Chapter I: Part 1

WILD FLOWERS WORTH KNOWING

ADAPTED BY ASA DON DICKINSON From _Nature’s Garden_

BY NELTJE BLANCHAN

_1917_

PREFACE

A still more popular edition of what has proved to the author to be a surprisingly popular book, has been prepared by the able hand of Mr. Asa Don Dickinson, and is now offered in the hope that many more people will find the wild flowers in Nature’s garden all about us well worth knowing. For flowers have distinct objects in life and are everything they are for the most justifiable of reasons, _i.e._, the perpetuation and the improvement of their species. The means they employ to accomplish these ends are so various and so consummately clever that, in learning to understand them, we are brought to realize how similar they are to the fundamental aims of even the human race. Indeed there are few life principles that plants have not worked out satisfactorily. The problems of adapting oneself to one’s environment, of insuring healthy families, of starting one’s children well in life, of founding new colonies in distant lands, of the cooperative method of conducting business as opposed to the individualistic, of laying up treasure in the bank for future use, of punishing vice and rewarding virtue--these and many other problems of mankind the flowers have worked out with the help of insects, through the ages. To really understand what the wild flowers are doing, what the scheme of each one is, besides looking beautiful, is to give one a broader sympathy with both man and Nature and to add a real interest and joy to life which cannot be too widely shared.

Neltje Blanchan.

_Oyster Bay, New York, January_ 2, 1917.

_Editor’s Note_.--The nomenclature and classification of Gray’s New Manual of Botany, as rearranged and revised by Professors Robinson and Fernald, have been followed throughout the book. This system is based upon that of Eichler, as developed by Engler and Prantl. A variant form of name is also sometimes given to assist in identification.--A.D.D.

CONTENTS

Preface, and Editor’s Note

WATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY _(Alismaceae)_
Broad-leaved Arrow-head

ARUM FAMILY _(Araceae)_
Jack-in-the-Pulpit;
Skunk Cabbage

SPIDERWORT FAMILY _(Commelinaceae)_
Virginia or Common Day-flower

PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY _(Pontederiaceae)_
Pickerel Weed

LILY FAMILY _(Liliaceae)_
American White Hellebore;
Wild Yellow, Meadow,
Field or Canada Lily;
Red, Wood, Flame or Philadelphia Lily;
Yellow Adder’s Tongue or Dog-tooth “Violet”;
Yellow Clintonia;
Wild Spikenard or False Solomon’s Seal;
Hairy, True or Twin-flowered Solomon’s Seal;
Early or Dwarf Wake-Robin;
Purple Trillium;
Ill-scented Wake-Robin or Birth-root;
Carrion flower

AMARYLLIS FAMILY _(Amaryllidaceae)_
Yellow Star-grass

IRIS FAMILY _(Iridaceae)_
Larger Blue Flag, Blue Iris or Fleur-de-lis;
Blackberry Lily;
Pointed Blue-eyed Grass, Eye-bright or Blue Star

ORCHIS FAMILY _(Orchidaceae)_
Large Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Whippoorwill’s Shoe or Yellow Moccasin
Flower;
Moccasin Flower or Pink, Venus’ or Stemless Lady’s Slipper;
Showy, Gay or Spring Orchis;
Large, Early or Purple-fringed Orchis;
White-fringed Orchis;
Yellow-fringed Orchis;
Calopagon or Grass Pink;
Arethusa or Indian Pink;
Nodding Ladies’ Tresses

BUCKWHEAT FAMILY _(Polygonaceae)_
Common Persicaria, Pink Knotweed or Jointweed or Smartweed

POKEWEED FAMILY _(Phytolaccaceae)_
Pokeweed, Scoke, Pigeon-berry, Ink-berry or Garget

PINK FAMILY _(Caryophyllaceae)_
Common Chickweed;
Corn Cockle, Corn Rose, Corn or Red Campion, or Crown-of-the-Field;
Starry Campion;
Wild Pink or Catchfly;
Soapwort, Bouncing Bet or Old Maid’s Pink

PURSLANE FAMILY _(Portulacaceae)_
Spring Beauty or Claytonia

WATER-LILY FAMILY _(Nymphaeaceae)_
Large Yellow Pond or Water Lily, Cow Lily or Spatterdock;
Sweet-scented White Water or Pond Lily

CROWFOOT FAMILY _(Ranunculaceae)_
Common Meadow Buttercup, Tall Crowfoot or Cuckoo Flower;
Tall Meadow Rue; Liver-leaf, Hepatica, Liverwort or Squirrel Cup;
Wood Anemone or Wind Flower;
Virgin’s Bower, Virginia Clematis or Old Man’s Beard;
Marsh Marigold, Meadow-gowan or American Cowslip;
Gold-thread or Canker-root;
Wild Columbine;
Black Cohosh, Black Snakeroot or Tall Bugbane;
White Bane-berry or Cohosh

