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Enchanter's Nightshade

Circaea Lutetiana. Evening Primrose Family.

Stem.--One or two feet high. Leaves.--Opposite; thin; ovate; slightly toothed. Flowers.--Dull white; small; growing in a raceme. Calyx.--Two-lobed. Corolla.--Of two petals. Stamens.--Two. Pistil.--One. Fruit.--Small; bur-like; bristly with hooked hairs.

This insignificant and ordinarily uninteresting plant arrests attention by the frequency with which it is found flowering in the summer woods and along shady roadsides.

C. Alpina is a smaller, less common species, which is found along the mountains and in deep woods. Both species are burdened with the singularly inappropriate name of enchanter's nightshade. There is nothing in their appearance to suggest an enchanter or any of the nightshades. It seems, however, that the name of a plant called after the enchantress Circe, and described by Dioscorides nearly two thousand years ago, was accidentally transferred to this unpretentious genus. x FIELD CHICKWEED. Cerastium arvense. Pink Family.

Four to eight inches high. Stems.--Slender. Leaves.--Linear or narrowly lance-shaped. Flowers.--White; large; in terminal clusters. Calyx.--Usually of five sepals. Corolla.--Usually of five two-lobed petals which are more than twice the length of the calyx. Stamens.--Twice as many, or fewer than the petals. Pistil.--One, with as many styles as there are sepais. This is one of the most noticeable of the chickweeds. Its starry flowers are found in dry or rocky places, blossoming from May till July. The common chickweed, which besets damp places everywhere, is Stellaria media; this is much used as food for songbirds.

The long-leaved stitchwort, S. longifolia, is a species which is common in grassy places, especially northward. It has linear leaves, unlike those of S. media, which are ovate or oblong.