- times it is a matter of adding to and completing the existing scenes.

A site of even an acre or less has many possibilities. A small house may stand on a slope at the fringe of the woods, with picturesque hedgerows around it,

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American Plants for American Gardens

with gray birches near it, and with a brook below. A still smaller property has the opportunity of being true to its environment. Its location within a well- defined area is often the key for the preservation of plants which belong there. A single oak can be taken as a guide. An appropriate selection can then be made of the shrubs and flowers that are associated with such a tree. This garden may have to be in miniature, but it can have delightful details and the verity of the natural landscape.

This study of native plants in relation to their environment brings out the fundamental principles upon which the indigenous vegetation is established, and the contribution that an understanding of these facts can make in the retention or recreation of the natural landscape. It draws attention, moreover, to the significance of retaining the original contours, and the adaptation of a house and garden to the lay of the land and to the spirit of the natural landscape.

[8]

CHAPTER II

THE OPEN FIELD

Each uncultivated field or meadow is a natural garden covered over with many different kinds of flowers gathered together in lavish numbers. It is this wealth of plants that the farmer struggles against when he sows his grasslands. Because of them he has to till year after year. As soon as he stops they immediately begin to reestablish themselves and in a few years come back into their own.

All of these flowers thrive in the open fields. They are controlled, however, by varying conditions of soil and moisture. Some are found only on rocky out- crops and in thin soil ; some in rich well-drained areas and some in moist places. In any fair-sized acreage these situations adjoin one another and their char- acteristic vegetation becomes intermingled.

Some of these field flowers are well known and used in gardens. A few have found such favor in Europe that they have been extensively hybridized and rein- troduced into this country as foreign varieties. Many of them, however, are still comparatively unknown. To really get acquainted with them, it is not enough to plant them in garden borders. They must be assembled as they are naturally assembled in the fields.

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American Plants for American Gardens

And to really recreate this natural field garden, it is important to keep the wide sunlit openness and the characteristic contours, to rehabilitate the enclosing hedgerows, to define the spontaneous paths as well as to reestablish the all-over pattern of its flowers.

It is well to start by sowing it with clovers of which there are many different kinds, including white clover, Trifolium repens, the yellow clover, Trifolium agra- rium, the rabbit- foot clover, Trifolium arvense, and many others. Some of these, to be sure, have been introduced from Europe and have become naturalized. They have a utilitarian purpose, for they keep out the weeds. The real reason for planting them is, how- ever, because their soft green foliage and their little heads of vari-colored flowers make a delightful groundwork into which an embroidery of other plants can be worked. Besides the clovers, many kinds of grasses should also be grown for the graceful manner in which they combine with the flowers, and masses of hay-scented ferns can be planted for their light-filled yellow green.

Then, violets can be planted thickly everywhere — Viola fimbriatula, whose flowers grow on tall leafless stems. With them, buttercups can be mingled. Ranunculus bulbosus, the bulbous buttercup, and Ran- unculus fascicularis, often called the early crowfoot, are for dry places, while Ranunculus septentrionalis, the swamp buttercup, is suitable for moist ground as its name implies. The flowers of the bulbous butter- cup hug the ground. The others have stems that rise airily from thickly clustered foliage that make them

[io]

The Open Field

seem like spots of gold amid the green. It is the way in which the flowers are scattered all over the field that makes their glistening effectiveness.

The robin's plantain and the painted cup flower at about this time. The robin's plantain has lavender- white, mauve or pink blossoms whose effect is very- soft and fluffy, while the painted cup, with its scarlet- tipped, orange flowers, is startlingly brilliant when they flood a particularly moist place.

The yellow rocket, the ox-eye daisy, the blue chicory and the carrot, for all that they are such familiars of the fields, should not be used for they are really naturalized Europeans. There are many native flowers to use instead : masses of lupines with striking blue spikes; many native flags, Iris versicolor, with delicately formed slender flowers and effective sheath- like leaves; scattered groups of satiny gold evening primroses, Oenothera biennis; vivid expanses of burnt- orange butterfly weed; lavish clumps of yellow lilies; drifts of blue vervain; delicately sprinkled mauve beard-tongue, not to mention the golden-rods and asters.

These flowers make an all-over pattern. Other flowers can be used to edge the winding paths that wander unobtrusively through the fields. Among these are silvery white everlastings, chickweeds with starry blossoms and fine matted foliage, Veronica officinalis with luxuriant light green mats and blue flowers which may also be planted between the step- ping stones. Pennyroyal, Prunella vulgaris, the heal- all, and little groups of Polygala verticillata with pur-

American Plants for American Gardens

pie-tinged flowers can be planted here and there. The little yellow star grass and the blue-eyed grass can be put in special little spots to accentuate their daintiness.

On the other hand, there can be bluets in great numbers. Seen at a distance they sometimes look like a soft blue haze and then again they are so gray-white that they are like cobwebs spread upon the grass. At nearer view each little plant has a rare dignity and every little tubular flower a charming distinction. They can be planted along any part of the path, except where it is very dry. There the potentillas or cinque- foils can take their place. The potentillas grow in luxuriant masses and have many little glistening yel- low flowers that seem like diminutive strawberry blossoms.

The prickly pear, Opuntia vulgaris, too, is good for very dry places. This picturesque cactus-like plant is usually seen growing singly or in clumps. And the pale corydalis, Corydalis sempervirens, grows natu- rally where it can silhouette its delicate stems and exquisitely yellow and pink tinted flowers against rocks.

There are many taller flowers, too, that can be planted in back of the low ones. The lespedezas or bush clovers with long flower spikes on rigid stems and Pentstemon hirsutus, with slender spires hung with tubular purplish flowers, can be used singly here and there. The milkweeds or asclepias, too, are most effective when they are singled out. There are two kinds: the blunt-leaved Asclepias amplexicaulis with greenish purple flowers and delicate long pods, and

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The Open Field

Asclepias syriaca, the common milkweed, with helio- trope flowers arranged on top of great fleshy, deep green leaves.

On the other hand, the wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, with fringed corollas of lilac mauve, and Lobelia syphilitica with white-throated blue flowers, can be planted in scattered clumps. Of the several hypericums or St. John's-wort, with clusters of starry yellow flowers, only one is native. All of the several different loosestrifes have a delightful delicacy of habit, especially Lysimachia quadrifolia, with its group of four dark-streaked flowers modestly droop- ing beneath every whorl of light green leaves, and Lysimachia terrestris, with many little bronze-filled yellow blossoms arranged closely together upon a slender spike that stands erect and candle-like above the slender foliage.

All the violets and buttercups, the lupines and irises, the vervains and gerardias, can be gathered in small clumps and planted close to the path. The lilies, too, should be brought near it so that the details of their rich reddish-orange flowers with purple spottings can be fully appreciated. The flowers of Lilium philadel- phicum that stand upright and alone upon an erect leaf-whorled stem look like carved ornaments, while Lilium canadense, with groups of nodding flowers, are even more exquisitely modeled.

Not only the paths can be bordered with these flowers. The hedgerows, too, can be filled with them. And besides the ones mentioned there are still others like the pink dogbane, the white vervain and the

American Plants for American Gardens

meadow rue. The golden-rods and asters can also be gathered together there. They must be kept under control, however, for they spread so rapidly that they would soon usurp the entire field if they were per- mitted, as they so often actually do.

Both golden-rods and asters are fascinating in them- selves, in the number of their species and in the luxu- riousness of their effects. Of the asters, the most familiar is the Aster novce-anglice that grows every- where. It has a stout, stiff, hairy stem topped with large clusters of brilliant violet flowers. There is Aster lateriflorns, whose slender-leaved stems are terminated with lavender flowers. There is Aster macro phyllus, with flat-topped flower heads of laven- der violet and the deep blue Aster patens with widely- spaced rays that give it a very delicate effect. There is Aster Icevis with light blue flowers daintily arranged upon slender stems, Aster prenanthoides, with deep violet flowers that are sharply serrated, and Aster cordifolius. Besides, there are several white ones, the tall white Aster paniculatus with sparse flowers and long slender leaves, Aster ptarmicoides, the white aster with yarrow-like heads of small flowers and lanceolate foliage, Aster vimineus with slender sprays of tiny flowers, Aster divaricatus, and Aster ericoides. These various species succeed one another in blooming from August to November. The last to hold its flowers is the Aster ericoides.

It is not only necessary that all the flowers be in the field. It is also important to consider the bound- aries. The rail fences, the stone walls and the

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The Open Field

hedgerows are the characteristic enclosures. They divide the fields from one another and separate them from the lanes and roads.

The hedgerow is a comparatively narrow planting strip which the farmer did not encroach upon in clear- ing for his arable fields. Its edges are usually straight and well ordered. If the outline is at all irregular it is because a rocky outcrop made it impossible for the plow to reach it. The hedgerow has a delightful picturesqueness. Some of its spontaneity is due to the varying ages of the plants, for the seedling growth is constantly springing up around maturer vegetation, but its character depends for the most part upon the manner in which each plant in it adapts itself.

Cornus paniculata, the dogwood, is one of its promi- nent shrubs, in dry places, because it is able to adjust itself admirably to poor soil and lack of moisture. It generally grows all by itself and forms veritable hedge-like formations. The bushes are so beautifully formed into undulating masses that they have an air of choiceness. They are noticeable in the spring when the young leaves have a bronze tone and the flowers are cream-toned. They are equally effective in mid- summer when cool white berries show on cerise pedicels amid the green foliage. Cornus circinata, sometimes found with the panicled dogwoods, is not quite as well equipped for its position and always remains a minor note in the planting. On the other hand, the chokecherries and the pin cherries adapt themselves so readily to almost every condition that they are almost always to be found. They are most

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American Plants for American Gardens

delightful when they seem to spring up quite care- lessly here and there amid the other shrubs. Their graceful habits lighten the effect of the planting. The drooping racemes of the one and the umbel-like clus- ters of the other make them particularly pleasing during the spring. Of the two the chokecherry is the lovelier. It is well worth the effort to keep it free from its special pest, the tent caterpillar. If it is watched early enough in the year the burden of care is not overwhelming.

Viburnum prunifolium abounds, also, in hedgerows. Its striking habit and handsome foliage make it one of the most beautiful shrubs. It is especially notice- able in May when every horizontal branch bears large cymes of cream-white flowers. It is often found singly, sometimes at almost stated intervals. Then it forms a kind of repeat pattern. Sometimes, spread- ing as it does by underground stolons, it makes sturdy groups that occasionally grow into great masses. It is always surprising that such a precious-looking shrub should grow best in the thinnest of soils and in the most difficult places. In the same situations are scattered, too, groups of Viburnum pubescens and Viburnum Lentago, occasional scrub oaks and abun- dant masses of sweet ferns and wild roses.

In moister places there are hazelnuts, Viburnum dentatum and Viburnum cassinoides, with Spircea latifolia, the meadow-sweet, and Spircoa tomentosa, the steeple bush, and Potentilla fruticosa, the shrubby cinquefoil, to fill in the foreground.

The hazelnuts have rugged stems, rough foliage,

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The Open Field

brown scaly buds with coral-tongued pistils, and orna- mental fruits that make them very decorative through- out the year. Sometimes they grow in thickets, and then again they appear in smaller groups among the viburnums. Viburnum dentatum, the arrow-wood, is a sturdy shrub with rugged, strongly-veined foli- age. Viburnum cassinoides, the wild raisin, seems more delicate. It is smaller, hardly more than six feet high, with graceful low branches and shining foliage. Its soft white flowers are arranged in small umbels. Its fruit is particularly fascinating. It becomes notice- able in August when it is greenish white. By Sep- tember it has turned turquoise blue. In October it is rose pink with occasional cymes that have all three colors intermingled. Finally before it falls, it turns blue black.

The viburnums and dogwoods, the hazels and choke- cherries are much the same height. Variety is gained however, through the distinctive individuality of their stemmage and color as shown in the stiff, erect twigs of the gray-toned Cornus paniculata, in the limpid character of Viburnum Lentago, in the defmiteness of the Viburnum dentatum growth, and in the angularity of the Viburnum prunifolium branching.

In addition to this, small trees like Prunus serotina, the wild black cherry, Prunus nigra, and Crataegus in numerous species, often outstrip the shrubs in height and contribute a modest irregularity to the skyline of the hedgerow. This variation is further accentuated by the vines that tumble over the stone walls and fences in tangled masses and clamber even into shrub

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American Plants for American Gardens

and tree in luxuriant festoons. There are honey- suckles that have fiery red flowers, Virginia creepers that are very showy when the autumn turns the foli- age flame color, and bitter-sweets that become con- spicuous when their berries turn orange and then open to show their scarlet centers. Besides, there are two kinds of wild grapes with fragrant flowers, soft brownish-red spring foliage, and luxuriant, wonder- fully formed summer leaves. Vitis lubrusca, the fox grape, is an ancestor of our familiar Concord and adapts itself to every situation. Its leaves are very large and opposite each one is a fascinating tendril. The fruit is sometimes amber and sometimes purple. Vitis cestivalis, the summer grape, prefers moist places. Its leaves are smaller, more lobed and dis- tinctly pubescent underneath. Its fruit is black with a bloom.

Hedgerows like these are sometimes found full grown and then again they have to be entirely recreated. They can border the roads and drives. They can be brought close to the house for groups of any one of their shrubs, trees and vines are appropri- ate against it. They are, moreover, essential for the enclosure of the field.

Hedgerows emphasize the fact that a field of this kind requires a country setting. It needs an acre or so at the outskirts of the town, or better still, a larger acreage farther out, to give it the proper dimensions. It needs country surroundings with encircling hills that are well wooded and a stream that flows through the valley. It needs, too, a country house that is in

[iS]

The Open Field

spirit with it. Such a house should have the architec- tural simplicity of a farmstead, especially of the early American type. Sometimes the house can be really an old one. Sometimes, it is freshly designed in the old manner with low and broad-stretched lines, with roofs and gables that fit the rolling topography, and with wide terraces. Often a great old tree shelters it and throws its shadows across it. Out beyond in the sun- shine the fields can then be one luxurious mass of flowers.

THE OPEN FIELD ASSOCIATION

In all lists plants with * are not native, but have become so well established that they have been included in the lists.

Shrubs

Celastrus scandens Bitter-sweet

Cornus circinata Round-leaved Dogwood

Cornus paniculata Dogwood

Corylus americana Hazelnut

Crataegus sp Hawthorn

Juniperus communis Ground Juniper

Lonicera sempervirens Trumpet Honeysuckle

Lyonia ligustrina Male Berry

Myrica asplenifolia Sweet Fern

Potentilla fruticosa Shrubby Cinquefoil

Prunus cuneata Plum

Prunus nigra Canada Plum

Prunus pennsylvanica Pin Cherry

Prunus serotina Wild Black Cherry

Prunus virginiana Choke Cherry

Psedera quinquefolia Virginia Creeper

Quercus illicijolia Scrub Oak

Rhus copallina Dwarf Sumach

Rhus glabra Smooth Sumach

Rhus typhina Staghorn Sumach

Ribes vulgare* Red Currant

Robinia hispida Rose Acacia

Rosa blanda Rose

Rosa rubiginosa * Sweetbrier Rose

Rubus allegheniensis Blackberry

Rubus idaeus * Raspberry

Rubus recurvans Blackberry

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American Plants for American Gardens

Shrubs {Continued)

Rubus villosus Dewberry

Spircea latifolia Meadow-sweet

Spiraa tomentosa Steeple Bush

Viburnum cassinoides Wild Raisin

Viburnum dentatum Arrow-wood

Viburnum Lentago Nannyberry

Viburnum prunifolium Black Haw

Viburnum pubescens Downy Arrow-wood

Vitis (Estivalis Summer Grape

Vitis labrusca Northern Fox Grape

Zanthoxylum americanum Prickly Ash

Herbs

Achillea Millefolium Yarrow

Anaphalis margaritacea* Pearly Everlasting

Anemone canadensis Anemone

Anemone virginiana Anemone

Antennaria neglecta Everlasting

Antennaria neodioica Everlasting

Antennaria Parlinii Everlasting

Antennaria plantaginifolia Plantain-leaved Everlasting

Apocynum androsaemifolium Spreading Dogbane

Apocynum cannabinum Indian Hemp

Arenaria lateriflora Sandwort

Asclepias amplexicaulis Milkweed

Asclepias syriaca Common Milkweed

Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly Weed

Asparagus officinalis* Asparagus

Asperula galioides * Asperula

Aster cordifolius Aster

Aster divaricatus Aster

Aster ericoides Aster

Aster Icevis Aster

Aster lateriflorus Aster

Aster macrophyllus Aster

Aster novce-anglice Aster

Aster paniculatus Aster

Aster patens Aster

Aster prenanthoides Aster

Aster ptarmicoides Aster

Aster vimineus Aster

Barbarea ^vulgaris* Yellow Rocket

Blephilia ciliata Blephilia

Campanula rapunculoides * Bellflower

Castilleja coccinea Scarlet Painted Cup

Centaur ea nigra* Spanish Buttons

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The Open Field

Herbs (Continued)

Cerastium vulgatum* Common Mouse-ear Chickweed

Cerastium arvense* Field Mouse-ear Chickweed

Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum * Ox-eye Daisy

Cichorium Intybus * Chicory

Cirsium lanceolatum* Bull Thistle

Convolvulus spithamceus Bindweed

Coronilla varia * Coronilla

Corydalis sempervirens Pale Corydalis

Cuphea petiolata Clammy Cuphea

Daucus Car ota* Carrot

Dianthus Armeria* Deptford Pink

Dioscorea villosa Wild Yam-root

Dipsacus sylvestris* Wild Teasel

Epilobium augustifolium Fireweed

Erigeron annuus Daisy Fleabane

Erigeron philadelphicus Fleabane

Erigeron pulchellus Robin's Plantain

Fragaria virginiana Strawberry

Galium Mollugo* Bedstraw

Gnaphalium polycephalum Common Everlasting

Gnaphalium uliginosum Low Cudweed

Hedeoma pulegioides American Pennyroyal

Helianthus divaricatus Sunflower

Hieracium aurantiacum* Devil's Paint-brush

Hieracium florentinum* King Devil

Hieracium Gronovii Hawkweed

Hieracium Pilosella * Mouse-ear

Houstonia carulea Bluets

Hypericum canadense St. John's-wort

Hypericum perforatum* Common St. John's-wort

Hypoxis hirsuta Star Grass

Iris versicolor Larger Blue Flag

Lespedeza capitata Bush Clover

Lespedesa simulata Bush Clover

Lilium canadense Wild Yellow Lily

Lilium philadelphicum Wood Lily

Linaria vulgaris* Butter and Eggs

Lobelia inflata Indian Tobacco

Lobelia siphilitica Great Lobelia

Lobelia spicata Lobelia

Lupinus perennis Wild Lupine

Lychnis alba* White Campion

Lysimachia quadrifolia Loosestrife

Lysimachia terrestris Loosestrife

Medicago falcata* Medfck

Medicago sativa * Alfalfa

Melilotus officinalis* Yellow Melilot

[«]

American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Monarda fistulosa Wild Bergamot

Oenothera biennis Common Evening Primrose

Oenothera fruticosa Sundrops

Oenothera putnila Evening Primrose

Origanum vulgar e* Wild Marjoram

Opuntia vulgaris Prickly Pear

Oxalis filipes Wood Sorrel

Oxalis stricta Wood Sorrel

Pentstemon hirsutus Beard-tongue

Phaseolus polystachyus Wild Bean

Physalis pruinosa Strawberry Tomato

Phytolacca decandra Common Poke

Plantago lanceolata * Rib Grass

Plantago major Common Plantain

Poly gala sanguinea Milkwort

Poly gala verticillata Whorled Milkwort

Polygonum virginianum Knotweed

Potentilla arguta Cinquefoil

Potentilla canadensis Cinquefoil

Potentilla intermedia* Cinquefoil

Potentilla pumila Cinquefoil

Potentilla recta* Rough Fruited Cinquefoil

Prunella vulgaris Heal-all

Pycnanthemum flexuosum Mountain Mint

Pycnanthemum virginianum Mountain Mint

Ranunculus bulbosus* Bulbous Buttercup

Ranunculus fascicularis Early Crowfoot

Ranunculus septentrionalis Swamp Buttercup

Rudbeckia hirta Black-eyed Susan

Rumex Ac eto sella * Sheep Sorrel

Saponaria officinalis* Bouncing Bet

Satureja vulgaris Basil

Silene latifolia* Bladder Campion

Silene noctiflora* Night-flowering Catchfly

Sisyrinchium angustifolium Blue-eyed Grass

Solanum nigrum Common Nightshade

Solidago altissima Golden-rod

Solidago bicolor Golden-rod

Solidago canadensis Golden-rod

Solidago graminijolia Golden-rod

Solidago nemoralis Golden-rod

Solidago rigida Golden-rod

Solidago rugosa Golden-rod

Solidago rugosa var. villosa Golden-rod

Specularia perfoliata Venus' Looking Glass

Stachys arenicola Hedge Nettle

Stellaria longifolia Common Chickweed

[22]

The Open Field

Herbs {Continued)

Stellaria media * Chickweed

Steironema ciliatum Steironema

Tanacetum vulgar e * Common Tansy

Taraxacum officinale* Common Dandelion

Thalictrum polygamum Tall Meadow Rue

Tragopogon pratensis* Goat's Beard

Trichostema dichotomum Bastard Pennyroyal

Trifolium agrarium * Yellow Clover

Trifolium arense * Rabbit-foot Clover

Trifolium hybridum * Alsike Clover

Trifolium pratense * Red Clover

Trifolium procumbens* Low Hop Clover

Trifolium repens White Clover

Verbascum Blattaria* Moth Mullein

V erbascum Thapsus * Common Mullein

Verbena urticcefolia White Vervain

Veronica officinalis Common Speedwell

Vicia villosa * Winter Vetch

Viola fimbriatula Violet

Waldsteinia fragarioides Barren Strawberry

Ferns

Dicksonia punctilobula Hay-scented Fern

/

[23]

CHAPTER III

THE JUNIPER HILLSIDE

The dry sunny hillside is so rocky and exposed that only a few plants are able to adapt themselves to its rigorous conditions. Among them the red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, is the most prominent. They scatter over the hillside; they crown the knolls; they mount the slopes in groups of varying numbers ; they assemble on the ridges in long, closely gathered masses. They are always striking in form. As young trees they are slender and columnar and branched to the very ground. As old specimens they are loose- limbed and broadly conical with a strong brown trunk showing below wide up-curving branches. They stand out as picturesque silhouettes against the rocky hill- side or show their jagged outlines against the sky. And because these junipers are so telling in form and so impressive in numbers, all the plants that grow about them are known as members of the Juniper Association.

The ground juniper, Juniperus communis, is one of them. It is in marked contrast to the cedar. It is a flat and matted shrub with upturned bristly branches. It grows singly or in masses that are spaced far apart.

[24]

Courtesy of Margaret de M. Brown.

