The ovate-lanceolate leaves are stemless and seated oppositely on the stem. The branches usually divide near their ends, each division bearing a beautiful flower about an inch across. At the centre of the five-parted, pink corolla is a yellow-green star, a feature that is quite characteristic with members of this family.
(B) Sea Pink (Sabatia stellaris) is a beautiful, slender species common on salt marshes from Me. to Fla. The pink flowers grow singly at the ends of the slender branches. Like that of the last species, the centre is yellow-green but is often edged with a deep crimson which adds greatly to the attractiveness of the blossom.
Large Marsh Pink; Sabbatia (Sabatia dodecandra) is the largest-flowered and the most beautiful species of this genus; in fact, it is one of the most delicately beautiful of our wild flowers.
During July and August, along the Atlantic Coast, we sometimes find brackish ponds, the shores and muddy flats of which have a ruddy glow owing to the number of these large, attractive blossoms that appear. The stems are slender and wiry, and but little branched; they attain heights of 1 to 2 feet, each branch bearing usually but a single blossom.
The flowers measure from 2 to 2½ inches across; the nine to twelve petals are a delicate rose color and each has, at its base, a yellow-green spot margined by a three-pointed ochre or crimson border. The corolla has a regular, symmetrical wheel-like appearance, the petals making the spokes and the yellow centre forming the hub. The calyx is composed of linear sepals to the same number as the petals. The stamens are quite widely separated from the slender style, so that self-fertilization is hardly to be expected.
Fringed Gentian (Gentiana crinita), because of its exquisite beauty and comparative rarity, is one of the most highly prized of our wild flowers.
The stem is stout, stiff, and branching, each branch being erect and terminating in a bud. The yellow-green leaves are ovate-lanceolate, seated oppositely on the stem.
The calyx is angular, has four sharp points and is a bronze-green in color. During September and October we may find these blossoms fully expanded, delicate, vase-shaped creations with four spreading deeply fringed lobes bearing no resemblance in shape or form to any other American species. The color is a violet-blue, the color that is most attractive to bumblebees, and it is to these insects that the flower is indebted for the setting of its seed. The anthers mature before the stigma is developed so that self-fertilization is impossible. The flowers are wide open only during sunshine, furling in their peculiar twisted manner on cloudy days and at night. In moist woods from Me. to Minn. and southward.