BARBERRY FAMILY _(Berberidaceae)_
May Apple, Hog Apple or Mandrake;
Barberry or Pepperidge-bush

POPPY FAMILY _(Papaveraceae)_
Bloodroot;
Greater Celandine or Swallow-wort

FUMITORY FAMILY _(Fumariaceae)_
Dutchman’s Breeches;
Squirrel Corn

MUSTARD FAMILY _(Cruciferae)_
Shepherd’s Purse;
Black Mustard

PITCHER-PLANT FAMILY _(Sarraceniaceae)_
Pitcher-plant, Side-saddle Flower or Indian Dipper

SUNDEW FAMILY _(Dioseraceae)_
Round-leaved Sundew or Dew-plant

SAXIFRAGE FAMILY _(Saxifragaceae)_
Early Saxifrage;
False Miterwort, Coolwort or Foam Flower;
Grass of Parnassus

WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY _(Hamamelidaceae)_ Witch-hazel

ROSE FAMILY _(Rosaceae)_
Hardhack or Steeple Bush;
Meadow-Sweet or Quaker Lady;
Common Hawthorn, White Thorn, Red Haw or Mayflower;
Five-finger or Common Cinquefoil;
High Bush Blackberry, or Bramble;
Purple-flowering or Virginia Raspberry;
Wild Roses

PULSE FAMILY _(Leguminosae)_
Wild or American Senna;
Wild Indigo, Yellow or Indigo Broom, or Horsefly-Weed;
Wild Lupine, Sun Dial or Wild Pea;
Common Red, Purple, Meadow or Honeysuckle Clover;
White Sweet, Bokhara or Tree Clover;
Blue, Tufted or Cow Vetch or Tare;
Ground-nut;
Wild or Hog Peanut

WOOD-SORREL FAMILY _(Oxalidaceae)_
White or True Wood-sorrel or Alleluia;
Violet Wood-sorrel

GERANIUM FAMILY _(Geraniaceae)_
Wild or Spotted Geranium or Crane’s-Bill;
Herb Robert, Red Robin or Red Shanks

MILKWORT FAMILY _(Polygalaceae)_
Fringed Milkwort or Polygala or Flowering Wintergreen;
Common Field or Purple Milkwort

TOUCH-ME-NOT FAMILY _(Balsaminaceae)_
Jewel-weed, Spotted Touch-me-not or Snap Weed

BUCKTHORN FAMILY _(Rhamnaceae)_
New Jersey Tea

MALLOW FAMILY _(Malvaceae)_
Swamp Rose-mallow or Mallow Rose

ST. JOHN’S-WORT FAMILY _(Hypericaceae)_
Common St. John’s-wort

ROCKROSE FAMILY _(Cistaceae)_
Long-branched Frost-weed or Canadian Rockrose

VIOLET FAMILY _(Violaceae)_
Blue and Purple Violets;
Yellow Violets;
White Violets

EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY _(Onagraceae)_
Great or Spiked Willow-herb or Fire-weed;
Evening Primrose or Night Willow-herb

GINSENG FAMILY _(Araliaceae)_
Spikenard or Indian Root

PARSLEY FAMILY _(Umbelliferae)_
Wild or Field Parsnip;
Wild Carrot or Queen Anne’s Lace

DOGWOOD FAMILY _(Cornaceae)_
Flowering Dogwood

HEATH FAMILY _(Ericaceae)_
Pipsissewa or Prince’s Pine;
Indian Pipe, Ice-plant, Ghost flower or Corpse-plant;
Pine Sap or False Beech-drops;
Wild Honeysuckle, Pink, Purple or Wild Azalea, or Pinxter-flower;
American or Great Rhododendron, Great Laurel, or Bay;
Mountain or American Laurel or Broad-leaved Kalmia;
Trailing Arbutus or Mayflower;
Creeping Wintergreen, Checker-berry or Partridge-berry

PRIMROSE FAMILY _(Primulaceae)_
Four-leaved or Whorled Loosestrife;
Star-flower;
Scarlet Pimpernel, Poor Man’s Weatherglass or Shepherd’s Clock;
Shooting Star or American Cowslip

GENTIAN FAMILY _(Gentianaceae)_
Bitter-bloom or Rose-Pink;
Fringed Gentian;
Closed or Blind Gentian