THE BLACK HAW WITH ITS ANGULAR HABIT AND HORIZONTAL BRANCHES GROWS CLOSE AGAINST THE CEDARS.

s

The Juniper Hillside

The black haw, Viburnum prunifolium, grows in small groups close against the cedars. It has a strong angular habit and horizontal branching. The scrub oak and the choke cherry are found here and there. And roses, sweet fern, bayberry and blueberry cover the fields and drift downward into the hollows. The sumachs, too, gather in wide-flung masses in the lower and less sterile spots. Besides, bittersweet and Vir- ginia creeper climb into trees and shrubs, tumble over rocks and clamber over stone walls. And the common barberry, Berberis vulgaris, grows there singly or in small clumps. It is really a European variety, intro- duced years ago, that found this situation so congenial that it became naturalized.

It is the junipers, gray-toned in spring and deeper green later on, that make the foil for the seasonal effects of these shrubs and vines. Their evergreen sets off the black haw when the numerous sprays of white flowers make the one telling flower display of this association. And they make a background for the striking colors that the autumn brings. The black haw foliage turns wine-red then. The Virginia creeper is flame-colored. The bittersweet berries are bright orange-yellow. The leaves of the sumachs make crimson splashes and their velvety fruits are mahogany-red spires. And the junipers themselves have turquoise-blue berries.

The irregular spaces of seemingly barren ground between the juniper groups and the shrub masses are covered with low herbaceous plants. The outcropping ledges are veritable little rock gardens. Mosses and

[25]

American Plants for American Gardens

lichens spread them with soft grays and greens. Tiny rare maidenhair spleenworts and other small ever- green ferns spring up in many a little nook. The gray rosettes of saxifrages fill every crevice, while the slender stems of the airy columbines rise delicately above their groundwork. These make choice little pictures. The sunny stretches, on the other hand, have different plants. First come the bulbous butter- cups and Viola fimbriatula, all gold and blue in the springtime. Next come the yellow and white Linaria vulgaris, butter and eggs, surprisingly rare-looking in this setting, and the delicate maroon-touched moth mullein, as dainty as can be. These are really natural- ized, but they have long ago become as necessary a detail to the scene as any of the flowers that are truly indigenous. Then, there are pennyroyal and evening primroses, mountain mints and speedwell, St. John's- wort and bush clover, common yarrow and black-eyed Susans. Later, the goldenrods are in flower; Solidago graminifolia, Solidago nemoralis and Solidago rugosa var. villosa. They have graceful sprays and dainty flower chains. And with the goldenrods come the asters. Aster cordifolius and Aster prenanthoides have blue flowers. Aster vimineus has small white flowers, and the white slender-sprayed Aster ericoides is the daintiest of them all. This intermingled white and gold and blue is scattered lightly over the uneven fields and lasts for several weeks. And, as it fades, the silvery-white everlastings show against the browned autumn-dried flowers and the fawn-colored grasses.

[26]

The Juniper Hillside

All of these trees and shrubs, vines, flowers and ferns are sturdy plants. They withstand drastic changes of temperature. They brave poor soil and excessive dryness. They endure windswept exposure. They win out over every adverse condition. But more than this, they adapt themselves with telling infor- mality to the irregular topography, perfect the rug- gedness of the environment and vitalize the rock con- tours.

Such a hillside stands in rugged picturesqueness above the lowlands with their fields and streams. It is in strong contrast to the gray birch copses, to the oak woods and to the pines around it. The very thought of owning it and of keeping it unspoiled is stimulating. Unfortunately, in the course of time and circumstance, the plow may have uprooted many of the shrubs and flowers, and the ax cut away the trees. If that is so, there is a marvelous incentive to recreate what has been destroyed. And if all the plants of a particular hillside have been cleared away, other existing examples can become inspiring guides for their reproduction.

The size of the property matters very little, for the juniper association can adapt itself equally well to large and small places. Its assemblings can be repeated in infinite variety on a large estate, and yet the plants are so few in number that its arrangements are also adapted to limited surroundings, to even the smallest property.

Such a hillside is full of possibilities when it becomes the site for a house. It can influence the

[27]

American Plants for American Gardens

style and can control the shape, the roof lines, the plan and the materials. In this way, the building becomes one with its surroundings. Under the sway of the rugged picturesqueness, the house becomes low and wride-spread so that it nestles into the hillside. Its outlines are irregular so that the wings and ells fit the uneven slope. The roof has gables and over- hanging eaves that seem to repeat the contours. The first floor is arranged on several levels to conform to the topography. And the materials of the house are suggested by the environment. Dark brown shingles can blend with the green of the cedars, stucco can take its tone from the color of the ledges, stone can be hewn from the rocks themselves.

Such a house becomes an actual part of the land- scape when its immediate surroundings are also adapted to the topography of the juniper hillside and when the planting plan is developed with the materials that naturally grow there. As soon as the plan is begun, some of the possibilities manifest themselves. Take the drive. It can be adapted to the contours and made to wind naturally up the hill. Its whole way can be outlined with irregular clumps of cedars and the turns marked by groups of black haws. All along the edges masses of blueberries and roses can be planted in broad borders. These plants can surround the turn-around that is sunk inconspicuously into a hollow. They can be brought up to the house itself and arranged against it. The black haw has such an impressive structure that it can be very effective beside the entrance door. The scrub oaks, difficult though

[a8J

The Juniper Hillside

they are to transplant, are worth a trial because their irregular forms are so striking against the wall. The cherries make an excellent group for the corner of the house where they can best display their shining foli- age and their hanging racemes of white flowers. The roses are low enough to be placed under the windows and the little cinquefoils can make a green ground cover for the shrubs and spread their trailers out to the edge of the drive.

In developing the surroundings of the house for outdoor living, some of the most interesting pos- sibilities of the juniper hillside can be realized. Due to the irregular contours, a series of little outdoor places can be built at different levels. Some can be raised a little above the surroundings while others can be sunk cozily into the slope. Dry-laid walls and rugged steps can be built to connect them in an informal manner. The native plant material adapts itself to them all. One little place can be well-shel- tered from the wind by masses of enclosing cedars and Virginia creepers can trail over the walls. Another place that is hollowed out of the hill can become a shady court. On the top of its walls com- mon juniper can make a green border and bitter- sweet cover the wall with hanging streamers. The fruit of the bittersweet is so effective that it attracts the attention of everyone, but its little greenish flowers that are arranged in lovely racemes-like clusters are overlooked except by the observant few.

And there is always need for a terrace. It should

[29]

American Plants for American Gardens

be close to the living-room so that it can be used at any time and at any season. It should be made dry underfoot by well-laid paving while mosses and lichens can be brought in to cover the flags and fill the crevices between. Their matted growth makes a soft floor-covering. A low retaining wall can be built around it. At the base of this wall a narrow border can be filled with evergreen ferns, a mass of polypods with here and there a taller Christmas fern. This wall can be laid without mortar. The earth that binds the stone together can then be filled with tiny spleen- wort ferns and with the small polypods as a green background for the gray saxifrages and the silvery white everlastings that can be made to peep out of the wall. Columbines can be tucked into soil pockets everywhere in incredible numbers. They are such lacy plants with their gray-green fern-like leaves and this daintiness is heightened by the way their red and yellow flowers nod on slender stems. Their delight- ful flowering is followed in the autumn by new rosettes that cover the wall after the far-flung seeds have taken hold in every little crevice of their own accord. This will make a wall garden of unusual delicacy.

The steps of this terrace can lead to a path that is made to wander leisurely through flowers. It can be bordered all along its way with violets and bulbous buttercups. Even after the flowers are gone, their evergreen rosettes make a lasting ground cover. They can be intermingled to edge borders filled with

[30]

The Juniper Hillside

fragrant mints and pennyroyals and surrounded with masses of sweet fern. This makes a garden of rare sweet scent. The path can then wander on through other intermingled flowers that spread out in all direc- tions. The autumn effects can be especially interest- ing when the asters and goldenrods come in bloom with occasional bush clovers rising up among them. For all their gay profusion, they have a rugged refine- ment which is characteristic of all the flowers that grow in barren soil upon open and wind-dried hill- sides.

These naturalistic flower gardens can be sur- rounded with blueberry bushes. They are lovely shrubs, full of interest through the year. In the spring clusters of white bell-flowers come before the leaves. These are followed later on by sweet blue- berries that ripen in the midst of smooth green foliage. In the autumn the leaves turn to a bronze that takes on varied tones with refraction of the sunlight from their shining surfaces. Even in winter the angular branches and the interlaced twigs are charmingly accented by plump little reddish buds.

These low shrubs cover the ground and can be made to drift off to boundaries of cherries and scrub oaks. The viburnums and sumachs can be made tell- ing by adding clumps of cedars. It is planting of this kind that can blend the house and its immediate sur- roundings imperceptibly with the natural landscape.

[31]

American Plants for American Gardens

THE JUNIPER ASSOCIATION Trees

Juniperus virginiana Red Cedar

Robinia Pseitdo- Acacia Common Locust

Shrubs

Berberis vulgaris* Common Barberry

Celastrus scandens Bittersweet

Cornus paniculata Dogwood

Juniperus communis Common Juniper

Lonicera sempervirens Trumpet Honeysuckle

Myrica asplenifolia Sweet Fern

Myrica carolinensis Bayberry

Prunus virginiana Choke Cherry

Psedera quinquefolia Virginia Creeper

Quercus ilicifolia Scrub Oak

Rhus copallina Dwarf Sumach

Rhus glabra Smooth Sumach

Rhus typhina Staghorn Sumach

Ribes vulgar e* Red Currant

Rosa blanda Rose

Rosa rubiginosa * Sweetbrier Rose

Rubus allegheniensis Blackberry

Rubus idceus Raspberry

Rubus recurvans Blackberry

Rubus villosus Dewberry

Vaccinium pennsylvanicum Low Sweet Blueberry

Viburnum cassinoides Wild Raisin

Viburnum dentatum Arrow-wood

Viburnum Lenta go Nannyberry

Viburnum prunifolium Black Haw

Viburnum pubescens Downy Arrow-wood

Zanthoxylum americanum Prickly Ash

Herbs

Achillea Millefolium Common Yarrow

Anaphalis margaritacea Pearly Everlasting

Anemonella thalictroides Rue Anemone

Antennaria neglecta Everlasting

Antennaria neodioica Everlasting

Antennaria Parlinii Everlasting

Antennaria plantaginifolia Plantain-leaved Everlasting

Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine

Aster cordifolius Aster

Aster ericoides Aster

Aster novce-anglice Aster

[33]

The Juniper Hillside

Herbs {Continued)

Aster prenanthoides Aster

Aster vimineus Small White Aster

Blephilia ciliata Blephilia

Cerastium vulgatum Mouse-ear Chickweed

Chimaphila maculata Spotted Wintergreen

Chimaphila umbellata Pipsissewa

Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum * Ox-eye Daisy

Comandra umbellata Bastard Toad-flax

Desmodium nudiflorum Tick Trefoil

Gnaphalium polycephalum Cudweed

Gnaphalium uliginosum Low Cudweed

Hedeoma pulegioides American Pennyroyal

Hieracium aurantiacum* Devil's Paint Brush

Hypericum canadense St. John's-wort

Lespedeza capitata Bush Clover

Lespedeza simulata Bush Clover

Linaria vulgaris * Butter and Eggs

Luzula parvi flora Wood Rush

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Monarda fistulosa Wild Bergamot

Monarda punctata Horse Mint

(Enothera biennis Common Evening Primrose

CEnothera fruticosa Sundrops

(Enothera pumila Evening Primrose

Oxalis filipes Wood Sorrel

Oxalis stricta Wood Sorrel

Plantago lanceolata * Rib Grass

Poly gala pauciflora Fringed Polygala

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Potentilla argentea Silvery Cinquefoil

Potentilla canadensis Cinquefoil

Potentilla pumila Cinquefoil

Prunella vulgaris Self-heal

Pycnanthemum flexuosum Mountain Mint

Pycnanthemum virginianum Mountain Mint

Pyrola chlorantha Shin Leaf

Pyrola elliptica Shin Leaf

Ranunculus acris* Tall Buttercup

Ranunculus bulbosus* Bulbous Buttercup

Ranunculus fascicularis Early Crowfoot

Rudbeckia hirta Black-eyed Susan

Saxifraga virginiensis Early Saxifrage

Smilacina racemosa False Solomon's Seal

Solidago bicolor . . . Silver-rod

Solidago graminifolia Golden-rod

Solidago nemoralis Golden-rod

Solidago rugosa Golden-rod

[33]

American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Solidago rugosa var. villosa Golden-rod

Stellaria media * Common Chickweed

Thalictrum dioicum Early Rue

Verbascum Blattaria * Moth Mullein

Veronica officinalis Speedwell

Viola fimbriatula Violet

Viola latiuscula Violet

Viola pubescens Downy Yellow Violet

Ferns

Aspidium marginale Shield Fern

Asplenium platyneuron Spleenwort

Asplenium Ruta-muraria Wall Rue

Asplenium Trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort

Lycopodium obscurum var. dendroideum .Club Moss

Poly podium vulgare Polypody

Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

134]

Courtesy of Margaret dc M. Brown.

GRAY BIRCHES OF SLENDER FORM GATHER TOGETHER IN FAIRY-LIKE

GROUPS.

CHAPTER IV

THE GRAY BIRCHES

Wherever there are gray birches, Nature is in one of her lightest moods. These gray-white trees of slender form gather together in fairy-like groves. Their slim grace is accentuated by the way they often spring up in fives and sixes from a single root. When young they are gray-brown but later on they are phan- tom-white with black twigs and black notches. The effect is full of that mystery that etchings and delicate pencil drawings have. The gossamer quality is ever present ; in the spring when their filmy foliage is light- filled, in summer when their green is soft, in autumn when it is all sun-lit yellow, and even in the winter when the trees take on again their keynote colors from the snow and dark earth.

The floor of these birch groves is spread with ever- green ferns, with luxurious Christmas ferns, with lacy shield ferns, with polypods gathered in delightful green mats and occasionally even with the spleen- worts. The spring spreads the ground with the tiny yellow-blossomed vines of cinquefoils, with the white flowered strawberries, with creeping Veronica offici- nalis, with self-heals and with buttercups. And the

[35]

American Plants for American Gardens

autumn brings the golden-rod, pearly everlasting and silvery-white aster into bloom.

Here is a scene of delightful simplicity. It can be easily recreated and becomes effective almost imme- diately. Gray birches are rapid growers and fair- sized trees can be moved without difficulty. It is always advisable to transplant them in the spring. It is safest to use dormant trees but they can be moved even after the new leaves are fairly well developed. This work must be done quickly, however, in fact within a few hours, so that the foliage does not have a chance to droop.

Gray birches are comparatively short-lived. It is, therefore, best to surround them with slower growing and more permanent trees. In nature, the gray birch copses protect the seedling white pines which grow up in their midst and supplant them.

Gray birches are found, too, in many different places and sometimes exist under difficult conditions. They group themselves along slow streams, around drought-enduring bogs, on dry exposed hillsides among cedars, and on the edge of woods and in the shelter of great trees. In such places they heighten the effect of all the other planting.

The delicate way in which gray birches envelop their settings make them especially desirable. On an extensive estate, masses of them can be left to outline the drive, to skirt a sedge-bordered pool, to surround a clearing, to make a sweeping border to a woods and to give a foreground to pines. They are, however, even more appropriate for a small place where the>

[36]

The Gray Birches

can be gathered in a little grove about a small house. Their dainty habits accentuate the picturesqueness of little ells and one-storied wings, of casement windows and latticed porches, of gay colored shutters and door- ways. They are especially fitted, too, to edge little terraces, to encircle tiny lawns and to enclose small gardens. Polypods and tiny spleenworts and black- stemmed Asplenium platyneuron can be planted in the crevices of steps and in dry-laid walls. Christmas ferns can be used as borders. Cinquef oils and straw- berries can edge the paths with spontaneous irregu- larity. In among them clumps of self-heals and speedwells can be planted and in back of them there can be masses of buttercups, everlastings, silver-rods and asters. The daintiness of these flowers can be offset by clumps of shield ferns with their tall and graceful fronds. These spring and fall effects, as well as the summer greenness, is always heightened by the sunlight that loves to filter through gray birches and play upon the flower and fern covered ground.

THE GRAY BIRCH ASSOCIATION

Trees

Betula populifolia

Gray Birch

Herbs

Anaphalis margaritacea

Aster cordifolius

Aster prenanthoides . .

Aster vimineus ,

Epigaea repens

Frag aria virginiana . . ,

Lespedeza capitata

Lespedeza simulata ...

Oxalis filipes ,

Oxalis stricta

Pearly Everlasting

Aster

Aster

Aster

Mayflower

Strawberry

Bush Clover

Bush Clover

Wood Sorrel

Wood Sorrel

[37]

American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Potentilla canadensis Cinquefoil

Potentilla pumila Cinquefoil

Prunella vulgaris Self-heal

Ranunculus acris * Tall Buttercup

Ranunculus bulbosus * Bulbous Buttercup

Solidago bicolor Golden-rod

Veronica officinalis Common Speedwell

Ferns

Aspidium marginale Shield Fern

Asplenium platyneuron Spleenwort

Asplenium Trichomanes Spleenwort

Poly podium vulgar e Polypody

Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

[38]

CHAPTER V

THE PINKS

White pines are lordly evergreens, Within the forest they have trunks of marvel: us smai^hmess that rise without side branches to a great height. The infinite repetition of the vertical Enes expresses meir stateliness. On the edge of the woods, however, the branches are s:re:ched out horizontally in wide-spaced tiers that droop and sway with restiui rhythm.

The weathered brown of the bark and die soft green of the foliage is repeated on the earth under the trees by the thick mat of dried needles and the many little ground-covers. There are partridge berries with tiny-leafed, tiny-berried vines. There are bimchber-

ries with little dogwood-like blossoms and red fruit clusters. There are checkerberries that spread by creeping rootstocks into veritable carpets and hide frail little urn-shaped rlowers and red berries beneath

checkered leaves. There are dub mosses with minia- ture tree-formed shoots and other lycopodimns wiih thick light-toned evergreen streamers. Evergreen ferns grow in masses. Marvelous lady's slippers are gathered together in colonies. .And here and there, pipsissewas and pyrolas are scattered singly and show their daintily sculptured wax)- flowers above ever- green leaves.

[39]

American Plants for American Gardens

These low ground-covers and the pines above them are a small group that has reserve and dignity. Be- cause the pine gives it its character the group is known as the Pine Association.

White pines grow on the sides of mountains, on the tops of high ridges, on rocky shores and beside crag- edged lakes. They begin to grow in gray birch woods where shade is provided for their seedlings and pro- tection for the young trees. In particularly rugged spots, the white pine saplings gain foothold among pitch pines and rigorous red pines that establish them- selves first. The intermingling of the three varieties brings out interesting differentiations in their bark textures and their needle lengths while the scraggy growth of the pitch pines and of the red pines is a foil for the grandeur of the white pines.

In the north, white pines still cover great areas and have been left undisturbed for centuries. Together with arbor-vitse, spruce, balsam fir and hemlock they make a landscape rich in varied evergreens. Farther south they are seldom found now as great forests, but are usually seen in small woods, in groups and even as single specimens.

If the pines are young, softly rounded and bushy, it is evident that they are just beginning to establish themselves. In an old woods, however, they may be either sheltering very young oaks or struggling to hold their own in a mature oak woods that is supplant- ing them.

White pines deserve to be preserved or planted again. Seedlings are used in reforesting and come

[40]

The Pines

to their full grandeur only after a century, but fair- sized young trees can be planted on estates and in gardens and they develop, in a comparatively short time, at least some of the dignity of old trees. A few great trees, indeed a single aged pine, already on a property can be ever so valuable as a stately back- ground for the house. The brown bark and the ever- green blend with weathered shingles or contrast well with brick and gray stone. And the wide-spread evergreen-laden branches with needles grouped to- gether in slender clusters is a delightfully shady set- ting for a garden made up of all the ground-loving companions of the white pines. Bunchberries can out- line its paths, partridge berries can make edgings for masses of ferns, checkerberries can be used as ground covers under pipsissewas and pyrolas, while lady's slippers can be planted at the foot of each tree. Such a garden is possible upon many a wooded slope or hill- top. It can be near the house, beside the very terrace or just beyond the living room, or it can be farther away from the house in a more secluded spot wherever a pine rises up above birches or among oaks.

In real forests of white pines, the entire scene can be simply kept intact with paths that are needle- covered, ground that is spread with green creepers, and views that are framed by tall trees. Log cabins and rough stone lodges can be built to fit into these surroundings. They can be low so as to accentuate the height of the trees. They can be inconspicuous, almost invisible even at a short distance, among the rocks and in the shadowy depth of the woods.

[4i]

American Plants for American Gardens

THE PINE ASSOCIATION Trees

Pinus resinosa Red Pine

Pinus rigida Pitch Pine

Pinus Strobus White Pine

Herbs

Chimaphila umbellata Pipsissewa

Cornus canadensis Bunchberry

Cypripedium acaule Lady's Slipper

Gaultheria procumbens Checkerberry

Lespedeza capitata Bush Clover

Lespede2a simulata Bush Clover

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Pyrola chlorantha Shin Leaf

Pyrola elliptica Shin Leaf

Solidago bicolor Golden-rod .

Solidago canadensis Golden-rod

Ferns

Aspidium marginale Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosutn Shield Fern

Lycopodium clavatum Club Moss

Lycopodium complanatum Club Moss

Lycopodium obscurum var. dendroideum. Club Moss Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

[42]

CHAPTER VI

THE OAK WOODS

Oak woods are found on uplands. They rise above the streams and ponds, surround the sunny fields, fringe the juniper slopes, and cover many a hillside. Sometimes, on the one hand, there are aged white pines left among them on the ridges, and on the other hand the oaks themselves are left on the sides of ravines among beeches, maples and hemlocks.

There are many different kinds of oaks, white oaks and red oaks, scarlet, black and chestnut oaks. The white oaks and the red oaks grow side by side in about equal numbers and sometimes become great gnarled wide-branched trees. Because of their dominance, this woodland which is really composed of a rich variety of vegetation, is called the Oak Association.

In this woods, there are tulip trees, hickories and basswoods, which together with the oaks, make the highest growth. Below them are small trees and shrubs; dogwoods, hop hornbeams and sassafras, bladder nuts, witch-hazels and alternate-leaved dog- woods, pinxter flower, blue tangles, huckleberries and low sweet blueberries, New Jersey teas, arrow-woods and mountain laurels. In their midst honeysuckles, grapes, purple-flowering raspberries and Clematis ver- ticillaris twine and tumble, and many herbaceous

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plants and ferns grow underneath. This makes a defi- nitely layered formation which is distinctive of the oak association.

The sequence of its effects is also characteristic. At the very approach of spring the daintiest flowers find their way up through the fallen leaves; pastel- tinted hepaticas, rose-veined spring beauties and gray- rosetted saxifrages, snow-white arabis, tinted ane- mones and golden-stemmed gray-white blood-roots, anemonellas, heucheras, and bishop's caps. At the same time the oaks are opening their leaf buds in hazy grays, or in warm rose and copper tones. A lit- tle later the hickories unfold gray petal-like buds with reflexed scales glistening in gold, salmon and rose. And the ferns beneath are also uncurling their russet- scaled green fronds.

