The thread-leaved sundew, D. filiformis has fine, thread-like leaves and pink flowers, and is found in wet sand along the coast.
Pokeweed. Garget. Pigeon-berry.
Phytolacca decandra. Pokeweed Family.
Stems.—In length from six to ten feet high; purple-pink or bright red, stout. Leaves.—Large, alternate, veiny. Flowers.—White or pinkish, the green ovaries conspicuous, growing in racemes. Calyx.—Of five rounded or petal-like sepals, pinkish without. Corolla.—None. Stamens.—Ten. Pistil.—One, with ten styles. Fruit.—A dark purplish berry.
There is a vigor about this native plant which is very pleasing. In July it is possible that we barely notice the white flowers and large leaves; but when in September the tall purple stems rear themselves above their neighbors in the roadside thicket, the leaves look as though stained with wine, and the long clusters of rich dark berries hang heavily from the branches, we cannot but admire its independent beauty. The berries serve as food for the birds. A tincture of them at one time acquired some reputation as a remedy for rheumatism. In Pennsylvania they have been used with whiskey to make a so-called “portwine.” From their dark juice arose the name of “red-ink plant,” which is common in some places. The large roots are poisonous, but the acrid young shoots are rendered harmless by boiling, and are eaten like asparagus, being quite as good, I have been told by country people.
Despite the difference in the spelling of the names, it has been suggested that the plant was called after President Polk. This is most improbable, as it was common throughout the country long before his birth, and its twigs are said to have been plucked and worn by his followers during his campaign for the Presidency.
White Fringed Orchis.
Habenaria blephariglottis. Orchis Family (p. [17]).
About one foot high. Leaves.—Oblong or lance-shaped, the upper passing into pointed bracts. Flowers.—Pure white, with a slender spur and fringed lip; growing in an oblong spike.
PLATE XXVII
POKEWEED.—P. decandra.
This seems to me the most exquisite of our native orchids. The fringed lips give the snowy, delicate flowers a feathery appearance as they gleam from the shadowy woods of midsummer, or from the peat-bogs where they thrive best; or perhaps they spire upward from among the dark green rushes which border some lonely mountain lake. Like the yellow fringed orchis (Pl. LII), which they greatly resemble in general structure, they may be sought in vain for many seasons and then will be discovered one midsummer day lavishing their spotless loveliness upon some unsuspected marsh which has chanced to escape our vigilance.