DOGBANE FAMILY _(Apocynaceae)_
Spreading or Fly-trap Dogbane

MILKWEED FAMILY _(Asclepiadaceae)_
Common Milkweed or Silkweed;
Butterfly-weed

CONVOLVULUS FAMILY _(Convolvulaceae)_
Hedge or Great Bindweed;
Gronovius’ or Common Dodder or Strangle-weed

POLEMONIUM FAMILY _(Polemoniaceae)_
Ground or Moss Pink

BORAGE FAMILY _(Boraginaceae)_
Forget-me-not;
Viper’s Bugloss or Snake-flower

VERVAIN FAMILY _(Verbenaceae)_
Blue Vervain, Wild Hyssop or Simpler’s Joy

MINT FAMILY _(Labiatae)_
Mad-dog Skullcap or Madweed;
Self-heal, Heal-all, Blue Curls or Brunella;
Motherwort;
Oswego Tea, Bee Balm or Indian’s Plume;
Wild Bergamot

NIGHTSHADE FAMILY _(Solanaceae)_
Nightshade, Blue Bindweed or Bittersweet;
Jamestown Weed, Thorn Apple or Jimson Weed

FIGWORT FAMILY _(Scrophulariaceae)_
Great Mullein, Velvet or Flannel Plant or Aaron’s Rod;
Moth Mullein;
Butter-and-eggs or Yellow Toadflax;
Blue or Wild Toadflax or Blue Linaria;
Hairy Beard-tongue;
Snake-head, Turtle-head or Cod-head;
Monkey-flower;
Common Speedwell, Fluellin or Paul’s Betony;
American Brooklime;
Culver’s-root;
Downy False Foxglove;
Large Purple Gerardia;
Scarlet Painted Cup or Indian Paint-brush;
Wood Betony or Loosewort

BROOM-RAPE FAMILY (_Orobanchaceae_)
Beech-drops

MADDER FAMILY (_Rubiaceae_)
Partridge Vine or Squaw-berry;
Button-bush or Honey-balls;
Bluets, Innocence or Quaker Ladies

BLUEBELL FAMILY (_Campanulaceae_)
Harebell, Hairbell or Blue Bells of Scotland; Venus’ Looking-glass
or Clasping Bellflower

LOBELIA FAMILY (_Lobeliaceae_)
Cardinal Flower;
Great Lobelia

COMPOSITE FAMILY (_Compositae_)
Iron-weed or Flat Top;
Joe Pye Weed, Trumpet Weed, or Tall or Purple Boneset or Thoroughwort;
Golden-rods;
Blue and Purple Asters or Starworts;
White Asters or Starworts;
Golden Aster;
Daisy Fleabane or Sweet Scabious;
Robin’s or Robert’s Plantain or Blue Spring Daisy;
Pearly or Large-flowered Everlasting or Immortelle, Elecampane
or Horseheal;
Black-eyed Susan or Yellow or Ox-eye Daisy;
Tall or Giant Sunflower;
Sneezeweed or Swamp Sunflower;
Yarrow or Milfoil;
Dog’s or Fetid Camomile or Dog-fennel;
Common Daisy, Marguerite, or White Daisy;
Tansy or Bitter Buttons;
Thistles; Chicory or Succory;
Common Dandelion;
Tall or Wild Lettuce;
Orange or Tawny Hawkweed or Devil’s Paint-brush

COLOR KEY

GENERAL INDEX OF NAMES

WILD FLOWERS

WATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY _(Alismaceae)_

Broad-leaved Arrow-head

_Sagittaria latifolia (S. variabilis)_

_Flowers_--White, 1 to 1-1/2 in. wide, in 3-bracted whorls of 3, borne near the summit of a leafless scape 4 in. to 4 ft. tall. Calyx of 3 sepals; corolla of 3 rounded, spreading petals. Stamens and pistils numerous, the former yellow in upper flowers; usually absent or imperfect in lower pistillate flowers. _Leaves_: Exceedingly variable; those under water usually long and grass-like; upper ones sharply arrow-shaped or blunt and broad, spongy or leathery, on long petioles.

_Preferred Habitat_--Shallow water and mud.

_Flowering Season_--July-September.

_Distribution_--From Mexico northward throughout our area to the circumpolar regions.

Wading into shallow water or standing on some muddy shore, like a heron, this striking plant, so often found in that bird’s haunts, is quite as decorative in a picture, and, happily, far more approachable in life. Indeed, one of the comforts of botany as compared with bird study is that we may get close enough to the flowers to observe their last detail, whereas the bird we have followed laboriously over hill and dale, through briers and swamps, darts away beyond the range of field-glasses with tantalizing swiftness.