There are other flowers, too, tiny groundnuts, vio- let-fringed polygalas and all kinds of dainty violets. There are also wild gingers, solomon seals, yellow star grass and greenish yellow bellworts. There are wild geraniums, meadow rues, sarsaparillas, baneber- ries and false spikenard. Some of these are in bloom when the fleeting whiteness of dogwoods edge the woods, some accompany the clustered pink of Rhodo- dendron nudiflorum, and some supplement the flow- ering of the mountain laurels ; occasionally, arbutus is found.

At mid-summer, foxgloves and yellow loosestrifes, lavender and purple-flowered milkweeds, Anemone virginiana and Cimicifuga racemosa, the snake-root, rise here and there. Later still come the blue and

[44]

The Oak Woods

white asters. They mingle their ethereal coloring with the richer autumn tones of the trees and shrubs. Bronze thickets of huckleberries are everywhere un- der the trees. Above them rise the lithe stems of the arrow-woods with clustered purplish black berries and rose-suffused leaves that have a marvelous mo- saic translucence. Above there is the burnished rose, yellow, red and mahogany of the dogwoods, contrast- ing masses of red and yellow sassafras, the clear yel- low of witch-hazels, the pale gold of tulip trees, the straw and russet brown of hickories, intermingled with the rich red and warm rose tones of the turning oaks. And here and there are scarlet dogwood ber- ries that are but a glint and a gleam to be caught be- fore the birds and squirrels make way with them.

Then in the winter the flaky silver-gray of the white oak trunks, the russet-touched huckleberry twigs, the green blueberry stems, and the bark browns and grays of the other trees and shrubs are all held together by the soft burnished browns of the dried oak leaves that stay on some of the oaks and form the ground cover of the woods. Then, the bared trees and shrubs ex- hibit the structural beauty of their trunks and branches, twigs and buds as at no other time. The stiff angular branching of the oaks, the lacy twiggage of the hop hornbeams, the loosened slabs of the shag- bark hickories, the arching witch-hazel stems, the scalloped seed vessels of the tulip trees, the horizontal dogwood branches with their gracefully curved-up tips terminated by round turban-like buds, are all beautiful in their line drawing while the patterns made

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American Plants for American Gardens

by the intermingled vegetation are veritable etch- ings.

These oak woodlands are found near the shore line of the Atlantic coast, all through the rolling country of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Long Is- land, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and upon the high ridges of the Alleghanies from Vermont to Georgia.

These are the woods, then, that are found on many a country estate. They provide the setting for the house and the background for the lawns and gardens. Their naturalistic character has an intrinsic beauty that pervades the entire property and that can be re- tained and reproduced in every part of it. A wide- branched tree often suggests a natural entrance and from it the drive can wind its way in gentle curves up to the house. With careful planning every tree of value can be retained and as little of the undergrowth as possible need be sacrificed for the road-bed. On either side of it the larger trees show their dark col- umns, the smaller trees make filmy screens, the her- baceous plants intermingle as ground covers and here and there, where there is sufficient light, shrubs appear ever so delicately. This planting is distinctive and is doubly significant when it is consistently brought up to the immediate surroundings of the house, used to encircle the terrace, forecourt and courtyard, and placed up against its very walls.

Pinxter flowers and blueberries, for instance, can be planted under the windows. Slender bladder nuts are good against narrow wall spaces. Alternate- leaved dogwoods and witch-hazels are effective at

[46]

The Oak Woods

corners. Clematis verticillaris with pinkish purple flowers can be trained against the wall beside large- leaved fragrant wild grapes. And dogwoods, even hop hornbeams and sassafras, can be used every- where, as wall screens, as courtyard enclosures, as accents for window groups and doors.

More than this, the woodland should imbue the house with its very spirit. It should suggest the building materials that are harmonious with it, such as weathered shingles, blackish slate, dark oak, soft- toned stucco, hand-made brick or stone. It should govern, too, the form of the house so that it with its ells and wings and surrounding buildings adapts itself to the natural contours of the land and to the charac- ter of the scene.

When the house is used only in the summer, it is often hidden deep in the woods. For all year around, however, it needs to be placed on the edge of a clearing in sunlight. Such an open space is found in the out- lying fields and meadows that are frequent in the midst of old woodlots. Here lawns can be the terraces immediately about the house, while the rest of the grass can be left undipped in keeping with the naturalistic surroundings. Here each great old tree, too, can be left as a wonderful feature.

It is important to keep or to recreate the spontane- ous outlines of the woods. Along the edge, the natural decorativeness of trunks and branches, of twiggage, of varying foliage greens and of different leaf forms can be noticed. And there, the sunlight makes all the trees and shrubs flower abundantly.

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American Plants for American Gardens

The bloom of the dogwood is striking. These trees are often distributed so thickly that, at flower time at least, they seem to be the most significant. They constitute, however, only the first display. Here, Rhododendron nudiflorum is full of color. The moun- tain laurels, too, flower luxuriantly. The arrow- woods make a white flower line with flat panicles held on stems of equal height, and the New Jersey tea blossoms that come a little later are soft against the mid-summer green. In the meanwhile, the bladder nuts are delicately beautiful with drooping white flow- ers and the hop hornbeams have dangling spring-time fruit that is as green as their filmy birch-like leaves. Both of these trees can be used in small groups here and there to lighten the effect. About the same time the branches of the tulip trees, far overhead, hold out great flowers with reflexed green sepals and greenish- yellow petals painted with orange. Tulip trees gen- erally grow singly and widely scattered. The tree is very striking because of the way its great columnar shaft rises straight up through the interwoven branches of other trees.

Another effect is always a surprise when toward the end of October the witch-hazels come unexpectedly into flower. They can be used in telling groups, for their light-filled yellow flowers add indescribable loveliness to the intermingled trees and shrubs.

Around these clearings lie the main woods. Bridle- paths and trails can be cut through to reach every part. First a wide path can be made all around the edges of the estate to outline the property's full ex-

[48]

The Oak Woods

tent and serve as fire barrier. Other paths may lead along the ridges, skirt a pasture or small clearing, dip down into the valley, cross a little stream by ford or stone bridge, climb a slope, pass rocky outcrops, mount the natural steps of ledges and reach the top of the hill for the view.

Sometimes, on a wood lot of perhaps fifty acres, it can take an hour or more to walk around the entire woods, but there are always cross paths, too, that make it possible to return in shorter time without re- tracing any steps. Such walks are always full of adventure, especially if there is an intimate knowledge of the woods.

It requires no little art to leave the woods absolutely natural and seemingly untouched. And yet, nature can be aided. Dried underbrush and dead trunks can be cleared away, crowded woods can be thinned, great old specimens can be singled out, and diseased and dying trees can be treated. Moreover, burnt-over areas can be encouraged. Even in the short period of five years a marked change will be noticed. The vigor of the older trees that have been saved from too severe fire will seem fully renewed. The sprouts that start from stumps will be approximately eighteen feet high. New branches will overarch the paths and shadows will begin to creep across them. The under- growth, by that time, will be full grown again and the whole area will take on again the semblance of a real wood.

All during this time, new trees, new shrubs and new flowers can be planted. There are opportunities

[49]

American Plants for American Gardens

for the most delightful naturalizing. All the little plants that are so characteristic a part of the oak woods can be reestablished. They can be assembled along the paths. Hepaticas, spring beauties, ane- mones, violets and bloodroots can be planted by the hundreds, even by the thousands in colonies. The maianthemum can be reestablished in groups at the base of tree trunks. The groundnuts can be planted in little mats. Both have the tiniest slender-stalked flowers in spring. Close by them Aster macrophyllus with its large leaves can be planted in thick masses. The various depths of soil and the different degrees of light penetrating through the foliage overhead in- fluence their special preferences as to sites. Some, like the wood betony, the milkweeds, the loosestrifes., as well as the arbutus (if it will grow at all), seek the sunny spots. Wild sarsaparillas, baneberries and bellworts gather in little clumps in the shade. Arabis and wild ginger, saxifrages and showy orchids, sum- mer-flowering anemones and snakeroots are found in the natural rockeries. And amid all these are many kinds of graceful asters. There are, too, many kinds of ferns, the various botrychiums, Aspidium mar- ginale, Aspidium spinulosum, Woodsia obtusa and, wherever limestone outcrops appear, is Camptosorus rhizophyllus or walking leaf.

These intermingled herbaceous plants make flower pictures that can be brought to their finest perfection where the paths draw near the house. The garden below the terrace, beside the porch, or within the courtyard can be kept in the spirit of this planting,

[50]

The Oak Woods

with the choicest of the trees, shrubs and flowers reserved for it. Tall tulip trees may rise above it or a great oak may shelter it. Dogwoods can be planted all around it and may also be used as specimens within the garden. Masses of mountain laurel in irregular hedgings will in a comparatively few years become shoulder-high.

Within such an enclosure the borders can be edged with Mitella diphylla, the bishop's cap, Heuchera americana, the alum root, and Tiarella cordifolia, the false mitre-wort. In spring their delicate white spires fill the garden, with the white of dogwoods above them. A little later they make a green cover with rosettes of lobed and heart-shaped leaves. Violets can be planted everywhere among them: Viola pabes- cens, the downy yellow violets, Viola latiuscula, Viola palmata, Viola triloba, and Viola rostrata, the long- spurred violets all found growing under oaks.

All these plants can be used, too, as a kind of groundwork for groups of light green ferns, white lacy-foliaged meadow-rues, decorative solomon seals, false spikenard, dainty gerardias, and the most deli- cate of the wood asters. Squaw huckleberries may be planted among them, far apart in the manner that they naturally grow. These are precious shrubs with loosely arranged horizontal sprays, soft foliage, and the most delightful little bell-shaped white blossoms with decorative russet-toned stamens.

This would make a green and white garden with violets, light blue asters and blush and pink mountain laurels to offset it. It would be a garden where leaf

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American Plants for American Gardens

forms and foliage textures would count as much as the flowers. It would be a garden of infinite refine- ment, an enviable garden to have close to the house.

The owner of the large estate has begun to under- stand the rich heritage that is his. He is appreciating the landscape value of the oak woods, is preserving their beauty and allowing their character to control the character of his house and its surroundings. The owner of a few acres has the same opportunities even if he has not quite so varied a landscape. He, too, can retain the roadside growth, build his house under the trees, reestablish the natural outlines of the clear- ing and preserve the real charm of the woods in their minutest details.

Many suburban communities are becoming estab- lished upon the wooded ridges that surround our cities. It is to be hoped that the natural beauty of these places will be fully realized before the untutored ax clears it away in preparing house sites as it has too often done before. Many suburban dwellers pre- fer roads that hold the charm of country lanes, with houses nestled cosily beneath great trees and sur- rounded with the growth that belongs there. Too many opportunities for beauty have been lost in sacri- ficing all the undergrowth and thinning the woods.

Isolated forest trees soon become diseased and die. And yet, wherever a few trees still remain, wherever a solitary hickory, a group of oaks or a few scattered tulip trees are left to give a clue, they can become the nucleus around which the vegetation that belongs to the oak woods may again be planted. Even on small

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The Oak Woods

lots with but a single big tree, the characteristic small trees and shrubs can be planted against the house and around the lawns, and the natural flowers and ferns can be gathered together in pleasant sun-flecked gardens.

THE OAK ASSOCIATION Trees

Carya alba Mocker Nut

Carya glabra Pignut

Carya ovata Shag-bark Hickory

Cornus florida Flowering Dogwood

Liriodendron Tulipifera Tulip Tree

Morus alba * White Mulberry

Ostrya virginiana Hop Hornbeam

Primus Pennsylvania Wild Red Cherry

Prunus serotina Wild Black Cherry

Pyrus americana American Mountain Ash

Quercus alba White Oak

Quercus coccinea Scarlet Oak

Quercus Muhlenbergii Yellow Oak

Quercus Prinus Chestnut Oak

Quercus rubra Red Oak

Quercus stellata Post Oak

Quercus velutina Black Oak

Sassafras variifolium Sassafras

Tilia americana Basswood

Shrubs and Vines

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Ceanothus americanus New Jersey Tea

Celastrus scandens Bitter-sweet

Clematis verticillaris Clematis

Cornus altemifolia Alternate-leaved Dogwood

Diervilla Lonicera Bush Honeysuckle

Gaylussacia frondosa Blue Tangle

Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel

Ilex verticillata Winterberry

Kalmia latifolia Mountain Laurel

Lonicera sempervirens Trumpet Honeysuckle

Rhamnus cathartica* Common Buckthorn

Rhododendron nudiflorum Pinxter Flower

Ribes Cynosbati Prickly Gooseberry

Ribes rotundifolium Gooseberry

Rosa setigera Climbing Rose

[S3]

American Plants for American Gardens

Serubs and Vinxs (Continued)

Rubus odorctus

Stopkylea trifolia

Voeciniu m fen nsyh a n km m Vatcinium Stzmintum

z : ::\ . u tn z zr. , ,z ns Viburnum zcerrzlium ...

l itis (zstxvalis

Vitis laftrmrn

Purple-flowering Raspberry Bladder Nut Low Sweet Blueberry Squaw Huckleberry Late Low Blueberry Arrow-wood irumrr.er Grape Northern Fox Grape

Ar.cz zYzz Ar.cz rub-rz

A.y,z;hz:ij mzr zzry.zzez Pearly Everlasting

A.nem-:ne zuinzuefc'.ia Wood Ar.emcne

Ametmom wmrgmmm Ambbw

Antennaria negUcta Everlasting

An:cKK.zri.j r,c:zi:i:z Everlasting

Asz'u*n :zk,zzck:c Wild Ginger

Asz'.ccizs fh\::'.z::cizcs Poke Milkweed

AscUpias quad ri folia Milkweed

Asz'.ccizs icnezziz Milkweed

Ar.tr ccuminztus .Aster

Aster cordijolius Aster

Arc- z:.\z*\:z:us Aster

A.r.cr inf.rir.us Aster

Aster Unarnfolius Aster

Aster macro pkyllus Aster

Aster fren.zn:h:izes Aster

Bzctisiz tin:t:riz Wild Indigo

Chi*Kz;ki-'z m.z:u.z:z Started Wir.tergreer.

CrAm.zckilz umzeV.ztz Pitsissewa

Cimi-:i;u;z <-z:r-<:: :z Black Snakeroot

Clz'jt c'.vz ia.r -\n\zz String Beauty

Cc-m.zn.zrz umzeY.ztz Bastard Toad-flax

CcryizHs serr.ferz~.rens Pale Cor.- da! is

C :::,/■"'. i~>:iniznum Wild C:~:rey

Cyr-'icezium czzu'.e Lady's Slipper

Eyizzcz rsf.rrj Mayr.cwer

Gz'.ium A.yzrine Cleavers

GzY'.um :i-:ztszns Wild Liquorice

Galium lanceolatum Wild Liquorice

Gzultktria pro cumbers Checkerberry

A.Kcn-.nt'.'.z :'r,z'.;.r.r:izcs

Rue .Anem:ne

An:cnn.zriz r'.z'.rzzinrzliz A z c r.z zz-.zicnr.s . . . .

A.rzzis iy-z:z

Arz'.iz nuzizzu.is

Everlasting

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The Oak Woods

Herbs {Continued)

Geranium maculatum Wild Cranesbill

Gerardia flava Downy False Foxglove

Gerardia virginica Smooth False Foxglove

Hepatica triloba Hepatica

Heuchera americana Common Alum Root

Hieracium venosum Poor Robin's Plantain

Hypoxis hirsuta Star Grass

Lespedeza capitata Bush Clover

Lespedeza simulata Bush Clover

Lusula parviftora Wood Rush

Lysitnachia quadrifolia Loosestrife

Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum

Melampyrum linear e Cow Wheat

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Mitella diphylla Bishop's Cap

Oakesia sessilifolia Oakesia

Orchis spectabilis Showy Orchis

Oxalis filipes Wood Sorrel

Oxalis violacea Violet Wood Sorrel

Panax trifolium Groundnut

Pedicularis canadensis Wood Betony

Pentstemon Icevigatus var. Digitalis Beard-tongue

Poly gala pauci flora Fringed Polygala

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Potentilla canadensis Cinquefoil

Potentilla pumila Cinquefoil

Prunella vulgaris Self-heal

Pyrola chlorantha Shin Leaf

Pyrola elliptica Shin Leaf

Sanguinaria canadensis Bloodroot

Saxifraga virginiensis Early Saxifrage

Scrophularia leporella Figwort

Smilacena racemosa False Spikenard

Solidago bicolor Golden-rod

Solidago ccesia Golden-rod

Solidago latifolia Golden-rod

Solidago squarrosa Golden-rod

Thalictrum dioicum Early Meadow Rue

Thalictrutn revolutum Meadow Rue

Tiarella cordifolia False Miterwort

Triosteum auranticum Horse Gentian

Uvularia grandiflora Bell wort

Uvularia perfoliata Bellwort

Veronica officinalis Speedwell

Viola latiuscula Violet

Viola palmata Violet

Viola pubescens Downy Yellow Violet

[ss]

/

4

CHAPTER VII

THE BEECH-MAPLE-HEMLOCK WOODS

Beeches, maples and hemlocks are found growing together in old and stately woods. The hemlocks are tall evergreen trees with seal brown trunks, drooping branches and short flat needles. The maples are sturdy round-topped trees. Their trunks are fur- rowed and gray-brown, their strong branches are noticeably upright, their leaves are deeply lobed. The beeches are broad symmetrical trees. Their smooth trunks are steel gray, their horizontal branches are placed in widespread tiers, their slender buds and pointed leaves are arranged far apart on spray-like stems.

These three trees occur in varied proportions ac- cording to the quality of the soil, the amount of mois- ture and the temperature. Sometimes, there are al- most all hemlocks, as in the far north and on high mountains. These forests are dark and green. Then again, there are almost all maples, as in the far south, whose open branching allows the light to filter through thickly clustered foliage. And sometimes, in places where the climate is moderate and the soil is very rich, there are all beeches. These woods are marked by the grayness of their trunks and twigs. When all three

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trees are about equally able to adapt themselves to pre- vailing conditions they intermingle and form a mixed woods that is known as the Beech-Maple-Hemlock Association.

The charm of this association depends upon the way the three trees appear together in all stages of their growth. There are century-old specimens of gigantic size and incomparable beauty and saplings that have all the loveliness of bark and trunk, of branch and twig, of leaf and bud that is so delightful in maturer trees. This intermingling of trees of all ages is a characteristic unique to the Beech-Maple-Hemlock Association.

The young trees take the place of the undergrowth usual in other woods, but occasionally a few other trees and shrubs are mingled with them. There may be scattered groups of white birches, black birches and yellow birches, masses of mountain laurels, ground covers of evergreen yews. There may be arrow-wood, striped maples and mountain maples ap- pearing here and there and, also, occasional dogwoods, witch-hazels and alternate-leaved dogwoods.

The interlacing branches make the woods quite shady. Herbaceous plants are, therefore, only found where sufficient light can penetrate. Then there are violets and trilliums, dutchman's breeches and spike- nards, bellworts and star-flowers, wild ginger, twisted stalks and Indian cucumber-roots, and various other little plants with delightfully delicate flowers, foliage and fruit. Ferns take their place wherever there is deeper shade, and waxy Indian pipes and brown beech

[58]

The Beech-Maple-Hemlock Woods

drops are found in the darkest spots. All these other trees, shrubs, flowers and ferns are only incidental to the three main trees and it is this incidental quality that forms a foil for the dignity of the beeches, maples and hemlocks.

These woods exist only in remote places and are on land that has been untouched for a long time. Many of them have been cut for lumber or to make way for farming and grazing lands. Whenever they are destroyed they seem utterly lost, for it takes over a century to replace them. Only a very few of the age- old forests remain and they are veritable landmarks. Even the younger woods are becoming comparatively rare. Their beauty is so precious that every effort to preserve them is worth-while. Their preservation makes a special appeal to every lover of trees.

Such a woods makes a priceless estate and an im- pressive setting for a great house. The first problem in connection with it is always the plotting of the drive. And this is more than a question of engineer- ing, for, in arranging lines and curves, the spirit of the woods has to be retained with the finest parts of the young growth preserved and every great tree ef- fectively singled out. The opening of the drive gives a chance for observing not only the loveliest stretches of beeches, maples and hemlocks but the incidental growth. Groups of birches will grow along the sides. The colorful glossy trunks of the white birches, of the black birches and of the yellow birches can be made enlivening notes among the other trees. All of these birches are slender trees with arching branches and

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American Plants for American Gardens

showery clusters of thin twigs from which the finely serrated leaves hang in filmy effect. At mid-summer the birch foliage is light and airy and in the autumn it is touched with yellow, the olive-yellow tone of the yellow birches being particularly lovely. There are, also, the striped maples, their trunks marked with green and yellow-white. In the fall their large leaves turn straw-colored. There are mountain maples, too, that are shrub-like with noticeable large leaves that are conspicuously orange and red in the autumn. Here and there the wayfaring trees can be distin- guished by the rigorous structure of their horizontal branches. Their large white flowers are an outstand- ing feature of the spring while the wine-red tone of their foliage adds a rich note to the woods in the fall. There are, too, yews and mountain laurels and occa- sional dogwoods and witch-hazels. All these trees and shrubs will grow luxuriantly wherever the build- ing of the drive admits sunlight. In back of them, there will be the deep, undisturbed, even shade that is so distinctly characteristic of the beech-maple- hemlock woods.

The drive can be continued to a point where a view suggests a site for the house. Where there is no natural clearing the woods has to be opened up to provide sufficient sunlight. They should be thinned with the greatest care and every effective tree left to become a feature of the lawn. Where they have plenty of space maples become beautifully symmetrical and beeches become wide-spread and statuesque. Besides, circles of young beeches have a way of devel-

[60]

The Beech-Maple-Hemlock Woods

oping around great old beeches. These are so full of interest that they are worth keeping.

The house itself can become a part of its setting when the plan, the height of the walls, the pitch of the roof and the length of the chimneys can be adapted to the contours and when the material of the house can be in keeping with the dignity of the woods. This will be evident even at a distance when a glimpse of the house is caught in the midst of the trees. In a nearer view the link between the house and its setting can be made stronger through the planting, by the use of laurels and yews, of wayfaring trees and birches, of striped maples and mountain maples planted against the walls. And beeches and hemlocks can be planted as hedges for the courtyards and gardens. All these trees and shrubs ought to be planted about the entire area immediately around the house and lawn so that they can blend imperceptibly into the woodland.

Grounds of more limited area are also full of op- portunities. Even the small place, in the shelter of a hillside still covered with beeches, maples and hem- locks can use a planting plan composed entirely of the trees and shrubs, flowers and ferns that belong there. Just a single great tree left standing upon a property can suggest a similar planting. There striped and mountain maples, hemlocks and beeches can be ar- ranged in undipped hedges and hedgerows. Then yellow birches can be chosen to mark the entrance, specimen yews can be planted on either side of the doorway, ferns and laurels can make borders below

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the windows and groups of wayfaring trees or birches can be planted at the corners.

