Biuets: Innocence; Houstonia; Quaker
Ladies; Quaker Bonnets: Venus’ Pride


(Houstonia coerulea) Madder family


Flowers—Very small, light to purplish blue or white, with yellow
centre, and borne at end of each erect slender stem that rises
from 3 to 7 in. high. Corolla funnel-shaped, with 4 oval,
pointed, spreading lobes that equal the slender tube in
length; rarely the corolla has more divisions; 4 stamens in-
serted on tube of corolla; 2 stigmas; calyx 4-lobed. Leaves:
Opposite, seated on stem, oblong, tiny; the lower ones spatu-
late. Fruit: A 2-lobed pod, broader than long, its upper
half free from calyx; seeds deeply concave. Rootstock: Slen-
der, spreading, forming dense tufts.
Preferred Habitat—Moist meadows, wet rocks and banks.
Flowering Season—April—July, or sparsely through summer.
Distribution—Eastern Canada and United States west to Michigan,
south to Georgia and Alabama.
Millions of these dainty wee flowers, scattered through the
grass of moist meadows and by the wayside, reflect the blue
and the serenity of heaven in their pure, upturned faces. Where
the white variety grows, one might think a light snowfall had
powdered the grass, or a milky way of tiny floral stars had
streaked a terrestrial path. Linnzus named the flower for Dr.
Houston, a young English physician, botanist, and collector, who
died in South America in 1733, after an exhausting tramp about
the Gulf of Mexico.