While no single plant is yet thoroughly known to scientists, in spite of the years of study devoted by specialists to separate groups, no plant remains wholly meaningless. When Keppler discovered the majestic order of movement of the heavenly bodies, he exclaimed, “O God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee!”--the expression of a discipleship every reverent soul must be conscious of in penetrating, be it ever so little a way, into the inner meaning of the humblest wayside weed.

Any plant which elects to grow in shallow water must be amphibious: it must be able to breathe beneath the surface as the fish do, and also be adapted to thrive without those parts that correspond to gills; for ponds and streams have an unpleasant way of drying up in summer, leaving it stranded on the shore. This accounts in part for the variable leaves on the arrow-head, those underneath the water being long and ribbon-like, to bring the greatest possible area into contact with the air with which the water is charged. Broad leaves would be torn to shreds by the current through which grass-like blades glide harmlessly; but when this plant grows on shore, having no longer use for its lower ribbons, it loses them, and expands only broad arrow-shaped surfaces to the sunny air, leaves to be supplied with carbonic acid to assimilate, and sunshine to turn off, the oxygen and store up the carbon into their system.

ARUM FAMILY _(Araceae)_

Jack-in-the-Pulpit; Indian Turnip

_Arisaema triphyllum_

_Flowers_--Minute, greenish yellow, clustered on the lower part of a smooth, club-shaped, slender spadix within a green and maroon or whitish-striped spathe that curves in a broad-pointed flap above it. _Leaves:_ 3-foliate, usually overtopping the spathe, their slender petioles 9 to 30 in. high, or as tall as the scape that rises from an acrid corm. _Fruit:_ Smooth, shining red berries clustered on the thickened club.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist woodland and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--April-June.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia westward to Minnesota, and southward to the Gulf states.

A jolly-looking preacher is Jack, standing erect in his parti-colored pulpit with a sounding-board over his head; but he is a gay deceiver, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, literally a “brother to dragons,” an arrant upstart, an ingrate, a murderer of innocent benefactors! “Female botanizing classes pounce upon it as they would upon a pious young clergyman,” complains Mr. Ellwanger. A poor relation of the stately calla lily one knows Jack to be at a glance, her lovely white robe corresponding to his striped pulpit, her bright yellow spadix to his sleek reverence. In the damp woodlands where his pulpit is erected beneath leafy cathedral arches, minute flies or gnats, recently emerged from maggots in mushrooms, toadstools, or decaying logs, form the main part of his congregation.

Now, to drop the clerical simile, let us peep within the sheathing spathe, or, better still, strip it off altogether. Doctor Torrey states that the dark-striped spathes are the fertile plants, those with green and whitish lines, sterile. Within are smooth, glossy columns, and near the base of each we shall find the true flowers, minute affairs, some staminate; others, on distinct plants, pistillate, the berry bearers; or rarely both male and female florets seated on the same club, as if Jack’s elaborate plan to prevent self-fertilization were not yet complete. Plants may be detected in process of evolution toward their ideals just as nations and men are. Doubtless when Jack’s mechanism is perfected, his guilt will disappear. A little way above the florets the club enlarges abruptly, forming a projecting ledge that effectually closes the avenue of escape for many a guileless victim. A fungous gnat, enticed perhaps by the striped house of refuge from cold spring winds, and with a prospect of food below, enters and slides down the inside walls or the slippery, colored column: in either case descent is very easy; it is the return that is made so difficult, if not impossible, for the tiny visitors. Squeezing past the projecting ledge, the gnat finds himself in a roomy apartment whose floor--the bottom of the pulpit--is dusted over with fine pollen; that is, if he is among staminate flowers already mature. To get some of that pollen, with which the gnat presently covers himself, transferred to the minute pistillate florets waiting for it in a distant chamber is, of course, Jack’s whole aim in enticing visitors within his polished walls; but what means are provided for their escape? Their efforts to crawl upward over the slippery surface only land them weak and discouraged where they started. The projecting ledge overhead prevents them from using their wings; the passage between the ledge and the spathe is far too narrow to permit flight. Now, if a gnat be persevering, he will presently discover a gap in the flap where the spathe folds together in front, and through this tiny opening he makes his escape, only to enter another pulpit, like the trusted, but too trusting, messenger he is, and leave some of the vitalizing pollen on the fertile florets awaiting his coming.