The outstretched branches of the great tree can shelter a tiny terrace. This terrace may be paved and then bordered with yews and ferns and edged with violets, tiarellas and heucheras. This tree can also cast its shade upon a little garden with paths and steps that wind between irregular borders adapted to the slope and with planting that accentuates the natural- istic character of the grounds. There white birches may be used as accents and the lithe-stemmed maple- leaved viburnums can be used in scattered clumps amid a profusion of flowers and ferns. Masses of dutchman's breeches can be planted in the rocky out- crops among little spleenworts, polypods, purple cliff brakes and beech ferns. Wild ginger with satiny heart-shaped leaves may grow in clumps nearby. Trilliums can be gathered at the base of the tree trunks. The painted trilliums, Trillium undulatum, and the large white-flowered Trillium grandiflora with heavy ovate leaves, the nodding trilliums, Tril- lium cernuum, whose fragrant flowers hide beneath the foliage, and Trillium erectum, with a compara- tively long stalk that holds a single terminal purple- red flower above the usual whorl of three leaves can be used. These are offset by the great fronds of marginal shield ferns. There are, too, baneberries and false solomon seals to gather into clumps among the maple-leaved viburnums. Some of the taller ferns like Aspidium spinulosum can be intermingled with them. Heucheras, tiarellas and bishop's caps can be

[62]

The Beech-Maple-Hemlock Woods

planted along the paths and can show their little white spires and rosetted leaves in between groups of Christ- mas ferns. Besides, all sorts of delicately modeled flowers like the drooping bellworts, the nodding green solomon seals, the twisted stalks, the seven-petaled star-flowers and Indian cucumber-roots can be ar- ranged in scattered groups here and there. And violets can be planted as a ground cover for all the other flowers. There is the tiny white violet, Viola blanda, that is faintly sweet-scented. There is the blue and white Viola palmata with cut leaves. There is the downy yellow violet, Viola pubescens, the long spurred violet, Viola rostrata, and the woolly blue violet, Viola sororia, whose flowers grade from laven- der to violet and are held above the leaves.

These intimate little flowers make delightfully in- formal gardens but their real value lies in the way they complete the setting suggested by the existing great tree and help to create the atmosphere of a nat- ural beech-maple-hemlock association.

THE BEECH-MAPLE-HEMLOCK ASSOCIATION Trees

Acer pennsylvanicum Striped Maple

Acer saccharum Sugar Maple

Acer spicatum Mountain Maple

B etui a alba White Birch

Betula lenta Black Birch

Betula lutea Yellow Birch

Castanea dentata Chestnut

Cornus florida Flowering Dogwood

Fagus grandifolia Beech

Fraxinus americana White Ash

Liriodendron Tulipifera Tulip Tree

Tilia americana Basswood

Tsuga canadensis Hemlock

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American Plants for American Gardens

Shrubs

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Amelanchier oblongifolia Juneberry

Cornus altemifolia Alternate-leaved Dogwood

Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel

Kalmia latifolia Mountain Laurel

Taxus canadensis American Yew

Viburnum acerifolium Arrow-wood

Viburnum Lantana Wayfaring Tree

Herbs

Actcea alba White Baneberry

Actcea rubra Red Baneberry

Asarum canadense Wild Ginger

Circcea lutetiana Enchanter's Nightshade

Cornus canadensis Bunchberry

Cypripedium acaule Stemless Lady's Slipper

Dicentra Cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches

Epifagus virginiana Beech-drops

Eupatorium urtic&folium White Snakeroot

Geranium Robertianum Herb Robert

Heuchera americana Common Alum Root

Luzula parvi flora Wood Rush

Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum

Medeola virginiana Indian Cucumber-root

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Mitella diphylla Bishop's Cap

Monotropa uni flora Indian Pipe

Orchis spectabilis Showy Orchis

Oxalis Ac eto sella Common Wood Sorrel

Oxalis violacea Violet Wood Sorrel

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Prenanthes alba White Lettuce

Prenanthes trifoliolata Gall-of-the-earth

Smilacina racemosa False Spikenard

Streptopus roseus Twisted-stalk

Tiarella cordifolia False Miterwort

Trientalis americana Star Flower

Trillium erectum Wake Robin

Trillium grandiflorum Wake Robin

Uvularia grandiflora Bellwort

Uvidaria perfoliata Bellwort

Viola blanda Violet

Viola palmata Violet

Viola pubescens Downy Yellow Violet

Viola rostrata Long-spurred Violet

Viola sororia Violet

Viola triloba Violet

[64]

The Beech-Maple-Hemlock Woods

Ferns

Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair

Aspidium tnarginale Shield Fern

Aspidium noveboracense Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosum Shield Fern

Asplenium Filix-femina Lady Fern

Asplenium platyneuron Spleenwort

Asplenium Ruta-muraria Spleenwort

Asplenium Trichomanes Spleenwort

Botrychium obliquum var. dissectum ...Moonwort

Botrychium ternatum Moonwort

Botrychium virginianum Rattlesnake Fern

Camptosorus rhizophyllus Walking Leaf

Cystopteris fragilis Bladder Fern

Dicksonia punctilobula Hay-scented Fern

Pellcea atropurpurea Cliff Brake

Phegopteris Dryopteris Oak Fern

Phegopteris hexagonoptera Beech Fern

Phegopteris polypodioides Beech Fern

Poly podium vulgar e Polypody

Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

Woodsia obtusa Woodsia

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American Plants for American Gardens

Shrubs

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Amelanchier oblongifolia Juneberry

Cornus altemifolia Alternate-leaved Dogwood

Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel

Kalmia latifolia Mountain Laurel

Taxus canadensis American Yew

Viburnum acerifolium Arrow-wood

Viburnum Lantana Wayfaring Tree

Herbs

Actcea alba White Baneberry

Aetata rubra Red Baneberry

Asarum canadense Wild Ginger

Circcea lutetiana Enchanter's Nightshade

Cornus canadensis Bunchberry

Cypripedium acaule Stemless Lady's Slipper

Dicentra Cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches

Epifagus virginiana Beech-drops

Eupatorium urticcejolium White Snakeroot

Geranium Robertianum Herb Robert

Heuchera americana Common Alum Root

Luzula parvi flora Wood Rush

Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum

Medeola virginiana Indian Cucumber-root

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Mitella diphylla Bishop's Cap

Monotropa uni flora Indian Pipe

Orchis spectabilis Showy Orchis

Oxalis Acetosella Common Wood Sorrel

Oxalis violacea Violet Wood Sorrel

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Prenanthes alba White Lettuce

Prenanthes trifoliolata Gall-of-the-earth

Smilacina racemosa False Spikenard

Streptopus roseus Twisted-stalk

Tiarella cordifolia False Miterwort

Trientalis americana Star Flower

Trillium erectum Wake Robin

Trillium grandiflorum Wake Robin

Uvularia grandiflora Bellwort

Uvidaria perfoliata Bellwort

Viola blanda Violet

Viola palmata Violet

Viola pubescens Downy Yellow Violet

Viola rostrata Long-spurred Violet

Viola sororia Violet

Viola triloba Violet

[64]

The Beech'Maple-Hemlock Woods

Ferns

Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair

Aspidium marginale Shield Fern

Aspidium noveboracense Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosum Shield Fern

Asplenium Filix-jemina Lady Fern

Asplenium platyneuron Spleenwort

Asplenium Ruta-muraria Spleenwort

Asplenium Trichomanes Spleenwort

Botrychium obliquum var. dissectum . . . Moonwort

Botrychium ternatum Moonwort

Botrychium virginianum Rattlesnake Fern

Camptosorus rhizophyllus Walking Leaf

Cystopteris fragilis Bladder Fern

Dicksonia punctilobula Hay-scented Fern

Pellcea atropurpurea Cliff Brake

Phegopteris Dryopteris Oak Fern

Phegopteris hexagonoptera Beech Fern

Phegopteris polypodioides Beech Fern

Poly podium vulgare Polypody

Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

Woodsia obtusa Woodsia

[65]

CHAPTER VIII

THE HEMLOCK RAVINE

Hemlocks grow on the side of deep ravines. Their roots find foothold between big boulders. Their tall dark trunks tower beside great cliffs. Their soft branches throw shadows over fern-covered rocks. In the deep hollows water trickles over mossy ledges. All is dark and cool and green. Even at noon-day when the sun is high the wood is held in lavender light.

In the rich moist ravines of the north, the ground is covered with yews. These low shrubs with their short-needled branches repeat the delicate structure of the hemlocks above them. Farther south, through- out the Alleghanies, rhododendrons grow in these deep woods. Their leaves are large and leathery, their green rich and glossy. They grow tree-like with wide- flung angular branches that often arch overhead. Mountain laurels with their luxuriant evergreen are found there, both in the north and in the south. So, too, is the Viburnum alnifolium, or hobble-bush. It has a vigorous structure, horizontal branches, large white flowers and generous heart-shaped leaves that are a rich wine-red in the fall. There are, also, striped maples and mountain maples. The striped maple is particularly noticeable for its trunk has ver- tical alternately green and yellow-white markings.

[66]

Courtesy of Margaret de M. Brozvn.

THE HEMLOCKS MAY BE IN A SECLUDED SPOT WITH A STREAM NEAR BY TO TRICKLE OYER THE STONES.

The Hemlock Ravine

Many delicate plants, too, grow in these woods: bishop's caps with dainty white spires, heucheras with their airy flowers, violets, golden saxifrages, bell- worts, Solomon's seals, bunchberries, wild gingers and many another whose foliage is as delightful as the flowers.

The flooring of the woods depends, however, for its real loveliness upon its many ferns. On the flat tops of the rocks are luxuriant mats of little polypods. On their vertical sides, caught in the niches, are cliff brakes and rock brakes. Frail bladder ferns seek foot- hold nearer the water and cling to wet boulders. Maidenhairs seek the moist ground nearby. Some- times spleenworts grow there, too. These ferns are, however, less dependent upon moisture and are found as well on the sides of the ravine. Their slender little clusters often spring up beside cliff brakes and tuck themselves in among polypods. Their long glossy black stems make effective silhouettes against gray lichen-covered rocks. And, sometimes, among all these there are walking ferns. Their curious long- tapered leaves reach out, touch the rock, take root, form new plants and, thus reproducing themselves, trail further year by year across huge limestone ledges. Woodsias, too, grow in luxuriant masses. They are all silvery green in the spring-time. Woodsia ilvensis is often found within a few feet of the trick- ling water, while Woodsia obtusa loves the stony hill- sides and grows either in the sun on the very top or on dry rocks in shady places. And luxuriant dark- toned evergreen Christmas ferns grow in satisfying

[67]

American Plants for American Gardens

masses wherever rich earth fills the spaces between rock and ledge. There are, besides, Aspidium mar- ginale and Aspidium spinulosum. Both are tall ever- green ferns of graceful habit. They gather together in delightful groups. They assume the place of shrubs in situations that do not permit shrubs to grow. They are particularly fine where they have room really to express themselves. And in these woods, so rich in ferns, even the mosses have a fern- like character and spread their leaf-like patterns flat upon the rocks.

This scene, filled with varying tones of quiet green, lies in such subdued light and is held in such soft shadows that it seems caught in enchantment. This atmosphere is worth preserving even if our grounds are small and there is but a single old hemlock upon them.

It may be that the house can be built right beside the tree, almost under its branches, and that the win- dows, porch or paved terrace can open upon a hem- lock-shaded garden surrounded with laurels and rhododendron and matted with yews and ferns. The hemlock may, however, be in a more secluded spot away from the house, often on the side of the hill, guarding rocks and ledges with a stream nearby to trickle over the stones. This can be made into a de- lightfully cool retreat. If the hemlock happens to be situated in a less fortunate spot a few great rocks can be brought in to form a quiet nook and a rough stone seat can be built into a shady corner. A hidden pipe can be installed, too, so that water can drip slowly,

[68]

The Hemlock Ravine

intermittently even, over some of the stones. Such a place can be made into an ideal fern garden. The twenty or more different kinds found in hemlock ra- vines, and here described, can be gathered together and put into congenial situations such as they have in the woods. This is not just a miscellaneous collection. They naturally belong together and for that reason are really effective.

In creating such a natural scene, masses of the big Aspidium marginale, the shield fern, can be planted as a background. Colonies of little polypods, grow- ing luxuriantly either in sun or shade, can be spread over the tops of the rocks. Wherever there are lime- stone rocks, mats of Camptosorus rhizophyllus, the walking leaf, can be established. Innumerable Asple- nium platy neuron, one of the delicate spleenworts, Pellea atropurpurea, the cliff brake, and the rosetted Woodsia obtusa can be planted here and there in the crevices between the rocks. Cryptogramma Stelleari, the slender rock brake, can be used to fill every little soil pocket. Patches of the moss-like Selaginella ru- pestris and the soft silvery green Woodsia ilvensis are worth trying on dry exposed places. In shady spots, Asplenium Rut a-mur aria, the little spleenwort, As- plenium Trichomanes, the tiny tufted spleenwort, Phe- gopteris Dryopteris, the spreading light green oak fern, and Phegopteris hexagonoptera, the beech fern with broad triangular fronds, may be placed in groups. Close to the rocks, to show against them, Phegopteris polypodioides, one of the beech ferns, Aspidium spinulosum, the wood fern, and Aspidium

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American Plants for American Gardens

noveboracense, another wood fern, can be planted in larger clumps. Cystopteris bulbifera, the bladder fern, with delicate trailing fronds, should be put right under the water's drip with Cystopteris fragilis near by. In the moist soil, where the water actually spreads over the ground, luxuriant groups of delicate maiden- hairs can be established. In addition to all these, Polystichum acrostichoides, the Christmas fern, can be used everywhere, for they are luxuriantly green through the year like the hemlock that spreads its branches over them.

The real beauty of the hemlocks is felt most, of course, when they are in a real ravine. An estate is very fortunate when it encompasses such a scene, for such hemlock woods are rare. It is, therefore, a real privilege to preserve the scene wherever it has been left undisturbed and to bring it back if it has been neglected. A few of the great old trees must be there to make the picture real. Young hemlocks can, however, be brought in, for it is usual to find hem- locks of all ages together and the young trees have the same graciousness as the older ones. Then it is possible to plant again all the little ground covers and ferns, or at least to fill in the places where they have been destroyed. It is especially worth while tc use the plants in their proper proportions, to place them in their true relationships to one another, and to arrange them in characteristic compositions in order to recreate the spirit of the original woods.

A great house can be splendidly placed at the top of such a ravine and built so that it will seem to be

[70]

The Hemlock Ravine

towering above the hemlock branches into the sun- light. Cliff -like walls, steep-hipped roofs and tall chimneys are appropriate and all the plants of the ravine can be placed immediately about the house. Yews and laurels, beautifully evergreen, Viburnum alnifolium with striking silhouettes, striped and moun- tain maples with effective foliage and stemmage can be used against the walls. A series of terraces can mold the house to its steep slope, paved with rough stone, offset by hedges of yews and supported by great retaining walls. Steps can adapt themselves to the rocks and ledges. They can be edged with heucheras, bellworts, bunchberries, and maianthe- mum. and all the little soil pockets between the stones can be filled with ferns. These steps can give way to moss-covered paths that wander between the rocks, along the stream, among the boulders and through every part of the green, fern-spread woods.

THE RAVINE ASSOCIATION

Trees

Acer pennsylvanicum . .

Acer saccharum

Acer spicatum

Betula alba

Betula lenta

Betula lutea

Carpinus caroliniana . .

Carya cordiformis

Cornus florida

Fagus grandifolia

Fraxinus americana . . .

Juglans cinerea

Liriodendron Tulipifera

Salix babylonica

Salix nigra

Thuja occidentals

Striped Maple Sugar Maple Mountain Maple White Birch Black Birch Yellow Birch Ironwood Bitter Nut Flowering Dogwood Beech White Ash Butternut Tulip Tree Weeping Willow Black Willow Arbor Vitae

[71]

American Plants for American Gardens

Trees {Continued)

Tilia americana Basswood

Tsuga canadensis Hemlock

Shrubs

Alnus incana Hoary Alder

Alnus rugosa Smooth Alder

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel

Kalmia latifolia Mountain Laurel

Lonicera canadensis American Fly Honeysuckle

Rhododendron maximum Great Laurel

Salix cor data Willow

Salix discolor Glaucous Willow

Salix glaucophylla Willow

Salix lucida Shining Willow

Taxus canadensis American Yew

Viburnum alnifolium Hobble-bush

Herbs

Actcea alba White Baneberry

Actcea rubra Red Baneberry

Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine

Arabis lyrata Rock Cress

Ariscema Dracontium Green Dragon

Ariscema triphyllum Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Asarum canadense Wild Ginger

Asclepias incarnata Swamp Milkweed

Campanula rotundifolia Bluebell

Chrysosplenium americanum Golden Saxifrage

Cornus canadensis Bunchberry

Corydalis sempervirens Pale Corydalis

Cypripedium acaule Stemless Lady's Slipper

Dicentra Cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches

Epifagus virginiana Beech-drops

Erythronium americanum Yellow Adder's Tongue

Eupatorium perfoliatum Boneset

Eupatorium purpureum Joe Pye Weed

Heuchera americana Common Alum Root

Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum

Medeola virginiana Indian Cucumber-root

Mitchella repens Partridge Berry

Mitella diphylla Bishop's Cap

Oxalis Acetosella Common Wood Sorrel

Oxalis violacea Violet Wood Sorrel

Parnassia caroliniana Grass of Parnassus

Pilea pumila Clearweed

[72]

The Hemlock Ravine

Herbs {Continued)

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Potentilla argentea Silvery Cinquefoil

Potentilla tridentata Three-toothed Cinquefoil

Prenanthes alba White Lettuce

Sagina nodosa Pearlwort

Sanguisorba minor* Garden Burnet

Saxifraga virginiensis Early Saxifrage

Sedutn acre * Mossy Stonecrop

Smilacina racemosa False Spikenard

Streptopus roseus Twisted-stalk

Thalictrum dioicum Early Meadow Rue

Thalictrum revolutum Meadow Rue

Trientalis americana .\ . . Star Flower

Trillium declinatum Wake Robin

Trillium erectum Wake Robin

Trillium grandiflorum Wake Robin

Trillium undulatum Painted Trillium

Uvularia grandiflora Bellwort

Uvularia perfoliata Bellwort

Viola blanda Violet

Viola palmata Violet

Viola rostrata Long-spurred Violet

Viola rotundifolia Early Yellow Violet

Ferns

Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair

Aspidium marginale Shield Fern

Aspidium marginale var. elegans Shield Fern

Aspidium noveboracense Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosum Shield Fern

Asplenium acrostichoides Spleenwort

Asplenium platyneuron Spleenwort

Asplenium Ruta-muraria Spleenwort

Asplenium Trichomanes Spleenwort

Botrychium virginianum Rattlesnake Fern

Camptosorus rhisophyllus Walking Leaf

Cryptogramma Stelleri Rock Brake

Cystopteris bulbifera Bladder Fern

Cystopteris fragilis Bladder Fern

Equisetum pratense Horsetail

Onoclea sensibilis Sensitive Fern

Pellcea atropurpurea Cliff Brake

Phegopteris Dryopteris Oak Fern

Phegopteris hexagonoptera Beech Fern

Phegopteris polypodioides Beech Fern

Poly podium vulgar e Polypody

[73]

American Plants for American Gardens

Ferns {Continued)

Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides var. Schwein-

itsii Christmas Fern

Selaginella rupestris Selaginella

Woodsia ilvensis Woodsia

Woodsia obtusa Woodsia

[74]

Courtesy of Margaret de M. Brown. MARSH MARIGOLDS CAN OUTLINE THE ENTIRE STREAM.

CHAPTER IX

THE STREAM-SIDE

Many kinds of trees, a great variety of shrubs and innumerable herbaceous plants grow along streams and rivers. The ever-present supply of water and the moisture-laden atmosphere give them an ideal environment. And, as the stream meanders between low margins, under high banks, below gentle slopes and through flat low-lying areas, the varying amounts of water in the soil influence the selection and arrangement of the vegetation.

Elms sometimes define the course of the stream and grow on the well-drained slopes on either side. They are found as single specimens with tall grace- ful shapes, and as thickets where they are tangled and netted with wild grapes. Sycamores grow singly along the water-side and attract attention by their bark. Willows arrange themselves in almost regular rows along the margins, especially where the water is placid and slow moving. There are many different kinds of native willows, but they are very much alike and seem like gigantic shrubs with many crooked branches rising out of a short, stout trunk. The weeping willow with its long streamers is a Euro- pean variety that has become naturalized in some places and is quite different from our native kinds.

[75]

American Plants for American Gardens

Other trees gather together beside the water and cover the flat-lands as a mixed woods. There are balsam poplars and box elders, silver maples and ashes, mulberries and hawthorns, hackberries and sweet gums, bitter nuts and hickories. Here and there basswoods attract attention when their flowers send forth their fragrance, Canada plums become notice- able when their trees are covered with white bloom and occasional walnuts stand out as magnificent speci- mens. It is the luxuriance and greenness of the foli- age, however, that is the special beauty of these intermingled trees. This is characteristic of much of the vegetation that is adapted to an abundant water supply.

Among the shrubs there are low bushy sweet gales, sweet pepper bushes with fragrant summer flowers, kinnikinniks and red-osier dogwoods, ninebarks and arrow-woods. There are clumps of elders and of witch-hazels, occasional bladder nuts, rows of spice- bushes and groups of Viburnum Lent ago. Alders, ironwoods and hop hornbeams grow in little inlets, shad bushes like the glens, while pin oaks, bur oaks and swamp white oaks or red maples and black alders thrive in low, wet places. The pin oaks and swamp white oaks draw attention by the drooping sweep of their lower branches. These two trees are otherwise quite different, for the pin oak has a straight, shaft- like trunk and the swamp white oak has a divided top, ending in many twisted branches. The red maples are the most conspicuous of all. Their spring twigs, swelling buds and opening blossoms are all a

[76]

The Stream-side

brilliant red, their summer fruit crimson, and their autumn foliage scarlet, while in the winter the effec- tiveness of their light gray trunks is heightened by the scarlet berries and black-brown branches of the black alders, Ilex verticilata, that grow among them.

All this varied vegetation, together with myriad herbaceous plants and ferns is found everywhere in our Northeastern States, for the countryside has many streams of every size. One stream with, per- haps, a tributary or two may be found upon almost every large estate. Sometimes, to be sure, it is but a minor note in the landscape and must be sought out in the low meadow. But in many places it lends such a charm to the property that attention can well be focused upon it. The house can be placed within view of the water. The lawns can slope down to the edges. Paths may lead along the margins. The entire estate with entrance drive and court, terrace and garden can be adapted to it. And the vegetation characteristic to stream-sides can be preserved or recreated.

This is not so difficult to do. The natural growth of plants in such favorable situations is compara- tively rapid. The fibrous roots make it possible to transplant large-sized material. And almost all this vegetation adapts itself to somewhat drier ground as well and can be planted therefore in the well- drained places that will undoubtedly be selected for the location of the house.

At the entrance of such a stream-side estate are

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American Plants for American Gardens

often elms, with the house placed in the shelter of any great tree that happens to be there. There may be a great walnut, an ash, a hickory, a few pin oaks, a few swamp white oaks or even an elm, that can influence the placing of the house and dominate the entire setting.

