Herb Robert.
Geranium Robertianum. Geranium Family.
Stem.—Forking, slightly hairy. Leaves.—Three, divided, the divisions again dissected. Flowers.—Purple-pink, small. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five petals. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with five styles which split apart in fruit.
From June until October many of our shaded woods and glens are abundantly decorated by the bright blossoms of the herb Robert. The reddish stalks of the plant have won it the name of “red-shanks” in the Scotch Highlands. Its strong scent is caused by a resinous secretion which exists in several of the geraniums. In some species this resin is so abundant that the stems will burn like torches, yielding a powerful and pleasant perfume. The common name is said to have been given the plant on account of its supposed virtue in a disease which was known as “Robert’s plague,” after Robert, Duke of Normandy. In some of the early writers it is alluded to as the “holy herb of Robert.”
In fruit the styles of this plant split apart with an elasticity which serves to project the seeds to a distance, it is said, of twenty-five feet.
Bush Clover.
Lespedeza procumbens. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
Stems.—Slender, trailing, and prostrate. Leaves.—Divided into three clover-like leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, purplish-pink, veiny. Pod.—Small, rounded, flat, one-seeded.
The flowers of this plant often have the appearance of springing directly from the earth amid a mass of clover leaves. They are common in dry soil in the late summer and autumn, as are the other members of the same genus.
L. reticulata is an erect, very leafy species with similar blossoms, which are chiefly clustered near the upper part of the stem. The bush clovers betray at once their kinship with the tick-trefoils, but are usually found in more sandy, open places.
L. polystachya has upright wand-like stems from two to four feet high. Its flowers grow in oblong spikes on elongated stalks. Those of L. capitata are clustered in globular heads.