LEADWORT FAMILY
(Plumbaginaceæ)
Seaside plants with perfect, regular flowers in one-sided racemes or spikes; five-parted and with plaited calyx.
Marsh Rosemary; Sea Lavender (Limonium carolinianum) is a very characteristic plant of the seashore; it is found very commonly in salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador to Florida, and along the Gulf of Texas.
The plant has a thick, woody, very astringent root, from which grows a single naked stalk. This stem divides into numerous branches and branchlets, all destitute of leaves and spreading out so that the appearance of the whole plant is that of a very diminutive tree. The leaves all radiate from the root at the base of the flower stalk; they are spatulate-shaped, thick, almost smooth-edged, and are on long stems.
At the end of each branchlet is a slender one-sided raceme of tiny buds. From July until September these open out into tiny lavender flowers with five tiny petals, each coming from a five-toothed, ribbed calyx.
PRIMROSE FAMILY
Primulaceæ
(A) Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia terrestris). Yellow Loosestrife has a tall, slender, simple stem from 8 to 24 inches high. The leaves are pointed-lanceolate, stemless, and crowded along the stem, either oppositely or alternately. The flower spike is long and contains many buds on slender pedicels; they open from the bottom of the spike upward. Each flower has five-pointed golden-yellow petals, each with two small reddish-brown spots near the base; the stamens and pistil project in a cone-like cluster. This Loosestrife is abundant from Newfoundland to Hudson Bay and southward.
(B) Four-leaved Loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) is a very common species found in low land in about the same range. The flowers are very similar but each petal has a single large spot of reddish-brown at its base instead of a double one; the flowers appear from the axils of the upper leaves. The pointed, lanceolate leaves are whorled about the stem usually in groups of fours, occasionally more or less.
