The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-12
Indiana Trees, Plants, and Flowers.

LTeeSs AldHtS3 anu IOMeIS'
Prof. John M. Coulter. in The School News.
There are some wonderfully beautiful plants
in Indiana, plants that are seldom cultivated
are easily cared for, and ten ii mes more attract
i've than many priced and tender exotics, and 1t
is the object of this writing to call attention to
a few of these, within the reach of every one
If every door yard contained in its collection of
flowers the best plants of the neighborhood, it
would be a great educational factor wonder
fully stimulating love for botany and habits
of observation as to the habitat and range
of different species In this way, not only
would our great herbaria become pro
ductive centers of botanical knowledge
but every aower-bed could add its quota and the
strides botanical science has taken in the past
would be as nothing compared with its rev adj
vance. Indiana contains one of the richest
horas to be found anywhere among our great
interior States, for it forms the common meeting
ground of the East and West the Eastern for
eSts and the w eStern pral1les, and to this ming
ling of character is added a large lake upon one
border and river upon the other From its
l,50O species, all of which have been catalogued
let us select few that are very common, but at
the same time very worthy of cultivation
Among ornamental shrubs or trees where can
there one be found more gloriously beautiful and
fragrant than our American crab applet! 1t is
found all over the State, attains height of
twenty feet, has large white to rose-cOlored. fra
grant blossoms and a fragrant fruit. In cltiva-
ton, it must be trimmed back and made more
bushy and a little care of this kind
makes it delight to any, eye; while its per
fume fills the whole nelghbOrhood Another
beautiful shrub of the rose family is the "Choke
Cherry," whose thick hanging racemes of white
flowers covers the whole bush in the late spring
Among other trees and shrubs I will only men
ton the "Flowering Dogwood," very Snowy in
flower and scarcely less in fruit and the
Burning Bush" or 'Waahoo,n with its autumn
clusters of crimson fruit
Among vines, probably the most beautiful is a
very near neighbor to the Burning Bush" and
called Climbing Bittersweet,' whose orange
colored fruit, splitting open displays the scarlet
covered seeds within Other well-known vines
are the Virginia Creeper' and the Trumpet
Creeper."
But among the hosts of herbaceous plants, what
shall select One can hardly 90 astray by
going through the manual and culling species
from almost every family, and then our door-yard
would be regular botanical garden. l know of
prettier climber than the common white
clematis, with its profusion of flower clusters;
quickly covering any unsightly object
which it is trained, and easily converting old
stumps and aged fences into masses of beauty
And then the fruit, with its long, feathery tails
forms no mean successor. For early blooming
nothing is more beautiful than the whte-fowered
blood-root and the yellow "Celandine poppy
both growing everywhere in greatest abundance
Then, for rich color, nothing is more brilliant
than the common Fire pink" or the Cardinal
flower" either one of which would fairly set a
snowy of flowers, in that respect rival.
ing the hollyhock is the Swamp rose
mallow," which does not need so much
of a swamp as its name implies, and has a
yeOw-white or even light rose colored flower
five to six inches in diameter often with
crimson eye. The handsomest pea is the
"Hoary Pea" with large, brilliant flowers and
an abundance of silky foliage. Then the spireas
are all attractive, from the Common Meadow
Sweet and Queen of the Prairie" to the
feathery-looking Goats Beard"
most bewildering series of forms is to be
found in the great family of Composite, which in
late summer and autumn give the rich coloring
to our meadows, and among them are to be
found an abundance of the most fashionable
kind The 'Blazing Stars, +" the Golden Rods
in endless array tile Purple Cone flower" and
the numerous 'SunfowerS make an array that
is really dazzling. And among our fifteen native
sunflowers let me commend Fl. mollis for its
velvety foliage and beautiful head H. micro
cephaius for its small flowers and graceful habit
and H. decapetalus for its size and brilliant
blooming
Every one is familiar with our lovely Amer
lean cowslip," or shooting STAR so handsome
in cultivation; the "butterAy weed" with its
large clusters of deep orange flowers; the sabba-
tlas and the various gentians the brilliant array
of phloXes For perfect little gem of beauty,
let me commend to the reader the cultivation of
phacelia Purshii, occurring more abundantly
throughout the State than was at first supposed.
Then there are the large-fowered gerardias,
whose gaping yellow corollas will swallow hum
ming-birds bodily For delicacy and grace,
'false dragon-head" and 'synandra" cannot be
surpassed. There is such clean, waxy neat
ness about them that they constantly make you
class them among the aristocrats. OF course, all
orchids are beautiful, wonderfully beautiful, as