On the side of the house that faces the stream, the trees can be more gardenesque. Basswoods develop into widespread shapely trees. Mulberries, too, are delightful with their cinnamon-brown bark, irregu- larly cut leaves and purple, jewel-like fruit. Thorns are decorative at all times with their gray trunks, tangled branches, great thorns, white flowers, nice foliage and red fruit clusters. They can be planted much as they naturally grow — in scattered groups in the fields. They can be used, too, as hedges for the courtyard or the garden.

Many interesting stream-side shrubs can also be brought close to the house and used in groups or in undipped hedges and hedgerows. Viburnum Lentago are striking with their large furry leaves, cream- white flowers and blue-black berries. Witch-hazels are tall and rigorous and especially handsome in the autumn when the leaves turn clear yellow and yellow thread-like flowers appear upon upright arching branches. The spice bushes grow naturally in groups and in loosely arranged rows. They are tall shrubs of good habit, effective all through the year. All winter their buds seem ready to open and when they do at the first call of spring the tiny yellow flowers in tight little clusters have an amazing way of sim-

[7*3

The Stream-side

ulating sunshine. The summer foliage, too, has a light-filled air and in the autumn it turns a clear sunlit yellow while the small flowers have changed into large oval glistening red berries.

Among the smaller shrubs the luxuriant green and low bushy habit of the sweet gales make them pleas- ant close to the house and appropriate for the edging of a terrace. Such a terrace can be the vantage point from which to look down upon the stream and its water-side garden. A winding path can lead down from it through the grass, where early flowers such as spring beauties, bloodroots, bluets and yellow adder's tongue bloom abundantly. They spread out by the hundreds and thousands, and are as delightful as naturalized daffodils. Like the daffodils, they all disappear before the grass needs cutting. Such grass may only need a few mowings or it can be left uncut so that late-blooming flowers can grow up in it and the wood ferns show their light-green fronds.

Where the path reaches the side of the stream, willows can be planted. In early spring their bud- ding twigs show yellow and orange, in summer their foliage is gray-toned, in autumn it is fresh green amid the varied colors of the other vegetation. Under the trees trilliums can be gathered in effective groups, wild gingers can make veritable carpets, and many kinds of violets can spread out in great numbers.

The path can be made to wander along the whole length of the stream and on both sides. It can wind in and out, coming ever and again close to the water

[79]

The Stream-side

their dried fronds are still lovely and ornamented with little dark brown fruits.

The marsh marigolds have blossoms that seem like captured sunlight. Their bloom lasts three weeks or more, only to give way to a light-reflecting yellow- green foliage that stays another month before the entire plant disappears. Marsh marigolds grow nat- urally in solid masses, and it is impossible to plant too many of them. They can outline the entire stream and be planted under willows, beside spice bushes, below Canada plums, elms and alders. The alders are full of interest in the early spring, for their dan- gling catkins hang in loose clusters all over their bold leafless stems.

These early effects are barely over when forget- me-nots make fairy carpets along the margins and trail into the water. Brooklimes add their delicate blue to the ethereal effect. Irises, too, grow just in back of them and spread out over the sunny meadows. There are Iris prismatica, the slender blue flags, and Iris versicolor, the larger blue flag. Their flowers rise with delicate dignity from strong underground stems. Their gray-green sheaths accentuate the beauty not only of the iris flowers but of the later roses, meadow-sweets and steeple bushes. They make a background, too, for blue lobelias, blue ver- vains, purplish-blue culver's roots and blue skullcaps. These are all rather sturdy, bushy plants that flower in summer and autumn. The brilliant blue pickerel- weeds blossom in masses at midsummer in the water near by and forget-me-nots linger on through the

[81]

American Plants for American Gardens

summer months as part of an ever-varying blue scheme.

The late summer and autumn bring the gentians. They grow close to the edge of the water amid grasses and among shrubs. Fringed gentians are a soft transparent blue and come up in delicate groupings here and there. The closed gentians grow singly or in small clumps and make spots of bold opaque color. The cardinal flowers are a vivid red. When they are massed in the open their color is of startling inten- sity but when they are isolated and grow singly, as they often do, they seem rare and precious. They are found in the moistest spots, almost in the water.

Many other flowers bloom in the summer and autumn. Occasional rare-looking orchids are found ; wild sennas with yellow butterfly flowers blossom daintily under elms, and Chelone glabra, the turtle- heads, are particularly lovely where they are reflected in the water in the midst of the lacy foliage of meadow rues. Arrow-heads and water lilies blossom in the quiet shallows, great cow parsnips with bold spherical flowers tower above the mud-flats, touch- me-nots blossom in moist spots, and swamp milkweeds show rich color along the water's edge. There are also joe-pye weeds that are sometimes mingled with bonesets and great asters, but are most effective when they grow by themselves in broad stretches.

In contrast to all these brilliant flowers is one effect that is particularly delicate when the virgin's bower, Clematis virginiana, is in flower. It grows up into the alders to cover every bush with glistening showers

[82]

The Stream-side

of starry-blossomed vines that fill the air with per- fume. The flowers later turn to feathery fruit and are beautifully offset all winter by the winter-brown alder catkins.

On a large estate, all these different plants can be assembled to vary from week to week and from season to season until spring, summer, autumn, and even winter, have each their full share of loveliness.

A small property, too, may have a little stream tumbling over rocks or a tiny brook winding through the grass or even a river frontage. Every hundred feet or less of water-side can keep its characteristic scene or have it recreated with the plants that are natural to it. On the other hand, the existing vege- tation may become the keynote. Whether it be elm or willow, sycamore or red maple, spice bush or Viburnum Lentago, it may suggest the character of the additional trees, shrubs, flowers and ferns that can be planted to recreate a natural scene. Each small scene, however, will be more effective when it is supplemented by adjoining ones and when together they contribute to the planting of the entire stream.

THE STREAM-SIDE ASSOCIATION

Trees

Acer Negundo

Acer rubrutn

Acer saccharinum . Carpinus caroliniana Carya cordiformis .

Carya glabra

Cary ovata

Celtis occidentalis . Cratcegus Crus-galli Cratcsgus jecunda . .

Iron wood Bitter Nut Pignut

Hackberry Hawthorn Hawthorn

Box Elder Red Maple

Silver Maple

Shag-bark Hickory

[83]

American Plants for American Gardens

Trees {Continued)

Fraxinus americana White Ash

Fraxinus nigra Black Ash

Fraxinus Pennsylvania Red Ash

Juglans cinerea Butternut

Juglans nigra Black Walnut

Liquidambar Styraciflua Sweet Gum

Morns rubra Red Mulberry

Ostrya virginiana Hop Hornbeam

Platanus occidentalis Sycamore

Populus balsamijera Balsam Poplar

Prunus nigra Canada Plum

Quercus bicolor Swamp White Oak

Quercus tnacrocarpa Bur Oak

Quercus palustris Pin Oak

Salix babylonica* Weeping Willow

Salix lucida Shining Willow

Salix nigra Black Willow

Tilia americana Basswood

Ulmus americana American Elm

Ulmus julva Slippery Elm

Shrubs and Vines

Alnus incana Hoary Alder

Alnus rugosa Smooth Alder

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Amorpha jruticosa False Indigo

Benzoin aestivale Spice Bush

Clematis virginiana Virgin's Bower

Clethra alnifolia Sweet Pepperbush

Cornus Amomum Kinnikinnik

Cornus stolonifera Red-osier Dogwood

Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel

Ilex verticillata Black Alder

Menispermum canadense Moonseed

Myrica Gale Sweet Gale

Physocarpus opulifolius Nine-bark

Psedera quinquefolia Woodbine

Rosa Carolina Rose

Rosa virginiana Rose

Salix cordata Willow

Salix discolor Willow

Sambucus canadensis Elder

Solanum Dulcamara* Bittersweet

Spircea latifolia Meadow-sweet

Spircea tomentosa Steeple Bush

Staphylea trifolia Bladdernut

Viburnum acerifolium Arrow- wood

[84]

The Stream-side

Shrubs and Vines {Continued)

Viburnum dentatum Arrow- wood

Viburnum Lentago Nannyberry

Vitis cordijolia Frost Grape

Vitis vulpina River Bank Grape

Acorus Calamus Sweet Flag

Alisma Plantago-aquatica Water Plantain

Anemone quinquejolia Wood Anemone

Angelica atropururea Angelica

Arisaema Dracontium Green Dragon

Arisaema triphyllum Jack-in-the- Pulpit

Asarum canadense Wild Ginger

Asclepias incarnata Swamp Milkweed

Aster lateriflorus Aster

Aster paniculatus Aster

Aster puniceus Aster

Aster vimineus Aster

Caltha palustris Marsh Marigold

Campanula aparinoides Marsh Bell-flower

Cassia marilandica Wild Senna

Chelone glabra Turtlehead

Chrysosplenium americanum Golden Saxifrage

Claytonia virginica Spring Beauty

Clematis virginiana Virgin's Bower

Convolvulus sepium Hedge Bindweed

Dentaria diphylla Toothwort

Dentaria laciniata Toothwort

Dicentra Cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches

Dioscorea villosa Wild Yam-root

Echinocystis lobata Wild Balsam-apple

Erythronium americanum Yellow Adder's Tongue

Eupatorium perfoliatum Boneset

Eupatorium purpureum Joe-Pye Weed

Gentiana Andrewsii Closed Gentian

Gentiana crinita Fringed Gentian

Geranium maculatum Cranesbill

Habenaria lacera Ragged Fringed Orchis

Habenaria psychodes Fringed Orchis

Helenium autumnale Sneezeweed

Heracleum lanatum Cow Parsnip

Hibiscus Moscheutos Swamp Rose Mallow

Houstonia caerulea Bluets

Humulus Lupulus Common Hop

Hypericum Ascyron Great St. John's-wort

Hypericum canadense St. John's-wort

Impatiens biflora Spotted Touch-me-not

[85]

American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Impatient pallida Pale Touch-me-not

Iris prismatica Slender Blue Flag

Iris versicolor Larger Blue Flag

Lilium canadense Wild Yellow Lily

Lilium philadelphicum Wood Lily

Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal-flower

Lobelia siphilitica Great Lobelia

Lysimachia Nutnmularia * Moneywort

Mentha piperita * Peppermint

Mentha spicata * Spearmint

Mertensia virginica Virginia Cowslip

Mikania scandens Climbing Hemp-weed

Myosotis laxa Forget-me-not

Myosotis scorpioides* True Forget-me-not

Oakesia sessilifolia Oakesia

Orobanche uniflora One-flowered Cancer-root

Peltandra virginica Arrow Arum

Petasites palmatus Sweet Coltsfoot

Podophyllum peltatum May Apple

Polygonatum biflorum Small Solomon's Seal

Polygonatum commutatum Great Solomon's Seal

Polygonium Convolvulus Black Bindweed

Polygonium scandens Climbing False Buckwheat

Pontederia cordata Pickerel-weed

Ranunculus abortivus Small-flowered Crowfoot

Ranunculus septentrionalis Swamp Buttercup

Rudbeckia laciniata Cone-flower

Sagittaria latijolia Arrow-head

Sanguinaria canadensis Bloodroot

Scutellaria galericulata Skullcap

Scutellaria lateriflora Mad-dog Skullcap

Sicyos angulatus One-seeded Bur Cucumber

Sisyrinchium angustifolium Blue-eyed Grass

Sisyrinchium gramineum Blue-eyed Grass

Sium cicutaefolium Water Parsnip

Smilacena racemosa False Spikenard

Smilacena stellata False Solomon's Seal

Smilax herbacea Green Brier

Smilax rotundifolia Green Brier

Solidago Elliottii Golden-rod

Spiranthes Romansoffiana Ladies' Tresses

Steironema ciliatum Steironema

Symphytum officinale* Common Comfrey

Thalictrum dioicum Early Meadow Rue

Thalictrum polygamum Tall Meadow Rue

Thaspium aureum Meadow Parsnip

Trillium cernuum Wake Robin

[86]

The Stream-side

Herbs {Continued)

Trillium erectum Wake Robin

Trillium grandiflorum Wake Robin

Uvularia grandi flora Bell wort

Uvularia perfoliata Bellwort

Veratum viride False Hellebore

Verbena hastata Blue Vervain

Veronica americana American Brooklime

Veronica Anagallis-aquatica Water Speedwell

Veronica virginica Culver's Root

Viola blanda Violet

Viola cucullata Violet

Viola pallens Sweet Violet

Viola scabriuscula Smooth Yellow Violet

Viola sororia Violet

Ferns

Aspidium cristatum Shield Fern

Aspidium noveboracense Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosum Shield Fern

Aspidium Thelypteris Shield Fern

Cystopteris fragilis Bladder Fern

Onoclea sensibilis Sensitive Fern

Onoclea Struthiopteris Ostrich Fern

Osmunda cinnamomea Cinnamon Fern

Osmundo Claytoniana Flowering Fern

Osmunda regalis Flowering Fern

Woodwardia virginica Chain Fern

[87]

The Pond

alludes to their ribbon-shaped leaves that are much like the old-fashioned spiderwort. Their flowers are inconspicuous, similar to those of the grasses, but they change into very interesting fruit. The pistil- late flowers that grow on the lower part of the stem change into balls of small nut-like seeds that bristle with spines, while the staminate flowers change to smaller balls of the same kind that make charming repeats above them.

All these plants have to be kept in check. More- over, only a limited quantity of each can be used, for there must be room for the other aquatics. Beyond them in slightly deeper water are arrow-heads, pick- erel-weeds and arrow arums. The arrow-heads are so ornamental that it is hardly possible to use too many of them. They should be assembled in small rather than in large groups so that the real loveliness of each tall straight stem, of each shapely leaf, of each whorl of triple blossoms, of each pure white sepal touched with lilac, may be enjoyed. The pickerel-weeds, on the other hand, gain in effective- ness when they are gathered in solid masses, for the intense blue of the flowers is only brought out when they grow close together in great quantity. The arrow arums can be used more sparingly, for they are less effective than either arrow-heads or pickerel- weeds, but they have long green curled-up spathes and green fruits that are interesting.

Among these plants water plantains may be grown. Their foliage is thick and heavily veined with the plants always scattered lightly here and there. The

[89]

American Plants for American Gardens

flowers that cover their numerous little branches are as delicate as baby's breath and accentuate their airiness.

Within this setting of arrow-heads, pickerel-weeds, arrow arums and water plantains, water shields, yel- low pond lilies and sweet-scented water lilies can be planted. The water shields are dainty plants with inconspicuous thalictrum-like flowers. Their tiny, thin, water-lily-like leaves curl up on the edges so as to show their undersides and are assembled so loosely that it is possible to look down between the leaves and see the charming arrangement of the slender stems that are put into gentle movement by the slight- est ripple.

In contrast to these little water shields the leaves of the yellow pond lily are not only larger but very thick and leathery. They grow in compact mats with stiff thick flower stalks that rise through them well up out of the water, often a foot or more above the leaf-covered surface, with boldly modeled, brilliantly gold flowers. The sweet-scented water lilies are quite different, with their many-petaled yellow-stamened white flowers that lie directly on the surface of the water. They grow so well that they are likely to cover the entire pond, but their real charm is accentu- ated when the plants are kept in small irregular groups so that the leaves can make decorative pat- terns upon the water and the flowers can seem like ornaments.

There are also water crowfoots ; the common white water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis, with glistening

[90]

The Pond

yellow stamens, the stiff water crowfoot, Ranunculus circinatus, with white flowers, and the yellow water crowfoot, Ranunculus delphinifolius, that has sub- merged delphinium-like leaves. All of these crow- foots have the daintiest strawberry-like blossoms that cover the water in June. After they have bloomed the plants seem lost, for they withdraw from sight under the water. This is unusual, for the main effect of aquatic plants depends upon their leaves of which there are many different kinds, — long linear sheaths, grass-like forms, shields and sagitate shapes. The sagitate leaves with their fine differentiations between the bright green slender leaves of the arrow arums, the glossy thick cordated leaves of the pickerel-weeds, and the thin, sharply pointed leaves that give the name to the arrow-heads, give a special beauty to the water garden.

The recreating of such a garden depends, first of all, upon the careful consideration of water depths, for the location of each plant is controlled by it. As the pond bed is usually saucer-shaped, the plants are arranged into a series of interlaced zones with water shields and water lilies growing in the deepest parts near the center and the cat-tails standing in the muddy shallows on the edge. This natural compo- sition of the plants is significant.

It is necessary, too, to give the recreated water garden a situation that is convincingly appropriate. Such positions can be found in many low-lying fields, in meadows and in sunken places in woods, in fact in any natural hollow or gentle depression. Ponds

[9i J

American Plants for American Gardens

may be made with comparative ease, for it is often possible to widen a little stream that flows quietly through a property, to dig out the ground below a little spring, or to use a sunken place that holds water persistently after every rain. A real feeling for con- tours makes it possible to keep each little depression, instead of filling it in, and to transform it into an attractive spot where aquatics naturally grow. With a sensitive appreciation of topography the outlines of the new water garden can be adapted to the existing landscape and the edges can be made to slope gently down to the water.

Such a water garden can be adapted both to a large estate and to a small place. On a property of exten- sive area a pond can be placed far afield where it can be gazed upon from a distance and require a little journey for a closer view of its plants. It can even be hidden away beyond a woods where it can be kept as secret as can be. On the other hand, it can often be placed quite close to the house, in fact, just below it, wherever the house itself is informal enough to be in character with such naturalistic treatment. On a small place the water garden is of necessity near the house and in sight of the porches and windows.

The path made to wind down from the house to the pond can be edged with plants like violets and forget-me-nots, irises and closed gentians, meadow- rues, turtle-heads and royal ferns, that are an intro- duction to the water garden itself. The pond can be encircled by a path, too, so that it can be seen from all sides and every flower beauty, every leaf texture,

[92]

The Pond

every leaf pattern can be noticed in detail. Many moisture-loving shrubs and trees; alders, button- bushes and hawthorns ; clammy azaleas, sweet pepper- bushes and pin oaks; winterberry and red maples; arrow- woods and sour gums; spice bushes and elms, can be used as a background. But where the natural scene beyond is full of beauty, a single willow will sometimes be sufficient at the edge of the water.

THE POND ASSOCIATION Trees

Acer rubrum Red Maple

Nyssa sylvatica Sour Gum

Quercus palustris Pin Oak

Salix nigra Black Willow

Shrubs

Alnus incana Hoary Alder

Alnus rugosa Smooth Alder

Benzoin aestivale Spice Bush

Cephalanthus occidentalis Buttonbush

Clematis virginiana Clematis

Clethra alnifolia Sweet Pepperbush

Cornus Amomum Kinnikinnik

Cornus stolonifera Red-osier Dogwood

Crataegus Crus-galli Hawthorn

Crataegus jecunda Hawthorn

Gaylussacia baccata Black Huckleberry .

Gaylussacia dumosa Dwarf Huckleberry

Ilex laevigata Smooth Winterberry

Ilex verticillata Winterberry

Myrica Gale Sweet Gale

Potentilla fruticosa Shrubby Cinquefoil

Pyrus arbutifolia var. atropurpurea Chokeberry

Pyrus melanocarpa Chokeberry

Quercus ilicifolia Black Scrub Oak

Rhododendron viscosum Clammy Azalea

Ribes oxyacanthoides var. calcicola Smooth Gooseberry

Rosa Carolina Rose

Rosa nitida Rose

Rosa virginiana Rose

Rubus hispidus Blackberry

[93]

American Plants for American Gardens

Shrubs {Continued)

Salix balsamifera Willow

Salix Candida Hoary Willow

Salix cordata Willow

Salix discolor Glaucous Willow

Salix glaucophylla Willow

Salix lucida Shining Willow

Salix petiolaris Willow

Salix sericea Silky Willow

Salix serissima Autumn Willow

Satnbucus canadensis Common Elder

Smilax herbacea Carrion-flower

Smilax rotundifolia Common Green Brier

Solanum Dulcamara* Bittersweet

Spircea latifolia Meadow-sweet

Spiraea tomentosa Steeple Bush

Vaccinium corymbosum High Blueberry

Viburnum dentatum Arrow- wood

Herbs

Acorus Calamus Sweet Flag

Alisma Plantago-aquatica Water Plantain

Arisaema triphyllum Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Asclepias incarnata Swamp Milkweed

Aster lateriflorus Aster

Aster novce-anglice Aster

Aster paniculatus Aster

Aster puniceus Aster

Aster vimineus Aster

Barbarea vulgaris Yellow Rocket

Brasenia Schreberi Water Shield

Caltha palustris Marsh Marigold

Campanula aparinoides Marsh Bell-flower

Car ex sp Sedge

Castalia odorata Sweet-scented Water Lily

Cerastium nutans Chickweed

Ceratophyllum demersum Hornwort

Chelone glabra Turtlehead

Chrysosplenium americanum Golden Saxifrage

Cicuta bulbifera Water Hemlock

Cicuta maculata Spotted Cowbane

Conioselinum chinense Hemlock Parsley

Elodea canadensis Water-weed

Epilobium molle Willow-herb

Eriocaulon articulatum Pipewort

Eriophorum gracile Cotton Grass

Eupatorium perfoliatum Boneset

Eupatorium purpureum Joe-Pye Weed

[94]

The Pond

Herbs {Continued)

Gentiana Andrewsii Closed Gentian

Gentiana crinita Fringed Gentian

Helenium autumnale Sneezeweed

Heracleum lanatum Cow Parsnip

Hydrocotyle americana Water Pennywort

Hypericum boreale St. John's-wort

Hypericum punctatum St. John's-wort

Hypericum virginicum Marsh St. John's-wort

Iris prismatica Slender Blue Flag

Iris versicolor Larger Blue Flag

J uncus effusus Common Rush

J uncus marginatus Rush

Lemna minor Duckweed

Lemna trisulca Duckweed

Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal-flower

Lobelia siphilitica Great Lobelia

Ludvigia alternijolia Seedbox

Lycopus virginicus Bugle Weed

Lysimachia Nummularia * Moneywort

Lysimachia producta Loosestrife

Ly thrum alatum Loosestrife

Mikania scandens Climbing Hemp-weed

Mimulus ringens Monkey Flower

Myosotis lax a Forget-me-not

Myriophyllum Farwellii Water Milfoil

Myriophyllum spicatum Water Milfoil

Najas flexilis Naiad

Nymphaea advena Yellow Pond Lily

Orontium aquaticum Golden Club

Peltandra virginica Arrow Arum

Penthorum sedoides Ditch Stonecrop

Polygonum acre Water Smartweed

Polygonum amphibium Knotweed

Polygonum arifolium Halbert-leaved Tear-thumb

Polygonum Hydropiper Common Swartweed

Polygonum Muhlenbergii Knotweed

Polygonum pennsylvanicum Knotweed

Polygonum Persicaria* Lady's Thumb

Polygonum sagittatum Arrow-leaved Tear-thumb

Pontederia cordata Pickerel-weed

Potamogeton alpinus Pondweed

Potamogeton americanus Pondweed

Potamogeton heterophyllus Pondweed

Potamogeton HUH Pondweed

Potamogeton lucens Pondweed

Potamogeton natans Pondweed

Potamogeton pectinatus Pondweed

[95]

American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Potamogeton perjoliatus Pondwecd

Potamogeton Robbinsii Pondweed

Potamogeton zosterifolius Pondweed

Potentilla palustris Marsh Five-finger

Proserpinaca palustris Mermaid- weed

Radicula aquatica Lake Cress

Ranunculus abortivus Small-flowered Crowfoot

Ranunculus aquatilis Common White Water Crowfoot

Ranunculus circinatus Stiff Water Crowfoot

Ranunculus delphinifolius Yellow Water Crowfoot

Ranunculus recurvatus Hooked Buttercup

Ranunculus septentrionalis Swamp Buttercup

Sagittaria latifolia Arrow-head

Saxijraga pennsylvanica Swamp Saxifrage

Scutellaria galericulata Skullcap

Scutellaria lateriflora Mad-dog Skullcap

Senecio aureus Golden Ragwort

Solidago Elliotii Golden-rod

Sparganium americanum Bur-reed

Sparganium americanum\&v .androcladum Bur-reed

Sparganium eurycarpum Bur-reed

Sparganium lucidum Bur-reed

Sparganium minimum Bur-reed

Spirodela polyrhisa Duckweed

Symplocarpus joetidus Skunk Cabbage

Thalictrum polygamum Tall Meadow Rue

Thaspium aureum Meadow Parsnip

Typha angustifolia Cat-tail

Typha latifolia Cat-tail

Utricularia minor Smaller Bladderwort

Utricularia vulgaris Greater Bladderwort

Vallisneria spiralis Tape Grass

Verbena hastata Blue Vervain

Verbena urticaefolia White Vervain

Vernonia noveboracensis Ironweed

Veronica serpyllijolia Thyme-leaved Speedwell

Viola conspersa Violet

Viola cucullata Violet

Viola pallens Sweet White Violet

Viola papilionacea Violet

Viola sororia Violet

Wolffia columbiana WolfHa

Ferns

Aspidium cristatum Shield Fern

Aspidium Thelypteris Shield Fern

Equisetum palustre Horsetail

[96]

The Pond

Ferns {Continued)

Onoclea sensibilis Sensitive Fern

Osmunda cinnamotnea Cinnamon Fern

Osmunda Claytoniana Flowering Fern

Osmunda regalis Flowering Fern

Selaginella apus Selaginella

Woodwardia virginica Chain Fern

[97]

CHAPTER XI

THE BOG

A typical bog is a perfect circle with the plants arranged according to a definite plan into a series of concentric zones. In the very middle there is often a pool of water which is surrounded by a broad band of sphagnum. This moss is springy and spongy and so treacherously unstable that it is dangerous even to try to step upon it. It is difficult to tell how deep it is. Sometimes it is a thin layer, barely a foot thick, that seems to float on the top of the water. Then again it is a soft mat of unmeasurable thickness. This sphagnum is moisture-laden. It is bronze-toned and spread with the bronze-toned streamers of trail- ing cranberries. It forms a groundwork for the other plants. Here the buckbeans spread their dark shining leaves. They have tiny star-like velvety- white blossoms in the spring. Here the golden clubs of the Orontium aquaticum grow out of bunches of turquoise blue leaves and look like golden markers. The cotton grass is everywhere and has flowers whose cream-toned silken puffs are so airily attached to long slender stalks that they look as if they had just alighted there. And strange as it may seem, there are tiny seedling-like red maples scattered all over.