But suppose the fly, small as he is, is too large to work his way out through the flap, or too bewildered or stupid to find the opening, or too exhausted after his futile efforts to get out through the overhead route to persevere, or too weak with hunger in case of long detention in a pistillate trap where no pollen is, what then? Open a dozen of Jack’s pulpits, and in several, at least, dead victims will be found--pathetic little corpses sacrificed to the imperfection of his executive system. Had the flies entered mature spathes, whose walls had spread outward and away from the polished column, flight through the overhead route might have been possible. However glad we may be to make every due allowance for this sacrifice of the higher life to the lower, as only a temporary imperfection of mechanism incidental to the plant’s higher development, Jack’s present cruelty shocks us no less. Or, it may be, he will become insectivorous like the pitcher plant in time. He comes from a rascally family, anyhow. His cousin, the cuckoo-pint, as is well known, destroys the winged messenger bearing its offspring to plant fresh colonies in a distant bog, because the decayed body of the bird acts as the best possible fertilizer into which the seedling may strike its roots.

In June and July the thick-set club, studded over with bright berries, becomes conspicuous, to attract hungry woodland rovers in the hope that the seeds will be dropped far from the parent plant. The Indians used to boil the berries for food. The farinaceous root (corm) they likewise boiled or dried to extract the stinging, blistering juice, leaving an edible little “turnip,” however insipid and starchy.

Skunk or Swamp Cabbage

_Symplocarpus foetidus_

_Flowers_--Minute, perfect, foetid; many scattered over a thick, rounded, fleshy spadix, and hidden within a swollen, shell-shaped, purplish-brown to greenish-yellow, usually mottled, spathe, close to the ground, that appears before the leaves. Spadix much enlarged and spongy in fruit, the bulb-like berries imbedded in its surface. _Leaves:_ In large crowns like cabbages, broadly ovate, often 1 ft. across, strongly nerved, their petioles with deep grooves, malodorous.

_Preferred Habitat_--Swamps, wet ground.

_Flowering Season_--February-April.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Florida, and westward to Minnesota and Iowa.

This despised relative of the stately calla lily proclaims spring in the very teeth of winter, being the first bold adventurer above ground. When the lovely hepatica, the first flower worthy the name to appear, is still wrapped in her fuzzy furs, the skunk cabbage’s dark, incurved horn shelters within its hollow, tiny, malodorous florets. Why is the entire plant so foetid that one flees the neighborhood, pervaded as it is with an odor that combines a suspicion of skunk, putrid meat, and garlic? After investigating the Carrion-flower and the Purple Trillium, among others, we learned that certain flies delight in foul odors loathsome to higher organisms; that plants dependent on these pollen carriers woo them from long distances with a stench, and in addition sometimes try to charm them with color resembling the sort of meat it is their special mission, with the help of beetles and other scavengers of Nature, to remove from the face of the earth. In such marshy ground as the Skunk Cabbage lives in, many small flies and gnats live in embryo under the fallen leaves during the winter. But even before they are warmed into active life, the hive-bees, natives of Europe, and with habits not perfectly adapted as yet to our flora, are out after pollen.

After the flowering time come the vivid green crowns of leaves that at least please the eye. Lizards make their home beneath them, and many a yellowthroat, taking advantage of the plant’s foul odor, gladly puts up with it herself and builds her nest in the hollow of the cabbage as a protection for her eggs and young from four-footed enemies. Cattle let the plant alone because of the stinging acrid juices secreted by it, although such tender, fresh, bright foliage must be especially tempting, like the hellebore’s, after a dry winter diet. Sometimes tiny insects are found drowned in the wells of rain water that accumulate at the base of the grooved leafstalks.

SPIDERWORT FAMILY _(Commelinaceae)_

Virginia, or Common Day-flower

_Commelina virginica_

_Flowers_--Blue, 1 in. broad or less, irregular, grouped at end of stem, and upheld by long leaf-like bracts. Calyx of 3 unequal sepals; 3 petals, 1 inconspicuous, 2 showy, rounded. Perfect stamens 3; the anther of 1 incurved stamen largest; 3 insignificant and sterile stamens; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ Fleshy, smooth, branched, mucilaginous. _Leaves:_ Lance-shaped, 3 to 5 in. long, sheathing the stem at base; upper leaves in a spathe-like bract folding like a hood about flowers. _Fruit:_ A 3-celled capsule, 1 seed in each cell.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist, shady ground.

_Flowering Season_--June-September.

_Distribution_--“Southern New York to Illinois and Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, and through tropical America to Paraguay.”--Britton and Browne.

Delightful Linnaeus, who dearly loved his little joke, himself confesses to have named the day-flowers after three brothers Commelyn, Dutch botanists, because two of them--commemorated in the two showy blue petals of the blossom--published their works; the third, lacking application and ambition, amounted to nothing, like the inconspicuous whitish third petal! Happily Kaspar Commelyn died in 1731, before the joke was perpetrated in “Species Plantarum.” Soon after noon, the day-flower’s petals roll up, never to open again.

PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY _(Pontederiaceae)_

Pickerel Weed

_Pontederia cordata_

_Flowers_--Bright purplish blue, including filaments, anthers, and style; crowded in a dense spike; quickly fading; unpleasantly odorous. Perianth tubular, 2-lipped, parted into 6 irregular lobes, free from ovary; middle lobe of upper lip with 2 yellow spots at base within. Stamens 6, placed at unequal distances on tube, 3 opposite each lip. Pistil 1, the stigma minutely toothed. _Stem_: Erect, stout, fleshy, 1 to 4 ft. tall, not often over 2 ft. above water line. _Leaves_: Several bract-like, sheathing stem at base; 1 leaf only, midway on flower-stalk, thick, polished, triangular, or arrow-shaped, 4 to 8 in. long, 2 to 6 in. across base.

_Preferred Habitat_--Shallow water of ponds and streams.

_Flowering Season_--June-October.

_Distribution_--Eastern half of United States and Canada.

Grace of habit and the bright beauty of its long blue spikes of ragged flowers above rich, glossy leaves give a charm to this vigorous wader. Backwoodsmen will tell you that pickerels lay their eggs among the leaves; but so they do among the sedges, arums, wild rice, and various aquatic plants, like many another fish. Bees and flies, that congregate about the blossoms to feed, may sometimes fly too low, and so give a plausible reason for the pickerel’s choice of haunt. Each blossom lasts but a single day; the upper portion, withering, leaves the base of the perianth to harden about the ovary and protect the solitary seed. But as the gradually lengthened spike keeps up an uninterrupted succession of bloom for months, more than ample provision is made for the perpetuation of the race--a necessity to any plant that refuses to thrive unless it stands in water. Ponds and streams have an unpleasant habit of drying up in summer, and often the Pickerel Weed looks as brown as a bullrush where it is stranded in the baked mud in August. When seed falls on such ground, if indeed it germinates at all, the young plant naturally withers away.

Of the three kinds of blossoms, one raises its stigma on a long style reaching to the top of the flower; a second form reaches its stigma only half-way up, and the third keeps its stigma in the bottom of the tube. The visiting bee gets his abdomen, his chest, and his tongue dusted with pollen from long, middle-length, and short stamens respectively. When he visits another flower, these parts of his body coming in contact with the stigmas that occupy precisely the position where the stamens were in other individuals, he brushes off each lot of pollen just where it will do the most good.

LILY FAMILY _(Liliaceae)_

American White Hellebore; Indian Poke; Itch-weed

_Veratrum viride_

_Flowers_--Dingy, pale yellowish or whitish green, growing greener with age, 1 in. or less across, very numerous, in stiff-branching, spike-like, dense-flowered panicles. Perianth of 6 oblong segments; 6 short curved stamens; 3 styles. _Stem:_ Stout, leafy, 2 to 8 ft. tall. _Leaves:_ Plaited, lower ones broadly oval, pointed, 6 to 12 in. long; parallel ribbed, sheathing the stem where they clasp it; upper leaves gradually narrowing; those among flowers small.

_Preferred Habitat_--Swamps, wet woods, low meadows.

_Flowering Season_--May-July.

_Distribution_--British Possessions from ocean to ocean; southward in the United States to Georgia, Tennessee, and Minnesota.

“Borage and hellebore fill two scenes--
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart.”

Such are the antidotes for madness prescribed by Burton in his “Anatomie of Melancholy.” But like most medicines, so the homoeopaths have taught us, the plant that heals may also poison; and the coarse, thick rootstock of this hellebore sometimes does deadly work. The shining plaited leaves, put forth so early in the spring they are especially tempting to grazing cattle on that account, are too well known by most animals, however, to be touched by them--precisely the end desired, of course, by the hellebore, nightshade, aconite, cyclamen, Jamestown weed, and a host of others that resort, for protection, to the low trick of mixing poisonous chemicals with their cellular juices. Pliny told how the horses, oxen, and swine of his day were killed by eating the foliage of the black hellebore. But the flies which cross-fertilize this plant seem to be uninjured by its nectar.

Wild Yellow, Meadow, or Field Lily; Canada Lily

_Lilium canadense_

_Flowers_--Yellow to orange-red, of a deeper shade within, and speckled with dark, reddish-brown dots. One or several (rarely many) nodding on long peduncles from the summit. Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 spreading segments 2 to 3 in. long, their tips curved backward to the middle; 6 stamens, with reddish-brown linear anthers; 1 pistil, club-shaped; the stigma 3-lobed. _Stem_: 2 to 5 ft. tall, leafy, from a bulbous rootstock composed of numerous fleshy white scales. _Leaves_: Lance-shaped to oblong; usually in whorls of fours to tens, or some alternate. _Fruit_: An erect, oblong, 3-celled capsule, the flat, horizontal seeds packed in 2 rows in each cavity.

