Stems.—Spreading, eight inches to a foot long. Leaves.—Divided into from ten to fifteen pairs of narrow delicate leaflets, which close at night and are somewhat sensitive to the touch. Flowers.—Yellow, rather large and showy, on slender stalks beneath the spreading leaves; not papilionaceous. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five rounded, spreading, somewhat unequal petals, two or three of which are usually spotted at the base with red or purple. Stamens.—Ten, unequal, dissimilar. Pistil.—One, with a slender style. Pod.—Flat.
The partridge-pea is closely related to the wild senna, and a pretty, delicate plant it is, with graceful foliage, and flowers in late summer which surprise us with their size, abounding in gravelly, sandy places where little else will flourish, brightening the railway embankments and the road’s edge. It is at home all over the country south of Massachusetts and east of the Rocky Mountains, but it grows with a greater vigor and luxuriance in the south than elsewhere. The leaves can hardly be called sensitive to the touch, yet when a branch is snapped from the parent-stem or is much handled, the delicate leaflets will droop and fold, displaying their curious mechanism.
Common St. John’s-wort.
Hypericum perforatum. St. John’s-wort Family.
Stem.—Much branched. Leaves.—Small, opposite, somewhat oblong, with pellucid dots. Flowers.—Yellow, numerous, in leafy clusters. Calyx.—Of five sepals. Corolla.—Of five bright yellow petals, somewhat spotted with black. Stamens.—Indefinite in number. Pistil.—One, with three spreading styles.
“Too well known as a pernicious weed which it is difficult to extirpate,” is the scornful notice which the botany gives to this plant whose bright yellow flowers are noticeable in waste fields and along roadsides nearly all summer. Its rank, rapid growth proves very exhausting to the soil, and every New England farmer wishes it had remained where it rightfully belongs—on the other side of the water.
PLATE L
COMMON ST. JOHN’S-WORT.—H. perforatum.
Perhaps more superstitions have clustered about the St. John’s-wort than about any other plant on record. It was formerly gathered on St. John’s eve, and was hung at the doors and windows as a safeguard against thunder and evil spirits. A belief prevailed that on this night the soul had power to leave the body and visit the spot where it would be finally summoned from its earthly habitation, hence the all-night vigils which were observed at that time.
The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide
If the coming year shall make me a bride,