Then there are diminutive sundews, the famous

[98]

Courtesy of Margaret de M. Brown.

THE PITCHER PLANT HAS PITCHER-LIKE, WATER-FILLED LEAVES FROM WHICH ERECT FLOWER STALKS ARISE AND ARE TERMINATED BY SOLITARY GLOBOSE FLOWERS.

The Bog

little fly-catchers, decorative little plants that have circlets of tiny leaves with bristly glands that glisten. They are often found around Sarracenia purpurea, the pitcher plant. This has clusters of pitcher-like, water-filled leaves, from which thin erect flower stalks rise a foot or two and are terminated by soli- tary globose closed flowers so large and heavy that they droop. The whole plant is like a sculptured ornament and is overlaid with bronze and purple coloring. Besides there are the tiny rare-looking rose pogonias with an elusive perfume, exquisite coloring, and very dainty modeling.

This flower-strewn sphagnum garden is surrounded by a ring of low shrubs. Sheep laurels, pale laurels and clammy azaleas, leather leaf and bog rosemaries, all about the same height, intermingle and form a nicely ordered compact border.

All these shrubs have lovely blossoms. The sheep laurels have rose-toned flowers and the pale laurels crimson flowers that are placed on laterally arranged pedicels scattered loosely among the leaves. The azaleas have clusters of large white flowers with tubular glandular-covered corollas. The leather leaf has glossy white flowers that hang in single file along the undersides of the stems, and the bog rose- maries have flowers that droop in little clusters from the axils of the leaves.

The refinement of these plants is just as noticeable when they are without blossoms, for they all have small leaves of astonishing beauty. The leaves of the sheep laurels are evergreen of a soft tone, while the

[99]

American Plants for American Gardens

pale laurels have even lighter foliage with undersides that are gray-white with a bloom. The foliage of the clammy azaleas is rough and hairy. The dull- toned leather leaf leaves are relieved by a sprinkle of fine scurf. The bog rosemary has the daintiest leaves of all. Their slenderness, their very stiffness and their spacing far apart on the stems gives them the utmost distinction. Moreover their curled-up edges make them seem even narrower than they are, while the pubescent undersides are so pale gray that they give a gray-green tone to the whole plant.

This gray-green is repeated by the larches that grow singly here and there at the very edge of the border. They are slender trees. The light showing through the loose framework gives an atmospheric mistiness to their light green needle clusters, spaced far apart upon black twigs. The whole effect of the trees is noticeably airy.

It is the larches that attract attention to the bog from far away. The only way to reach them and the bog itself is by going across the meadow, passing gray birch copses and thickets of arrow-woods and high blueberries. In their midst hummocks over- grown with osmunda ferns and black alders rise out of little pools of dark water. It is a dangerous jour- ney. Only the most adventurous descend into the hollow and get a close view of the trees and the bog itself. And only they know what an enchanted place full of rare shrubs and flowers lies hidden there within the thicket-surrounded fastness. It is, to be sure, almost unbelievable that such an undrained place

[100]

The Bog

can be a unique and gardenesque spot. Yet, it is true that this water-logged situation has all these excep- tional plants. It is surprising that here in the water the gray birches thrive. They are usually found in the dryest situations. The red maples also grow here but they are dwarfed and look like seedlings; else- where they would have grown into slender trees. All the shrubs, too, have thick leathery leaves as if they were made to withstand constant lack of water. And, in truth, all the plants are really braving severe drought, physiological drought it is called, for the acidity of the bog is so great that it is difficult for them to obtain a sufficient supply of water.

This very difficulty makes a bog a garden that will always be rare, for only a place of extensive acreage can allow such an area to be left undrained. There, far from the house, this fascinating group of plants can be preserved or a bog may even be created with all the plants assembled in concentric zones about its water-drenched sphagnum.

THE BOG ASSOCIATION

Trees

Betula populifolia Larix laricina . .

Acer rubrum

Quercus palustris Ulmus americana

Red Maple Gray Birch American Larch Pin Oak American Elm

Shrubs

Atnelanchier spicata . . . Andromeda glaucophylla

Betula pumila

Chamaedaphne calyculata Gaylussacia baccata . . .

Juneberry

Bog Rosemary Swamp Birch Leather Leaf

Black Huckleberry

[ioi]

American Plants for American Gardens

Shrubs {Continued)

Ilex verticillata Black Alder

Kalmia angustifolia Sheep Laurel

Kalmia polijolia Pale Laurel

Lyonia ligustrina Male Berry

Rhododendron viscosum Clammy Azalea

Rubus triflorus Dwarf Raspberry

Salix Candida Hoary Willow

Salix discolor Glaucous Willow

V actinium corytnbosum High Blueberry

V actinium corymbosum var. pallidum ..High Blueberry

V actinium macrocarpon Large Cranberry

V actinium Oxycoccos Small Cranberry

Viburnum dentatum Arrow-wood

Herbs

Arisaema triphyllum Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Cicuta bulbifera Water Hemlock

Cypripedium acaule Stemless Lady's Slipper

Decodon verticillatus Water Willow

Drosera rotundifolia Round-leaved Sundew

Eriophorum callitrix Hare's Tail

Eriophorum tenellum Cotton Grass

Galium palustre Bedstraw

Galium triflorum Sweet-scented Bedstraw

Geum rivale Purple Avens

Lysimachia terrestris Loosestrife

Lysimachia thrysi flora Tufted Loosestrife

Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum

Menyanthes trifolia Buckbean

Orontium aquaticum Golden Club

Pogonia ophioglossoides Pogonia

Potentilla palustris Marsh Five-finger

Sarracenia purpurea Pitcher Plant

Sium cicutafolium Water Parsnip

Thalictrum dioicum Meadow Rue

Typha latifolia Cat-tail

Viola conspersa Violet

Viola pallens Sweet White Violet

Ferns

Aspidium cristatum Shield Fern

Aspidium spinulosum Shield Fern

Aspidium Thelypteris Shield Fern

Equisetum palustre Horsetail

Onoclea sensibilis Sensitive Fern

Osmunda regalis Flowering Fern

[102]

CHAPTER XII

THE SEASIDE

Along the North Atlantic coast with its far look to sea and with its great sweep of the sky, with its shelving rocks, undulating dunes and sandy flats, a small group of trees, shrubs and flowers grows with rugged vigor.

Here pitch pines are the stalwart trees. Their stout trunks, rough bark, angular branches and short needles make it possible for them to hold their own valiantly. The early settlers found them in great forests on the high cliffs of Maine, on the shores of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jer- sey, in fact all along the coast as far south as Georgia. In some places pitch pines still make an evergreen background for the shore, in other places only a few scraggly trees remain. They are so noticeable, how- ever, that this whole region is known as the pine barrens.

Oaks are almost as prominent. They grow up in the pitch-pine woods and form its principal under- growth. Where the pines have been destroyed the oaks have become the important trees. They are never the great trees of the oak woodlands on inland ridges. Most of them are of medium size with a rough-branched picturesqueness and some are only

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American Plants for American Gardens

low wind-blown scrubby bushes. There are several varieties. The black scrub oak, Quercus ilicifolia, thrives even among the bleak rocks of Maine. The post oak, Quercus stellata, braves the Massachusetts shore but grows better farther south where it mingles with the black jack oak, Quercus marilandica, and with the willow oak, Quercus phellos. Besides, there is Quercus prinoides, that grows with all these other species in Long Island, New Jersey and farther south.

Other trees and shrubs grow here. There are hol- lies and cedars, sassafrases and amelanchiers, haw- thorns, and wild cherries. There are willows and hazelnuts, chokeberries and beach plums. There are Rhus copallina, one of the sumachs, and occasional virburnums such as Viburnum venosum. Then, too, there are bayberries and inkberries, and a great vari- ety of blueberries, dangleberries and huckleberries. There are roses, Rosa humilis, Rosa blanda, Rosa vir- giniana. There are New Jersey teas and sweet ferns, Juniperus horizontalis, one of the low-lying prostrate junipers, and the little-known Pyrus arbutifolia var., atropurpurea which is a delightful small shrub with rose pink flowers. Besides there are woody ground covers like coremas and hudsonias, bearberries and sand myrtles, and a vigorous group of herbaceous plants.

These are the plants that have adapted themselves to the rock-bound coast and sandy shore. They have the power to cope with barren soil and excessive dry- ness. They can brave the winds that sweep over them from the ocean. They are storm-tossed, gale-bent,

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weather-gnarled. Exposure is the source of their significant beauty. Even their foliage is proof against the drying winds. Some leaves like those of the inkberries have thick leathery surfaces, some like the bayberries have a waxy bloom, and some like the willows have a hairy covering. These protective coatings, also, give the foliage its astonishing varia- tion of tone. There is the deep green of the pines, the glossy green of the oaks, all the gray-greens of amelanchiers and bayberries, roses and beach plums, and even the more noticeable grayness of coremas and sand myrtles. This coloring is beautifully harmonious with the rocks and the sands. It is even more effective in the autumn, when the foliage turns to bronze and purple, rose and maroon.

There is something fundamental in this vegetation. It is surprising that it has ever been uprooted and that other plants have been used in its place. Its preservation retains natural settings for seaside houses. The houses themselves ought to be an integral part of the landscape. In order that this may be so, the close relationship that exists between buildings and their settings needs to be understood as the early settlers understood it when they built their houses solidly upon the windswept coast. These houses all fit the contours of the land, conform to the shelving ledges and even hide themselves in the undu- lations of the dunes. Their exteriors, whether they be of native stone, broad clapboards, or shingles, are harmonious in coloring, in feeling, in origin even, with their environment.

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The first place to reestablish the native vegetation is in defining the boundaries of the property. Roses, together with meadow-sweets and steeple bushes, can be grown in narrow borders about the smallest plot or in broad masses around the largest place. They are appropriate for both a cottage and a great ram- bling country house. For more rugged plantations hazels can be used. They have long been associated with gardens. Chokeberries make tall thick shrub- beries. They have shiny foliage, hawthorn-like white flowers and little clusters of small red berries. Beach plums that cling tenaciously to sandy slopes, have low, sweeping branches that make them good for informal hedgings. But of all these plants the bay- berries are best, not only because their rounded com- pact forms naturally make hedge-like formations, but because their silhouettes, their foliage, their gray waxy fruit, in fact the whole feeling of the plant, fits these surroundings.

None of these plants should be arranged in the usual stiff, straight hedges. They should be planted irregularly to blend with the undulating contours. If possible, several varieties should be used. Roses and blueberries, bayberries and dangleberries with groups of cherries and of sassafrases, of cedars, a few oaks and even an occasional pine will make a real hedgerow.

All these plants can, too, be brought up to the house. Their rugged forms adapt them to architec- tural masses. Bayberries, for instance, can be planted right against the house. They are rather difficult to

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move, except in small sizes, but they have an aston- ishing adaptability. Sometimes, in very exposed places, they remain low like ground-covers and again in sheltered positions they become great rounded bushes, eight feet high or more, fine enough in form and foliage to be planted as accents beside the main entrance. Low plants, like Pyrus arbutifolia var. atropurpurea, roses, and inkberries can be planted under the windows. Blueberries can be used against wall spaces. They have fascinatingly angular twig- gage, wonderful foliage, and delicate white flowers. Crabs and hawthorns can be planted in groups to shelter the porch and terrace. Their flowers are as exquisite as the English May, their berries are a bril- liant red, and their irregular forms make fascinating silhouettes against the house.

Such planting can be carried out from the house so as to cover the exposed stretches that slope down to the water. Low thickets of sweet fern and roses, bayberries, and huckleberries can be planted in the luxuriant way they naturally grow, with here and there an accenting group of taller shrubs and trees. And every blueberry bush, every oak, every pine that is growing there can be preserved to add a character- istic picturesqueness to the scene.

Such planting leaves no room for a lawn. In fact a lawn would be quite out of place. It has an un- natural look among the out-cropping rocks. It be- comes sun-scorched and wind-dried. There are however, many natural grasses that stay green during the hot summer and then turn to tan and tawny tones

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in the fall. They are not too rough. Some, like the beard grass, are rather nicely tufted and make quite an even turf, while the rest are smooth enough to walk upon.

The paths that wander through these grasses and thickets can lead to gardens of native trees, shrubs and flowers. Pines wherever they exist can make the dark green background to the whole scene and hollies can be used as telling accents. The hollies do not grow as far north as Boston but they grow well in Long Island and in New Jersey as well as farther south. They are, to be sure, very slow growing. Like the pines they are extremely difficult to transplant. Rather large sized specimens are occasionally moved with success but even small trees are well worth transplant- ing for they are very decorative. Their scarlet ber- ries make the tree a mid-winter wonder, and the shin- ing foliage makes them effective throughout the year. With the pines and hollies some of the heaths can be effectively used. Pyxies, bearberries and sand myrtles can be planted as edgings and ground covers. The pyxie, or flowering moss, is a tiny plant that creeps close along the ground. It is really elfin-like when it is covered with little starry flowers. In some places the arbutus establishes itself with the pixies. The bearberries are lovely too. They spread the ground with carpets of shining evergreen leaves that shelter little urn-shaped white flowers. And the sand myrtles, or Leiophyllum buxifolia, are perhaps the most ex- quisite of them all. They are only a few inches high.

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Their little branches have oval myrtle-like leaves and umbels of small white heath-like flowers. These plants blossom in the spring but their evergreen foli- age make even summer use of them full of interest. In back of these small edgings evergreen sheep laurels with their rose-red flowers and the inkberries with their small leathery leaves can be inter-planted, and with these blueberries and huckleberries, for these plants together make a fascinating heath garden.

Most of the gardens should, however, be closer to the house, beside the porch or outside the living room. These gardens need not be gardens in the ordinary sense of the word. They need not be laid out in geo- metric shapes that relate their beds and borders, their paths and hedges to the straight lines of the house. They can be informal with planting that is arranged to fit the contours of the land and to make the most of rocky outcrops and sandy hollows. They can be tucked away within enclosures of beach plums, haw- thorns, cherries or amelanchiers. The amelanchiers are, perhaps, the loveliest of all. Their soft silvery- white flowers cover their drooping leafless branches in foamy masses early in the spring. Their foliage is enjoyable all summer long. They can form a back- ground for an intimate garden of the most delicate seaside flowers. The borders can be edged with hud- sonias that cover their dense little tufts with heath- like flowers or with the heather that has become nat- uralized in many places. Or edgings can be made of Corema conradii, whose foliage is sage green and

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whose whorls of white bells are of exquisite workman- ship. Then, rare-looking flaxes can be used in slender drifts, spiranthes or ladies' tresses in nice little group- ings, gerardias in fascinating numbers. And masses of striking wild lupines, beach-pea, lespedezas, and adorable low blue asters with grassy foliage can be planted. These alone would make a blue garden as lovely as can be. A gayer garden, too, can be made, all of yellow flowers, with rock-roses, hypericums, and evening primroses, with golden-rods and the golden Chryopsis falcata that continues its summer bloom well into the autumn and crowds its much- branched clumps with bright aster-like flowers. Be- sides these, little accents of wild indigo can be added and little clusters of Tephrosia virginiana. This is the hoary pea or goat's rue that has fine compound leaves and pea-like yellow flowers with crimson keels. Here is bright color as up-to-date as you wish. A gar- den where burnt-orange butterfly-weed and orange- scarlet Lilium philadelphicum are intermingled would be even more fascinating and sufficient for mid-sum- mer. The combination is astonishingly modern and particularly effective when it is near a silvery-gray house or against a background of cedar. All these flowers are particularly brilliant in the sunlight of the seaside but there is no crudity in the effect. The foli- age helps to harmonize them with the sands, the rocks and the sea.

That is why these flowers are effective when they are grown right out in the open and allowed to spread freely over the rocks and the sand. There are so

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many delightful ground covers, too, like Cerastium arvense that, for all its chickweed habits, makes a dainty spring effect with a profusion of starry flowers. It is especially delightful when it grows with the bird-foot violets. And there is the sand grass and Polygonella articulata and Arenaria peploides. These grow even in beach sand. The sandwort has flowers that sometimes are deep rose and sometimes white. The Polygonella articulata has foliage of yellow green that livens the sand. And then there is the curious prickly pear, Opuntia vulgaris, with its cactus-like leaves. Its clear yellow flowers are delicately formed as of spun glass and have a sheen like a rose. The hudsonias, too, grow in great masses over rock and sand. Many different everlastings like these situa- tions. Even the Corema conradii, the bearberries and the sand myrtles grow out in the open. The spreading flatness characteristic of many of these plants offers an opportunity of trying interesting experiments. Instead of the graded heights that are used in most borders there can be an evenness of height which is better suited to exposed places and makes better fore- grounds for views of the sea. Many of the plants are so low, in fact, that they are out of the direct sweep of the wind. Many, too, have billowy undulations like the dunes and the waves. They all are by their nature a part of their environment.