_Preferred Habitat_--Swamps, low meadows, moist fields.

_Flowering Season_--June-July.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward beyond the Mississippi.

Not our gorgeous lilies that brighten the low-lying meadows in early summer with pendent, swaying bells; possibly not a true lily at all was chosen to illustrate the truth which those who listened to the Sermon on the Mount, and we, equally anxious, foolishly overburdened folk of to-day, so little comprehend.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

“And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Opinions differ as to the lily of Scripture. Eastern peoples use the same word interchangeably for the tulip, anemone, ranunculus, iris, the water-lilies, and those of the field. The superb scarlet Martagon Lily _(L. chalcedonicum)_, grown in gardens here, is not uncommon wild in Palestine; but whoever has seen the large anemones there “carpeting every plain and luxuriantly pervading the land” is inclined to believe that Jesus, who always chose the most familiar objects in the daily life of His simple listeners to illustrate His teachings, rested His eyes on the slopes about Him glowing with anemones in all their matchless loveliness. What flower served Him then matters not at all. It is enough that scientists--now more plainly than ever before--see the universal application of the illustration the more deeply they study nature, and can include their “little brothers of the air” and the humblest flower at their feet when they say with Paul, “In God we live and move and have our being.”

Tallest and most prolific of bloom among our native lilies, as it is the most variable in color, size, and form, the Turk’s Cap, or Turban Lily _(L. superbum)_, sometimes nearly merges its identity into its Canadian sister’s. Travellers by rail between New York and Boston know how gorgeous are the low meadows and marshes in July or August, when its clusters of deep yellow, orange, or flame-colored lilies tower above the surrounding vegetation. Like the color of most flowers, theirs intensifies in salt air. Commonly from three to seven lilies appear in a terminal group; but under skilful cultivation even forty will crown the stalk that reaches a height of nine feet where its home suits it perfectly; or maybe only a poor array of dingy yellowish caps top a shrivelled stem when unfavorable conditions prevail. There certainly are times when its specific name seems extravagant.

Red, Wood, Flame, or Philadelphia Lily

_Lilium philadelphicum_

_Flowers_--Erect, tawny, or red-tinted outside; vermilion, or sometimes reddish orange, and spotted with madder brown within; 1 to 5, on separate peduncles, borne at the summit. Perianth of 6 distinct, spreading, spatulate segments, each narrowed into a claw, and with a nectar groove at its base; 6 stamens; 1 style, the club-shaped stigma 3-lobed. _Stem:_ 1 to 3 ft. tall, from a bulb composed of narrow, jointed, fleshy scales. _Leaves:_ In whorls of 3’s to 8’s, lance-shaped, seated at intervals on the stem.

_Preferred Habitat_--Dry woods, sandy soil, borders, and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--June-July.

_Distribution_--Northern border of United States, westward to Ontario, south to the Carolinas and West Virginia.

Erect, as if conscious of its striking beauty, this vivid lily lifts a chalice that suggests a trap for catching sunbeams from fiery old Sol. Defiant of his scorching rays in its dry habitat, it neither nods nor droops even during prolonged drought; and yet many people confuse it with the gracefully pendent, swaying bells of the yellow Canada Lily, which will grow in a swamp rather than forego moisture. _La_, the Celtic for white, from which the family derived its name, makes this bright-hued flower blush to own it. Seedsmen, who export quantities of our superb native lilies to Europe, supply bulbs so cheap that no one should wait four years for flowers from seed, or go without their splendor in our over-conventional gardens.

Yellow Adder’s Tongue; Trout Lily; Dog-tooth “Violet”

_Erythronium americanum_

_Flower_--Solitary, pale russet yellow, rarely tinged with purple, slightly fragrant, 1 to 2 in. long, nodding from the summit of a root-stalk 6 to 12 in, high, or about as tall as the leaves. Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 petal-like, distinct segments, spreading at tips, dark spotted within; 6 stamens; the club-shaped style with 3 short, stigmatic ridges. _Leaves:_ 2, unequal, grayish green, mottled and streaked with brown or all green, oblong, 3 to 8 in. long, narrowing into clasping petioles.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist open woods and thickets, brooksides.

_Flowering Season_--March-May.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to the Mississippi.

Colonies of these dainty little lilies, that so often grow beside leaping brooks where and when the trout hide, justify at least one of their names; but they have nothing in common with the violet or a dog’s tooth. Their faint fragrance rather suggests a tulip; and as for the bulb, which in some of the lily-kin has toothlike scales, it is in this case a smooth, egg-shaped corm, producing little round offsets from its base. Much fault is also found with another name on the plea that the curiously mottled and delicately pencilled leaves bring to mind, not a snake’s tongue, but its skin, as they surely do. Whoever sees the sharp purplish point of a young plant darting above ground in earliest spring, however, at once sees the fitting application of adder’s tongue. But how few recognize their plant friends at all seasons of the year!

