Baby’s Breath. Narrow-Leaved Houstonia (_Houstonia angustifolia_) is not the garden plant (_Gypsophila paniculata_) which is known as baby’s breath, but it is equally dainty. The stems grow from woody perennial roots and form erect clumps about a foot high. The small flowers are borne in flat-topped clusters and vary in color from white to pale pink or lavender. This plant is widely distributed on prairies from Illinois to Texas and Florida.
Bouvardia (_Bouvardia ternifolia_) is a low shrub, 2-6 ft. high, which grows in the mountains west of the Pecos River to Arizona and Mexico. The leaves are short and grow in whorls of 3’s or 4’s. The narrow, red tubular flowers are about one inch long. The Bouvardias were once popular as greenhouse plants but are little used now. This one was introduced into England more than one hundred years ago.
Usually shrubs; leaves opposite; calyx joining ovary wall, 5-lobed; corolla 5-lobed, tubular and often 2-lipped; stamens 4-5, on corolla-tube; ovary inferior; fruit a fleshy berry.
Southern Woodbine. Coral or Trumpet Honeysuckle (_Lonicera sempervirens_) is quite common in the woods of East Texas and other Southern States, blooming in Texas in late March and continuing until fall. It is an evergreen vine that has been widely introduced into cultivation. The flowers are not so conspicuously two-lipped as in the white honeysuckle, the corolla-lobes being nearly equal. The scarlet berries are ¼ inch long, ripening in the summer. This is one of a number of plants which are commonly called woodbine. The group was named in honor of Adam Lonitzer, an early German botanist.
The black haw (_Viburnum prunifolium_) is very abundant in Texas woods. The showy ball-like clusters of white flowers appear with the leaves in April and May, following the dogwood and red haws. The American elder (_Sambucus canadensis_) is found along streams in Central and East Texas.
White Honeysuckle (_Lonicera albiflora_) is a straggling bush which usually grows in the shelter of a tree. The pale broad, oval leaves are opposite and united at their bases, the uppermost pair being cup-shaped and surrounding the cluster of flowers borne at the tip of the stem. The fragrant flowers are less than an inch long with a narrow tube and 5 lobes, the lower lobe long and narrow and the 4 upper shorter, very much like those of the common cultivated Japanese honeysuckle. The five spreading stamens extend conspicuously beyond the corolla.