THE SEASIDE ASSOCIATION Trees

Betula populijolia Gray Birch

Carya glabra Pignut

Em]

American Plants for American Gardens

Trees {Continued)

Carya alba Mocker Nut

Crataegus totnentosa Hawthorn

Juniperus virginiana Red Cedar

Liquidambar Styraciflua Sweet Gum

Nyssa sylvatica Black Gum

Pinus rigida Pitch Pine

Prunus serotina Wild Black Cherry

Quercus alba White Oak

Quercus coccinea Scarlet. Oak

Quercus illicifolia Black Scrub Oak

Quercus marilandica Black Jack Oak

Quercus phellos Willow Oak

Quercus prinoides Oak

Quercus Prinus Chestnut Oak

Quercus rubra Red Oak

Quercus stellata Post Oak

Quercus velutina Black Oak

Shrubs and Vines

Amelanchier canadensis Shad Bush

Calluna vulgaris* Heather

Ceanothus americanus New Jersey Tea

Clethra alnifolia Sweet Pepperbush

Corylus americana Hazelnut

Crataegus sp Hawthorn

Gaylussacia baccata Black Huckleberry

Gaylussacia dumosa Dwarf Huckleberry

Gaylussacia frondosa Dangleberry

Ilex glabra Inkberry

Ilex opaca American Holly

Juniperus horisontalis Juniper

Kalmia angustifolia Sheep Laurel

Lyonia mariana Stagger-bush

Myrica asplenifolia Sweet Fern

Myrica carolinensis Bayberry

Prunus maritima Beach Plum

Psedera quinquefolia Woodbine

Pyrus arbutifolia var. atropurpurea . . . . Chokeberry

Pyrus melanocarpa Chokeberry

Rhus copallina Dwarf Sumach

Rosa blanda Rose

Rosa humilis Rose

Rosa nitida Rose

Rosa virginiana Rose

Salix humilis Prairie Willow

Satnbucus racemosa Elder

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Shrubs and Vines {Continued)

Sassafras variijolium Sassafras

Smilax glauca Green Brier

Spircea latifolia Meadow-sweet

Spircea tomentosa Steeple Bush

V actinium atrococcum Black High Blueberry

V actinium caespitosum Dwarf Bilberry

V actinium pennsylvanicum Low Sweet Blueberry

V actinium stamineum Squaw Huckleberry

V actinium vacillans Late Low Blueberry

V actinium virgatum Blueberry

Viburnum venosum Arrow-wood

Vitis labrusca Northern Fox Grape

Hans

Ammophila arenaria Beach Grass

Anagallis arvensis Pimpernel

Andropogon scoparius Beard Grass

Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi Bearberry

Arenaria peploides Sandwort

Asclepias amplexicaulis Milkweed

Asclepias tuber osa Butterfly-weed

Asclepias variegata .... Milkweed

Asclepias verticillata Milkweed

Aster concolor Aster

Aster dumosus Aster

Aster gracilis Aster

Aster nemoralis Aster

Aster novi-belgii Aster

Aster patens Aster

Aster spectabilis Aster

Aster undulatus Aster

Baptisia tinctoria Wild Indigo

Calluna vulgaris Heather

Car ex pennsylvanica Sedge

Cerastium arvense Chickweed

Chimaphila umbellata Pipsissewa

Chrysopsis falcata Golden Aster

Chrysopsis mariana Chrysopsis

Comandra umbellata Toad-flax

Corema Conradii Broom Crowberry

Crotonopsis linearis Crotonopsis

Cyperus cylindricus Sedge

Cyperus dentatus Sedge

Cyperus filiculmis Sedge

Cyperus Grayii Sedge

Gerardia flava Downy False Foxglove

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American Plants for American Gardens

Herbs {Continued)

Gerardia purpurea Purple Gerardia

Gerardia setacea Gerardia

Gerardia virginica Smooth False Foxglove

Gnaphalium purpureum Purplish Cudweed

Helianthemum canadense Rockrose

Hudsonia ericoides Hudsonia

Hudsonia foment osa Hudsonia

Hypericum canadense St. John's-wort

Hypoxis hirsuta Star Grass

Lathyrus maritimus Beach Pea

Lechea minor Lechea

Lechea racemulosa Lechea

Lechea villosa Lechea

Leiophyllum buxifolium Sand Myrtle

Lespedeza angustifolia Bush Clover

Lespedesa capitata Bush Clover

Lespedeza frutescens Bush Clover

Lespedeza hirta Bush Clover

Liatris elegans Blazing Star

Liatris graminifolia Blazing Star

Liatris squarrosa Blazing Star

Lilium philadelphicum Wood Lily

Linaria canadensis Toadflax

Linum floridanum Flax

Linum medium Flax

Lupinus perennis Wild Lupine

Lysimachia quadrifolia Loosestrife

Monarda punctata Horse Mint

(Enothera fruticosa Sundrops

(Enothera linearis Evening Primrose

Opuntia vulgaris Prickly Pear

Panicum Addisonii Panic Grass

Panicum Ashei Panic Grass

Panicum columbianum Panic Grass

Panicum Commonsianum Panic Grass

Panicum depauperatum Panic Grass

Panicum Lindheimeri Panic Grass

Panicum oricola Panic Grass

Panicum sphaerocarpon Panic Grass

Panicum tsugetorum Panic Grass

Panicum villosissimum Panic Grass

Polygonella articulata Polygonella

Polygonum monspeliensis Beard Grass

Pyxidanthera barbulata Pyxie

Solidago bicolor Golden-rod

Solidago erecta Golden-rod

Solidago odora Sweet Golden-rod

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\ Herbs {Continued)

Solidago puberula Golden-rod

Solidago sempervirens Golden-rod

Solidago stricta Golden-rod

Solidago tenuifolia Golden-rod

Spiranthes gracilis Ladies' Tresses

Tephrosia virginiana Hoary Pea

Triplasis purpurea Sand Grass

Viola pedata Bird-foot Violet

Xerophyllum asphodeloides Xerophyllum

[115]

INDEX

Acacia, 19 Acer Negundo, 83 Acer pennsylvanicum, 63, 71 Acer rubrum, 83, 93, 101 Acer saccharinum, 83 Acer saccharum, 63, 71 Acer spicatum, 63, 71 Achillea Millefolium, 20, 32 Acorus Calamus, 85, 94 Actaea alba, 54, 64, 72 Actaea rubra, 54, 64, 72 Adiantum pedatum, 65, 73 Alder, 76, 81, 89 Alisma Plantago-aquatica, 85, 94 Alnus incana, 72, 84, 93 Alnus rugosa, 72, 84, 93 Alum Root, 51, 55, 64, 72 Amelanchier, 104, 105, 109 Amelanchier canadensis, 53, 64, 72, 84, 112

Amelanchier oblongifolia, 64 Amelanchier spicata, 101 American Brooklime, 87 American Elm, 84, 101 American Fly Honeysuckle, 72 American Holly, 112 American Mountain Ash, 53 American Yew, 64, 72 Ammophila arenaria, 113 Amorpha fructicosa, 84 Anagallis arvensis, 113 Anaphalis margaritacea, 20, 32, 37, 54

Andromeda glaucophylla, 101 Andropogon scoparius, 113 Anemone, 20, 44, 50, 54 Anemone canadensis, 20 Anemone quinquefolia, 54, 85 Anemone virginiana, 20, 44, 54

[1

Anemonella, 44

Anemonella thalictroides, 32, 54 Angelica, 85

Angelica atropurpurea, 85 Antennaria neglecta, 20, 32, 54 Antennaria neodioica, 20, 32 Antennaria Parlinii, 20, 32 Antennaria plantaginifolia, 20, 32, 54

Apocynum androsaemifolium, 20 Apocynum cannabinum, 20 Aquilegia canadensis, 32, 54, 72 Arabis, 44, 50 Arabis lyrata, 54, 72 Aralia nudicaulis, 54 Arbor Vitae, 40, 71 Arbutus, Trailing, 44, 50, 108 Arctostaphylos Ura-ursi, 113 Arenaria lateriflora, 20 Arenaria peploides, ill, 113 Arisaema Dracontium, 72, 85 Arisaema triphyllum, 72, 85, 94, 102 Arrow Arum, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95 Arrow-head, 82, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 96

Arrow-leaved Tear-thumb, 95 Arrow-wood, 17, 20, 32, 43, 45, 48,

54, 58, 64, 72, 84, 85, 93, 94,

100, 102, 113 Arrow-wood, Downy, 32 Asarum canadense, 54, 64, 72, 85 Asclepias amplexicaulis, 12, 20, 113 Asclepias incarnata, 72, 85, 93 Asclepias phytolaccoides, 54 Asclepias quadrifolia, 54 Asclepias syriaca, 20 Asclepias tuberosa, 20, 113 Asclepias variegata, 54, 113 Asclepias verticillata, 113

7]

Index

Ash, 76, 78 Asparagus officinalis, 20 Asperula galioides, 20 Aspidium cristatum, 87, 96, 102 Aspidium marginale, 34, 38, 42, 50,

56, 65, 68, 69, 73, 87 Aspidium noveboracense, 56, 65, 73,

74

Aspidium spinulosum, 42, 50, 56,

62, 65, 68, 69, 73, 87, 102 Aspidium Thelypteris, 102 Asplenium acrostichoides, 73 Asplenium Filix-femina, 65 Asplenium platyneuron, 34, 37, 38,

56, 65, 69, 73 Asplenium Ruta-muraria, 34, 56, 69, 73

Asplenium Trichomanes, 34, 38, 56,

65, 69, 73 Aster, 26, 31, 32, 33, 50, 51, 54,

85, 94, 1 10, 113 Aster acuminatus, 50, 54 Aster concolor, 113 Aster cordifolius, 14, 26, 32, 37, 54 Aster divaricatus, 14, 20, 54 Aster dumosus, 113 Aster ericoides, 14, 20, 26, 32 Aster gracilis, 113 Aster infirmus, 54 Aster laevis, 14, 20 Aster laterifolius, 14, 20, 85, 90 Aster linariifolius, 54 Aster macrophyllus, 14, 20, 50, 54 Aster nemoralis, 113 Aster novae-angliae, 14, 20, 32, 94 Aster novi-belgii, 113 Aster paniculatus, 14, 20, 85, 94 Aster patens, 14, 20, 113 Aster prenanthoides, 26, 33, 37, 54 Aster ptarmicoides, 14, 20 Aster puniceus, 85, 94 Aster spectabilis, 113 Aster undulatus, 113 Aster vimineus, 14, 20, 26, 33, 37,

85, 94

Baneberry, 44, 50, 62 Baptisia tinctoria, 54, 113

[1

Barbarea vulgaris, 20, 94 Barberry Common, 32 Basswood, 43, 63, 72, 76, 78, 84 Bayberry, 25, 32, 36, 104, 105, 107, 112

Beach Grass, 113 Beach pea, no, 114 Beach plum, 104, 105, 109, 112 Bean Wild, 22 Bearberry, 104, 108, in, 113 Beard Grass, 113, 114 Beard-tongue, 22, 55 Bedstraw, 21, 102 Beech, 43, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63, 71 Beech Fern, 62, 65, 69, 73 Beech-drops, 64, 72 Bellwort, 44, 55, 58, 63, 64, 67, 7h 80, 87

Benzoin aestivale, 84, 93

Berberis vulgaris, 25, 32

Bergamot, 13, 33

Bergamot Wild, 22

Betula alba, 63, 71

Betula lenta, 63, 71

Betula lutea, 63, 71

Betula populifolia, 37, 101, in

Betula pumila, 101

Bindweed, 21

Birch, 61

Bird's-foot Violet, III, 115 Bishop's Cap, 44, 51, 55, 62, 64,

67, 72 Bitter Nut, 71, 76, 83 Bittersweet, 19, 25, 29, 32, 53, 84,

94

Black Alder, 76, 77, 84, 100, 102 Ash, 84 Bindweed, 86 Birch, 58, 59, 63, 71 Gum, 112

High Blueberry, 113 Huckleberry, 93, 101, 112 Jack Oak, 112 Oak, 53, 112 Scrub Oak, 93, 112 Snakeroot, 54 Walnut, 84 Willow, 71, 84, 93

Index

Blackberry, 19, 32, 93 Black-eyed Susan, 22, 26, 33 Bladder Campion, 22

Fern, 46, 65, 67, 70, 87

Nut, 43, 48, 54, 84 Blazing Star, 14 Blephilia, 33 Blephilia ciliata, 20, 33 Bloodroot, 44, 50, 55, 79, 86 Blue Tangle, 53 Blue Vervain, 53, 81, 87, 96 Bluebell, 72

Blueberry, 25, 31, 43, 45, 104, 106, 107, 109, 113

Low Sweet, 32 Blue-eyed Grass, 86 Bluets, 12, 21, 79, 85 Bog Rosemary, 99, 100, 101 Boneset, 72, 82, 85, 94 Botrychium obliquum, 56, 65

simplex, 56

ternatum, 56, 65

virginianum, 56, 73, 65 Bouncing Bet, 22 Box Elder, 76 Brake, 56

Brasenia Schreberi, 94 Broom Crowberry, 113 Buckbean, 98, 102 Buckthorn Common, 53 Bugbane False, 95 Bunchberry, 39, 41, 64, 67, 71, 72

Bur Oak, 76, 84 Bur-reed, 88, 96 Bush Clover, 12, 26, 55, 114 Bush Honeysuckle, 53 Butter and Eggs, 21, 26, 33 Buttercup, 35, 37

Bulbous, 22, 26, 30, 33, 38

Swamp, 22

Tall, 33, 38 Butter fly- weed, 11, 20, 40, 71, 84, 113

Buttonbush, 93

Calluna vulgaris, 112, 113 Caltha palustris, 85, 91

[1

Campanula aparinoides, 85, 94 Campanula rotundifolia, 72 Camptosorus rhizophyllus, 50, 56,

65, 69, 73 Canada Plum, 76, 81, 84 Cardinal-flower, 82, 86, 95 Carex, 94

Carex pennsylvanica, 113 Carpinus caroliniana, 71, 84 Carrot, 11, 21 Carya alba, 53, 112 Carya cordiformis, 71, 83

glabra, 53, 83, 11 1

ovata, 53, 83 Cassia marilandica, 85 Castalia odorata, 94 Castanea dentata, 63 Catchfly, 23 Cat-tail, 88, 91, 96, 102 Ceanothus americanus, 53, 112 Cedar, 24, 31, 104, 106 Celastrus scandens, 19, 32, 53 Celtis occidentalis, 83 Cephalanthus occidentalis, 93 Cerastium arvense, 21, 111, 113

nutans, 94

vulgatum, 21, 33 Ceratophyllum demersum, 94 Chain Fern, 87, 97 Checkerberry, 39, 41, 54 Chelone glabra, 82, 85, 94 Cherry, 106, 109

Choke, 25, 32

Wild Black, 17, 19 Chestnut, 63

Oak, 53, 112 Chickweed, 11, 94, 113

Common, 22, 34

Common Mouse-ear, 21, 33

Field Mouse-ear, 21 Chicory Common, 11, 21 Chimaphila maculata, 33, 54

umbellata, 33, 42, 54, 113 Choke Cherry, 15, 16, 17, 19 Chokeberry, 93, 104, 106, 112 Christmas Fern, 30, 56, 65, 67, 70, 74

Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, 33

Index

Chrysopsis, 113

falcata, no, 113

mariana, 113 Chrysoplenium americanum, 72, 85, 94

Cichorium Intybus, 21 Cicuta bulbifera, 94, 102

maculata, 94 Cimicifuga racemosa, 44, 54 Cinnamon Fern, 87, 97 Cinquefoil, 12, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 55

Shrubby, 16, 19

Silvery, 33 Circaea lutetiana, 64 Clammy Azalea, 93, 99, 100, 102 Claytonia virginica, 54, 85 Cleavers, 54 Clematis, 53, 93

verticillaris, 43, 47, 53

virginiana, 82, 84, 85, 93 Clethra alnifolia, 84, 93, 112 Cliff Brake, 56, 62, 65, 67 Climbing False Buckwheat, 86

Hemp-weed, 86, 95

Rose, S3 Closed Gentian, 85, 92, 95 Clover Bush, 21, 31, 33, 37

Rabbit-foot, 10

White, 10

Yellow, 10 Club Moss, 34, 39, 42, 56 Columbine, 26, 30

Wild, 32 Comandra umbellata, 33, 54, 113 Comfrey Common, 86 Cone-flower, 86 Conioselinum chinense, 94 Convolvulus sepium, 85

spithamaeus, 21 Corema, 104, 105, 109

Conradii, in, 113 Cornus alternifolia, 53, 64

Amomum, 84, 93

canadensis, 42, 64, 72

circinata, 15

florida, 53, 63, 71

paniculata, 15, 17, 19, 32

stolonifera, 84, 93

Corydalis Pale, 21

sempervirens, 12, 21, 54, 72 Corylus americana, 19, 112 Cotton Grass, 94, 98, 102 Cow Parsnip, 82, 85, 95

Wheat, 55 Cranberry, 98 Cranesbill, 85 Crataegus, 17, 19, 112 Crus-galli, 83, 93 fecunda, 83, 93 tomentosa, 112 Crotonopsis, 113

linearis, 113 Crowfoot, 33

Early, 10, 22 Cryptogramma Stelleri, 69, 73 Cudweed, 33

Low, 21, 33 Culver's-root, 81, 87 Cuphea Clammy, 21

petiolata, 21 Currant Red, 19, 32 Cynoglossum virginianum, 54 Cyperus cylindricus, 113 dentatus, 113 filiculmis, 113 Grayii, 113 Cypripedium acaule, 42, 54, 64, 72, 102

Cystopteris bulbifera, 65, 70, 73 fragilis, 73, 87

Daisy Ox-eye, n, 21, 33 Dentaria laciniata, 85 Desmodium nudiflorum, 33 Dewberry, 20, 32 Dianthus Armeria, 21 Dicentra Cucullaria, 64, 72, 84 Dicksonia punctilobula, 23, 65 Diervilla Lonicera, 53 Dioscorea villosa, 21, 85 Dipsacus sylvestris, 21 Ditch Stonecrop, 95 Dogwood, 15, 17, 19, 32, 41, 43, 45,

51, 53, 58, 60 Dogbane Spreading, 13, 20 Downy Arrow-wood, 20

120 ]

Index

False Foxglove, 55

Yellow Violet, 55 Drosera rotundifolia, 102 Duckweed, 95, 96

Dutchman's Breeches, 58, 62, 64, 80, 85

Dwarf Bilberry, 113 Huckleberry, 93, 112 Raspberry, 102 Sumach, 112

Early Meadow Rue, 55, 73, 80, 86

Saxifrage, 55, 73

Yellow Violet, 73 Echinocystis lobata, 84 Elder, 76, 80, 84, 94, 112 Elm, 75, 78, 81, 82, 83, 93 Elodea canadensis, 94 Empetrum nigrum, 64 Epifagus virginiana, 64, 72 Epigea repens, 37, 54 Epilobium angustifolium, 21

molle, 94 Equisetum palustre, 96, 102

pratense, 73 Erigeron annuus, 21

philadelphicus, 21

pulchellus, 21 Eriocaulon articnlatum, 94 Eriphorum callitrix, 102

gracile, 94

tenellum, 102 Erythronium americanum, 72, 85 Eupatorium perfoliatum, 72, 85, 94

purpureum, 72, 85, 94

urticaefolium, 64 Evening Primrose, no, 114 Everlasting, II, 21, 26, 30, 32, 37,

54, in Pearly, 20, 32, 36, 37 Plantain-leaved, 20, 32

Fagus grandifolia, 63, 71 False Hellebore, 87

Indigo, 84

Miterwort, 55, 64

[>

Solomon's Seal, 55, 62, 64, 73, 80, 86

Fern Christmas, 34, 35, 37, 38, 42

Shield, 34, 35, 38, 42

Sweet, 31, 32 Figwort, 55 Fireweed, 21 Flax, no, 114 Fleabane Daisy, 21 Flowering Dogwood, 53, 63, 71

Fern, 87, 97, 102 Forget-me-not, 81, 86, 92, 95 Foxglove, 44

Fragaria virginiana, 21, 37 Fraxinus americana, 63, 64, 71

nigra, 84

pennsylvanica, 84 Fringed Gentian, 85, 95

Orchis, 85

Polygala, 55 Frost Grape, 85

Galium Aparine, 54

circaezans, 54

lanceolatum, 54

Mollugo, 21

palustre, 102 Gall-of-the-earth, 64 Garden Burnet, 73 Gaultheria procumbens, 42, 54 Gaylussacia baccata, 93, 101, 112

dumosa, 93, 112

frondosa, 53, 112 Gentian, 82

Closed, 82

Fringed, 82 Gentiana Andrewsii, 85, 95

crinita, 85, 95 Geranium, 44

maculatum, 55, 85

Robertianum, 64 Geradia, 13, 51, no, 114

flava, 55, 113

purpurea, 114

virginica, 55, 114 Geum rivale, 102 Ginger Wild, 44 Glaucous Willow, 102

Index

Gnaphalium polycephalum, 21, 33

purpureum, 114

uliginosum, 21, 33 Goat's Rue, no Golden Aster, 113

club, 95, 98, 102

Ragwort, 96

Saxifrage, 67, 72, 85, 94 Golden-rod, II, 14, 22, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 55, 96, no, 114, 115

Grape, 18, 43, 47, 75 Grass, Blue-eyed, 12 Grass of Parnassus, 72 Rib, 33

Gray Birch, 35, 36, 37, 100, 111 Great Laurel, 72

Lobelia, 86, 95

St. John's-wort, 85

Solomon's Seal, 86 Green Brier, 86, 94, 113

Dragon, 72, 82, 85 Groundnut, 44, 50, 55

Habenaria lacera, 85

psychodes, 85 Hackberry, 76, 83 Halbeard-leaved Tear-thumb, 95 Hamamelis virginiana, 53, 63, 72, 84

Hare's Tail, 102 Haw, Black, 21, 25, 32 Hawkweed, 21

Hawthorne, 19, 76, 83, 93, 104, 107,

109, 112 Hay-scented Fern, 10, 65 Hazelnut, 16, 17, 19, 104, 112 Heal-all, 22 Heather, 112, 113 Hedeoma pulegioides, 21, 33, 85 Helenium aumtumnale, 85, 95 Helianthemum canadense, 114 Helianthus divaricatus, 21 Hemlock, 40, 43, 57, 59, 61, 63, 66,

70, 72 Parsley, 94 Hemp, Indian, 20 Hepatica, 44, 50, 55

[I

triloba, 55 Heracleum lanatum, 85, 95 Herb Robert, 64

Heuchera americana, 44, 51, 55, 62,

64, 67, 71, 72 Hibiscus Moscheutos, 85 Hickory, 43, 45, 76, 78

Shag-bark, 53 Hieracium aurantiacum, 21

florentinum, 21

Gronovii, 21

Pilosella, 21

venosum, 55 High Blueberry, 94, 100, 102 Hoary Alder, 72, 84, 93

Pea, no, 115

Willow, 102 Hobble-bush, 66, 72 Holly, 104, 108 Honeysuckle, 43

Trumpet, 18, 19, 32 Hooked Crowfoot, 96 Hop Common, 85

Hornbeam, 45, 48, 53, 76, 84 Hornbeam American Hop, 43

Hop, 47 Hornwort, 94 Horse Gentian, 55, 114 Horsetail, 73, 96, 102 Houstonia caerulea, 21, 85 Huckleberry, 43, 45, 104, 107, 109

Squaw, 51 Hudsonia, 104, 109, 114

ericoides, 114

tomentosa, 114 Humulus Lupulus, 85 Hydrocotyle americana, 95 Hypericum, 13, no

Ascyron, 85

boreale, 95

canadense, 21, 33, 85, 114 perforatum, 21 punctatum, 95 virginicum, 95 Hypoxis hirsuta, 21, 55, 114

Impatiens biflora, 85 pallida, 86

0

Index

Indian Cucumber-root, 58, 62, 64, 72, 83 Pipe, 58, 64

Indigo Wild, no

Inkberry, 104, 105, 109

Iris, 13, 81, 92 prismatica, 81, 86, 95 versicolor, 11, 21, 81, 86, 95

Ironweed, 96

Ironwood, 71, 76, 83

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, 72, 80, 84, 85, 102

Joe Pye Weed, 72, 82, 85, 94 Juglans cinerea, 71, 84

nigra, 84 Juncus effusus, 95

marginatus, 95 Juneberry, 64, 101 Juniper, 14, 24, 25, 112

Common, 32 Juniperus communis, 19, 24, 32

horizontalis, 104, 112

virginiana, 24, 32, 11 1

Kalmia angustifolia, 102, 112

latifolia, 53, 64, 72, 75

polifolia, 102 Kinnikinnik, 76, 84, 93 Knotweed, 22, 95

Ladies' Tresses, 86, no, 115

Lady Fern, 65

Lady's Slipper, 39, 41, 54

Lady's Thumb, 95

Lake Cress, 96

Larch, 100

Large Cranberry, 102 Larger Blue Flag, n, 21, 81, 86, 95

Larix laricina, 101

Late Low Blueberry, 54, 113

Laurel, 61, 71

Leather Leaf, 89, 100, 101

Lechea, 114

Lechea minor, 114

racemulosa, 114

villosa, 114

[1

Leiophyllum buxifolium, 108, 114 Lemna minor, 95

trisulca, 95 Lespedeza, 12, no

angustifolia, 114

capitata, 21, 33, 37, 42, 114

hirta, 114

simulata, 21, 33, 37, 42, 55 Liatris elegans, 114

graminifolia, 114

squarrosa, 114 Lilium canadense, 13, 21, 86

philadelphicum, 13, 22, 86, no, 114

Lily, 13

Wild Orange-red, 11, 21 Linaria vulgaris, 21, 26, 33 Liquidambar Styraciflua, 84, 112 Liriodendron Tulipifera, 53, 63, 7i

Lobelia, 21, 81 cardinalis, 86, 95 Great, 21 inflata, 21

siphilitica, 13, 21, 86, 95

spicata, 21 Long-spurred Violet, 73 Lonicera canadensis, 72

sempervirens, 21, 32, 53 Loosestrife, 13, 21, 44, 50, 55, 95,

102, 114 Low Sweet Blueberry, 54, 113 Ludvigia alternifolia, 95 Lupine, 13

Wild, 11, 13, 21, no, 114

perennis, 21, 114 Luzula parviflora, 33, 55, 64 Lychnis alba, 21 Lycopodium, 39

clavatum, 42, 56

complanatum, 42

dendroideum, 34, 42

lucidulum, 56

obscurum, 56 Lycopus virginicus, 95 Lyonia ligustrina, 19, 102

mariana, 112 Lysimachia Nummularia, 86, 95

3]

