Fig. 92.—Cotton.
Now, too, our brothers of the South reap a rich harvest from the great staple, cotton ([Fig, 92]), which commences to bloom early in June, and remains in blossom even to October. This belongs to the same family—Mallow—as the hollyhock, and like it, blooms and fruits through the season.
JULY PLANTS.
Early in this month opens the far-famed basswood or linden, Tilia Americana ([Fig, 93]), which, for the profusion and quality of its honey has no superior. The tree, too, from its great spreading top and fine foliage, is magnificent for shade. Five of these trees are within two rods of my study window, and their grateful fragrance, and beautiful form and shade, have often been the subject of remark by visitors.
Fig. 93.—Basswood.
Figwort, Scrophularia nodosa ([Fig, 94]), often called rattle-weed, as the seeds will rattle in the pod, and carpenter's square, as it has a square stalk, is an insignificant looking weed, with inconspicuous flowers, that afford abundant nectar from the middle of July till frost. I have received almost as many for identification as I have of the asters and golden-rods. Prof. Beal remarked to me a year or two since, that it hardly seemed possible that it could be so valuable. We cannot always rightly estimate by appearances alone. It is a very valuable plant to be scattered in waste places.
Fig. 94.—Figwort.