Index

Lysimachia producta, 95 quadrifolia, 13, 21, 55, 114 terrestris, 13, 21, 102

Lythrum alatum, 95

Mad-dog Skullcap, 86 Maianthemum, 50, 55, 64, 71, 102

canadense, 55, 64, 72 Maidenhair, 13, 65, 67, 70 Male Berry, 19, 102 Mandrake, 80 Maple, 43, 57, 59. 60 Marjoram Wild, 85 Marsh Five-finger, 96, 102

Marigold, 81, 85, 94 May Apple, 86 Mayflower, 37, 54 Meadow Parsnip, 86, 96

Rue, 14, 44, 5i, 55, 73, 82, 92 Meadowsweet, 16, 22, 81, 84, 94,

106, 113 Medeola virginiana, 64, 72 Medicago falcata, 21

sativa, 21 Medick, 21

Melampyrum lineare, 55 Melilot Yellow, 21 Melilotus officinalis, 21 Menispermum canadense, 84 Mentha piperita, 86

spicata, 86 Menyanthes trifoliata, 102 Mermaid-weed, 96 Mertensia virginica, 80, 86 Mikania scandens, 86, 95 Milkweed, 12, 20, 44, 54, 50, 113

Common, 13 Milkwort, 22 Mimulus ringens, 95 Mint Horse, 33

mountain, 26, 33 Mitchella repens, 33, 42, 55, 64, 72 Mitella diphylla, 51, 55, 64, 72 Miterwort False, 51 Mocker Nut, 53, 112 Monarda fistulosa, 13, 22, 33

punctata, 33, 114 Moneywort, 86, 95

1 1

Monotropa uni flora, 64

Moonseed, 84 Moonwort, 56, 65 Morus alba, 53, 84 Mossy Stonecrop, 73 Mountain Laurel, 43, 44, 48, 51, 53, 58, 60, 64, 72

Maple, 58, 60, 61, 63, 71

Mint, 22 Mouse-ear, 21 Mulberry, 76, 78 Mullein Moth, 26, 34 Myosotis laxa, 86, 95 Myrica asplenifolia, 19, 32, 112

carolinensis, 32, 112

Gale, 84, 93 Myriophyllum Farwellii, 95

spicatum, 95

Naiad, 95 Najas flexilis, 95 Nannyberry, 20, 32, 85 Nettle Hedge, 22

New Jersey Tea, 43, 48, 53, 104, 112

Nightshade Common, 22 Nine-bark, 76, 84 Northern Fox Grape, 20, 54, 113 Nymphaea advena, 95 Nyssa multiflora, 93 sylvatica, 112

Oak, 25, 103, 105, 106, 107, 112

Black Jack, 104

Black Scrub, 16, 19, 31, 104

Chestnut, 43

Fern, 65, 69, 73

Post, 104

Red, 43

Scarlet, 43

White, 43, 45

Willow, 104 Oakesia, 55, 80, 86

sessilifolia, 55, 86 Oenothera biennis, 11, 22, 33

fruiticosa, 22, 33, 114

linearis, 114

pumila, 22, 33

4]

Index

One-flowered Cancer-root, 86 One-seeded Bur Cucumber, 86 Onoclea sensibilis, 73, 87, 97, 102

Struthiopteris, 87 Opuntia vulgaris, 12, 22, III, 114 Orchis Showy, 50

spectabilis, 55, 64 Orobanche uni flora, 86 Orontium aquaticum, 95, 98, 102 Osmunda, 100

cinnamomea, 87, 97

Claytoniana, 87, 97

regalis, 87, 97, 102 Ostrich Fern, 87 Ostrya virginiana, 53, 84 Oxalis Acetosella, 64, 72

filipes, 22, 33, 37, 55

stricta, 22, 33, 37

violacea, 55, 64, 72

Painted Cup, 11

Cup, Scarlet, 20

Trillium, 73 Paint-brush Devil's, 21, 33 Pale Corydalis, 54, 72 Pale Laurel, 99, 100, 102

Touch-me-not, 86 Panax trifolium, 55 Panic Grass, 114 Panicum Addisonii, 114

Ashei, 114

columbianum, 114

Commonsianum, 114

depauperatum, 114

Lindheimeri, 114

oricola, 114

sphaerocarpon, 114

tsugetorum, 114

villosissimum, 114 Parnassia caroliniana, 72 Partridge Berry, 33, 39, 41, 55, 64, 72

Pearlwort, 73

Pearly Everlasting, 54

Pedicularis canadensis, 55

Pellea atropurpurea, 56, 65, 69, 73

Peltandra virginica, 86, 95

Pennyroyal, 11, 21, 26, 31

American, 33 Penthorum sedoides, 95 Penstemon hirsutus, 12, 22

laevigatus, 55 Peppermint, 86 Petasites palmatus, 86 Phaseolus polystachyus, 22 Phegopteris Dryopteris, 65, 69

hexagonoptera, 65, 69, 73

polypodioides, 65, 69, 73 Physalis pruinosa, 22 Physocarpus opulifolius, 84 Phytolacca decandra, 22 Pickerel-weed, 81, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95

Pignut, 53, 83, ill Pilea pumila, 72 Pimpernel, 113 Pin Cherry, 15, 19

Oak, 76, 78, 84, 93, 101 Pine, 105, 106, 107, 108

Pitch, 40, 42

Red, 40, 42

White, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 Pink Deptford, 21 Pinus resinosa, 42

rigida, 42, 112

Strobus, 42 Pinxter Flower, 43, 46, 53 Pipewort, 94

Pipsissewa, 33, 39, 41, 54, 113 Pitch Pine, 103, 112 Pitcher plant, 99, 102 Plantago lanceolata, 22, 33

major, 22 Plantain Common, 22 Plantain-leaved, 54 Platanus occidentalis, 84 Plum, 19

Canada, 19 Podophyllum peltatum, 86 Pogonia, 99, 102 Poke Common, 22

Milkweed, 54 Polygala, 44

Fringed, 33

pauciflora, 33, 55

sanguinea, 22

>]

Index

verticillata, 22 Polygonatum biflorum, 33, 55, 64, 73, 86

commutatum, 86 Polygonella, 114 Polygonum acre, 95

amphibium, 95

arifolium, 95

Convolvulus, 86

Hydropiper, 95

maritimum, 114

pennsylvanicum, 95

Persicaria, 95

sagittatum, 95

scandens, 86

virginianum, 22 Polypodium vulgare, 34, 38, 56, 65, 73

Polypody, 30, 34, 35, 38, 62, 65,

67, 69, 73, 93 Polystichum acrostichoides, 34, 38,

56, 65, 70, 74 Pondweed, 95, 96 Pontederia cordata, 86, 95 Poor Robin's Plantain, 55 Populus balsamifera, 84 Post Oak, 53, 112 Potamogeton alpinus, 95

americanus, 95

heterophyllus, 95

Hilii, 95

lucens, 95

natans, 95

pectinatus, 95

perfoliatus, 96

Robbinsii, 96

zosterifolius, 96 Potentilla, 12

argentea, 33, 73

arguta, 22

canadensis, 22, 33, 38, 55 fruticosa, 16, 19, 93 intermedia, 22 palustris, 96, 102 pumila, 22, 33, 38, 55 recta, 22 tridentata, 73 Prairie Willow, 112

[1

Prenanthes alba, 64, 73

trifoliolata, 64 Prickly Ash, 20, 32

Gooseberry, 53

Pear, 12, 22, m, 114 Primrose Common Evening, 22

Evening, 26 Proserpinaca palustris, 96 Prunella vulgaris, 11, 22, 33, 38, 55 Prunus cuneata, 19

maritima, 112

nigra, 17, 19, 84, 112

pennsylvanica, 19, 53

serotina, 17, 19, 53, 112

virginiana, 19, 32 Psedera quinquefolia, 19, 32, 84, 112 Pteris aquilina, 56 Purple Avens, 102

Flowering Raspberry, 54

Geradia, 114 Purplish Cudweed, 114 Pycnanthemum flexuosum, 22, 33

virginianum, 22, 33 Pyrola, 39, 41

chlorantha, 33, 42, 55

elliptica, 33, 42, 55 Pyrus americana, 53

arbutifolia, 93, 104, 107, 112

melanocarpa, 93, 112 Pyxidanthera barbulata, 114 Pyxie, 108, 114

Quercus alba, 53, 112 coccinea, 53, 112 ilicifolia, 19, 32, 93, 104, 112 macrocarpa, 84 marilandica, 104, 112 Muhlenbergii, 53 palustris, 84, 93, 101 phellos, 104, 112 prinoides, 104, 112 Prinus, 53, 112 rubra, 53, 112 Stellata, 53, 104, 112 velutina, 53, 112

Radicula aquatica, 96 Ragged Fringed Orchis, 85

5]

Index

Raisin Wild, 17, 22 Ranunculus abortivus, 86, 96

acris, 33, 38

aquatilis, 90, 96

bulbosus, 10, 22, 33, 38

circinatus, 91, 96

delphinifolius, 91, 96

fascicularis, 10, 22, 33

septentrinalis, 10, 22, 86, 96 Raspberry, 19, 32, 43

Purple Flowering, 43 Rattlesnake Fern, 56, 65, 73 Red Ash, 84

Baneberry, 54, 64, 72

Maple, 76, 80, 83, 93, 98

Oak, 53, 112 Red-osier Dogwood, 76, 84, 93 Rhamnus cathartica, 53 Rhododendron maximum, 72

nudi riorum, 44, 48, 53

viscosum, 93, 102 Rhus copallina, 19, 32, 104, 112

glabra, 19, 32

typhina, 19, 32 Rib Grass, 22 Ribes Cynosbati, 53

oxyacanthoides, 93

vulgare, 19, 32 River-bank Grape, 85 Robinia hispida, 19

Pseudo- Acacia, 31 Robin's Plantain, 21 Rock Brake, 67, 69, 73 Rock Cress, 54, 72 Rocket Yellow, 11, 20 Rockrose, 110, 114 Rosa blanda, 19, 32, 104, 112 Carolina, 84, 93 humilis, 104, 112 nitida, 93, 112

rubiginosa, 19, 32 setigera, 53

virginiana, 84, 93, 104, 112 Rose, 16, 19, 25, 32, 81, 84, 93,

105, 106, 107, 112 Round-leaved Dogwood, 19

Sundew, 102 Rubus allegheniensis, 19, 32

hispidus, 93 idaeus, 19, 32 odoratus, 54 recur vans, 19, 32 triflorus, 102 villosus, 20, 32 Rudbeckia hirta, 22, 33

laciniata, 86 Rue Anemone, 32, 54 Early Meadow, 34 Rumex Acetosella, 22 Rush, 88, 95 Wood, 33

Sagina nodosa, 73 Sagittaria latifolia, 86, 96 St. John's-wort, 13, 21, 26, 33, 85, 95, 114 Common, 21 Marsh, 95 Salix babylonica, 71, 84 balsamifera, 93 Candida, 93, 102 cordata, 72, 84, 93 discolor, 72, 84, 93, 102 glaucophylla, 72, 93 humilis, 112 lucida, 72, 84, 93 nigra, 71, 84, 93 petiolaris, 93 sericea, 93 serissima, 93 Sambucus canadensis, 84, 93

racemosa, 112 Sand Grass, 111, 115

Myrtle, 104, 105, 108, III, 114 Sandwort, 20, 111, 113 Sanguinaria canadensis, 55, 86 Sanguisorba canadensis, 73 Saponaria officinalis, 22 Sarracenia purpurea, 99, 102 Sarsaparilla, 44

Sassafras, 43, 45, 47, 53, 104, 106, 113

variifolium, 53, 113 Satureja vulgaris, 22 Saxifraga, 26, 44 pennsylvanica, 96

[ 127 ]

Index

virginiensis, 33, 55, 73 Saxifrage, 30

Early, 33 Scarlet oak, 53, 112 Scrophularia leporella, 55 Scutellaria galericulata, 86, 96

laterflora, 86, 96 Sedge, 88, 94, 113 Sedum acre, 73 Seedbox, 95 Selaginella, 74, 97

apus, 97

rupestris, 69, 74 Self-heal, 33, 35, 37, 38, 55 Senecio aureus, 96 Sensitive Fern, 73, 80, 87, 97, 102 Shad Bush, 53, 64, 72, 76, 80, 84, 112

Shag-bark Hickory, 83 Sheep Laurel, 99, 109, 102, 112 Shield Fern, 56, 65, 69, 73, 87, 96", 102

Shin Leaf, 33, 55 Shining Willow, 84 Showy Orchis, 55, 64 Shrubby Cinquefoil, 93 Sicyos angulatus, 86 Silene latifolia, 22

nocti flora, 22 Silver Maple, 76, 80, 83 Silver-rod, 33

Sisyrinchium angustifolium, 22, 86

gramineum, 86 Sium cicutaefolium, 86, 102 Skullcap, 81, 86, 96

Mad-dog, 96 Skunk Cabbage, 96 Slender Blue Flag, 81, 86, 95 Slippery Elm, 84 Small Cranberry, 102 Small Solomon's Seal, 55, 64, 73, 86 Smaller Bladderwort, 96 Small-flowered Crowfoot, 80, 86, 96 Smartweed Common, 95 Smilacina racemosa, 33, 55, 64, 73, 86

stellata, 86 Smilax glauca, 113

herbacea, 86, 93

rotundifolia, 86, 93 Smooth Alder, 72, 84, 93 Smooth False Foxglove, 55, 114

Gooseberry, 93

Winterberry, 93 Snakeroot black, 44, 50 Sneezeweed, 85, 95 Solanum Dulcamara, 84, 93

nigrum, 22 Solidago altissima, 22

bicolor, 22, 33, 38, 42, 55, 114

caesia, 55

canadensis, 22, 42

Elliottii, 86, 96

erecta, 114

graminifolia, 22, 26, 33

latifolia, 55

nemoralis, 22, 26, 33

odora, 114

puberula, 115

rigida, 22

rugosa, 22, 33, 34

sempervirens, 115

squarrosa, 55

stricta, 115

tenuifolia, 115 Solomon's Seal, 44, 51, 64, 67, 70

False, 33

Small, 33 Sorrel Common Wood, 33, 37

Sheep, 22

Wood, 22 Sour Gum, 93 Spanish Buttons, 20 Sparganium, 88

americanum, 96

androcladum, 96

lucidum, 96

minimum, 96 Specularia perfoliata, 22 Speedwell, 26, 34, 37, 55

Common, 38 Spice Bush, 76, 78, 80, 83, 84, 93 Spikenard, 44, 58

False, 51 Spirea latifolia, 16, 20, 84, 93, 113

tomentosa, 16, 21, 84, 93, 113

[128]

Index

Spiranthes, no

gracilis, 115

praecox, 86 Spirodela, 96

Spleenwort, 26, 30, 34, 35, 37, 38,

56, 62, 65, 67, 69, 86 Spotted Cowbane, 94

Touch-me-not, 85

Wintergreen, 54 Spring Beauty, 44, 50, 54, 79, 85 Spruce, 40

Squaw Huckleberry, 54, 113 Stachys arenicola, 22 Stagger-bush, 112 Staphylea trifolia, 54, 84 Star Flower, 58, 62, 64, 73 Grass, 12, 21, 44, 55, 114 Steeple Bush, 16, 20, 81, 84, 94, 106, 113

Steironema, 86

ciliatum, 23, 86 Stellaria longifolia, 23

media, 23, 34 Stemless Lady's Slipper, 64, 72, 102 Stiff Water Crowfoot, 91, 96 Strawberry, 21, 35, 37 Streptopus roseus, 64, 73 Striped Maple, 58, 60, 61, 63, 66, 71 Sugar Maple, 63, 71 Sumach, 25, 31, 104

Dwarf, 19, 32

Smooth, 19, 32

Staghorn, 19, 32 Summer Grape, 18, 20, 54 Sundew, 98 Sundrops, 22, 33, 114 Sunflower, 21 Swamp Birch, 101

Buttercup, 10, 80, 86, 96

Milkweed, 72, 82, 85

Rose Mallow, 85

Saxifrage, 96

White Oak, 76, 78, 84 Sweet Coltsfoot, 86 Sweet Fern, 16, 19, 25, 104, 107

Flag. 85, 88

Gale, 76, 79, 84, 93

Golden-rod, 114

[1

Gum, 76, 84, 112

Pepper bush, 76, 84, 93, 112

Violet, 80

White Violet, 96, 102 Sweetbrier, 19, 32 Sweet-scented Bedstraw, 102

Water Lily, 94 Sycamore, 75, 83, 84 Symphytum officinale, 86 Symplocarpus foetidus, 96

Tall Meadow Rue, 86, 96 Tanacetum vulgare, 22 Tape Grass, 96 Taraxacum officinale, 23 Taxus canadensis, 64, 72 Teasel Wild, 21 Tephrosia virginiana, no, 115 Thalictrum dioicum, 34, 55, 73, 86, 96, 102

polygamum, 22, 86, 96

revolutum, 55, 73 Thaspium aureum, 86, 96 Three-toothed Cinquefoil, 73 Thuja occidentalis, 71 Thyme-leaved Speedwell, 96 Tiarella, 63

cordifolia, 51, 55, 64 Tilia americana, 53, 63, 72, 84 Toadflax, 113, 114

Bastard, 33 Tomato Strawberry, 22 Toothwort, 85 Touch-me-not, 82 Tragopogon pratensis, 23 Trefoil Tick, 33 Trichostema dichotomum, 23 Trientalis americana, 64, 73 Trifolium agrarium, 10, 23

arvense, 10, 23

hybridum, 23

pratense, 23

procumbens, 23

repens, 10, 23 Trillium, 58, 62

cernuum, 62, 86

declinatum, 73

erectum, 62, 64, 73, 86

Index

undulatum, 62, 73 Triosteum aurantiacum, 55 Triplasis purpurea, 115 True Forget-me-not, 86 Trumpet Honeysuckle, 53 Tsuga canadensis, 63, 71 Tufted Loosestrife, 102 Tulip Tree, 43, 45, 48, 51, 53, 63, 71 Turtlehead, 82, 85, 92, 94 Twisted-stalk, 58, 63, 73 Typha angustifolia, 88, 96

latifolia, 88, 96, 102

Ulmus americana, 84, 101

fulva, 84 Utricularia minor, 96

vulgaris, 96 Uvularia grandiflora, 55, 64, 73 Uvularia perfoliata, 55, 64, 73, 86

Vaccinium atroccum, 113 Vaccinium caespitosum, 113

corymbosum, 93, 102

macrocarpon, 102

Oxycoceus, 102

pennsylvanicum, 32, 54, 102, 113

stamineum, 54, 113

vacillans, 54, 113

Vitis-Idaea, 113 Venus Looking-glass, 22 Veratrum viride, 86 Verbascum Blattaria, 34 Verbascum Thapsus, 23 Verbena hastata, 86, 96 Verbena urticaefolia, 23, 96 Vernonia noveboracensis, 96 Veronica americana, 86

Anagallis-aquatica, 86

officinalis, II, 22, 34, 35, 38, 55

serpyllifolia, 96

virginica, 86 Vervain, 13

Blue, 11

White, 13 Viburnum, 17, 31

acerifolium, 54, 64, 84

alnifolium, 66, 71, 72

cassinoides, 16, 17, 20, 32

[1

dentatum, 17, 20, 32, 85, 102 Lantana, 64

Lentago, 16, 20, 32, 76, 78, 83, 85

prunifolium, 16, 17, 20, 25, 32 pubescens, 16, 20, 32 venosum, 104, 113 villosa, 23 Viola blanda, 63, 64, 73, 87 conspersa, 96, 102 cucullata, 84, 96 fimbriatula, 10, 23, 26, 34 latiuscula, 34, 51, 55 pallens, 64, 80, 86, 96, 102 palmata, 51, 55, 63, 73 papilionacea, 96 pedata, 105

pubescens, 34, 55, 63, 64

rostrata, 51, 56, 63, 64, 73

scabriuscula, 87

sororia, 63, 64, 87, 96

triloba, 51, 56, 64 Violet, 13, 30, 34, 44, 50, 55, 58, 62, 64, 67, 73, 79, 84, 92, 96, 102

Downy Yellow, 34, 63, 64

Long-spurred, 51, 64

Smooth Yellow, 87

Sweet, 87 Virginia Creeper, 18, 19, 25, 29, 32 Virginia Cowslip, 80, 86 Virgin's Bower, 82, 84, 85 Vitis aestivalis, 20, 54

cordifolia, 85

labrusca, 18, 20, 54, 113 Vitis vulpina, 85

Wake Robin, 64, 73, 86, 87 Waldsteinia fragarioides, 22 Walking Leaf, 50, 56, 65, 67, 69,

73, 76, 78 Water Hemlock, 94, 102

Lily, 82, 88

Milfoil, 95

Parsnip, 86, 102

Pennywort, 95

Plantain, 88, 89, 90, 94

Shield, 88, 90, 94

Smartweed, 95

Index

Speedwell, 87

Willow, 102 Water-plantain, 85 Water-weed, 94 Wayfaring Tree, 60, 61, 64 Weeping Willow, 71, 84 White Ash, 63, 71, 84

Baneberry, 54, 64, 72

Birch, 58, 59, 62, 63, 71

Campion, 21

Lettuce, 64, 73

Oak, 53, 112

Snake-root, 64

Vervain, 96 Wild Balsam-apple, 85

Black Cherry, 53, 112

Columbine, 54, 72

Comfrey, 54

Cranesbill, 55

Ginger, 50, 54, 58, 62, 64, 67, 72,

79, 85 Indigo, 54, «3 Liquorice, 54 Raisin, 20 Sarsaparilla, 50, 54 Senna, 82, 85 Yam-root, 85 Yellow Lily, 86 Willow, 72, 75, 79, 81, 83, 84, 93,

94, 104 Glaucous, 72, 94 Hoary, 94 Oak, 112 Shining, 72, 94 Silky, 94

Willow-herb, 94 Winterberry, 53, 93 Wintergreen Spotted, 33 Witch-hazel, 43, 45, 46, 48, 58, 60,

64, 72, 76, 78, 84 Wolffia, 96

Columbiana, 96 Wood Anemone, 54, 55, 80, 85

Betony, 50

Fern, 69, 79

Lily, 86, 114

Rush, 55, 64

Sorrel, 55

Sorrel, Common, 64, 72

Sorrel, Violet, 55, 64, 72 Woodbine, 84, 112 Woodsia, 56, 65, 67, 74

ilvensis, 67, 69, 74

obtusa, 50, 56, 65, 67, 69, 74 Woodwardia virginica, 87, 97

Xerophyflum asphodeloides, 115

Yam, 21

Yarrow, 20, 26, 32

Yellow Adder's tongue, 72, 79, 85

Birch, 58, 59, 63, 71

Oak, 53

Pond Lily, 90, 95 Rocket, 94

Water Crowfoot, 91, 96 Yew, 58, 60, 61, 62, 71

Zanthoxylum americanum, 20, 32

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