Every one must have noticed the abundance of low-growing spring flowers in deciduous woodlands, where, later in the year, after the leaves overhead cast a heavy shade, so few blossoms are to be found, because their light is seriously diminished. The thrifty adder’s tongue, by laying up nourishment in its storeroom underground through the winter, is ready to send its leaves and flower upward to take advantage of the sunlight the still naked trees do not intercept, just as soon as the ground thaws.

Yellow Clintonia

_Clintonia borealis_

_Flowers--_Straw color or greenish yellow, less than 1 in. long, 3 to 6 _nodding_ on slender pedicels from the summit of a leafless scape 6 to 15 in. tall. Perianth of 6 spreading divisions, the 6 stamens attached; style, 3-lobed. _Leaves:_ Dark, glossy, large, oval to oblong, 2 to 5 (usually 3), sheathing at the base. _Fruit:_ Oval blue berries on _upright_ pedicels.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist, rich, cool woods and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--May-June.

_Distribution-_--From the Carolinas and Wisconsin far northward.

To name canals, bridges, city thoroughfares, booming factory towns after De Witt Clinton seems to many appropriate enough; but why a shy little woodland flower? As fitly might a wee white violet carry down the name of Theodore Roosevelt to posterity! “Gray should not have named the flower from the Governor of New York,” complains Thoreau. “What is he to the lovers of flowers in Massachusetts? If named after a man, it must be a man of flowers.” So completely has Clinton, the practical man of affairs, obliterated Clinton, the naturalist, from the popular mind, that, were it not for this plant keeping his memory green, we should be in danger of forgetting the weary, overworked governor, fleeing from care to the woods and fields; pursuing in the open air the study which above all others delighted and refreshed him; revealing in every leisure moment a too-often forgotten side of his many-sided greatness.

Wild Spikenard; False Solomon’s Seal; Solomon’s Zig-zag

_Smilacina racemosa_

_Flowers_--White or greenish, small, slightly fragrant, in a densely flowered terminal raceme. Perianth of 6 separate, spreading segments; 6 stamens; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ Simple, somewhat angled, 1 to 3 ft. high, scaly below, leafy, and sometimes finely hairy above. _Leaves:_ Alternate and seated along stem, oblong, lance-shaped, 3 to 6 in. long, finely hairy beneath. _Rootstock:_ Thick, fleshy. _Fruit:_ A cluster of aromatic, round, pale red speckled berries.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist woods, thickets, hillsides.

_Flowering Season_--May-July.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Georgia; westward to Arizona and British Columbia.

As if to offer opportunities for comparison to the confused novice, the true Solomon’s Seal and the so-called false species--quite as honest a plant--usually grow near each other. Grace of line, rather than beauty of blossom, gives them both their chief charm. But the feathery plume of greenish-white blossoms that crowns the false Solomon’s Seal’s somewhat zig-zagged stem is very different from the small, greenish, bell-shaped flowers, usually nodding in pairs along the stem, under the leaves, from the axils of the true Solomon’s Seal. Later in summer, when hungry birds wander through the woods with increased families, the Wild Spikenard offers them branching clusters of pale red speckled berries, whereas the former plant feasts them with blue-black fruit.

Hairy, or True, or Twin-flowered Solomon’s Seal

_Polygonatum biflorum_

_Flowers_--Whitish or yellowish green, tubular, bell-shaped, 1 to 4, but usually 2, drooping on slender peduncles from leaf axils. Perianth 6-lobed at entrance, but not spreading; 6 stamens, the filaments roughened; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ Simple, slender, arching, leafy, 8 in. to 3 ft. long. _Leaves:_ Oval, pointed, or lance-shaped, alternate, 2 to 4 in. long, seated on stem, pale beneath and softly hairy along veins. _Rootstock:_ Thick, horizontal, jointed, scarred. (_Polygonatum_ = many joints.) _Fruit:_ A blue-black berry.

_Preferred Habitat_--Woods, thickets, shady banks.

_Flowering Season_--April-June.

_Distribution_--New Brunswick to Florida, westward to Michigan.

From a many-jointed, thick rootstock a single graceful curved stem arises each spring, withers after fruiting, and leaves a round scar, whose outlines suggested to the fanciful man who named the genus the seal of Israel’s wise king. Thus one may know the age of a root by its seals, as one tells that of a tree by the rings in its trunk.

Early or Dwarf Wake-Robin

_Trillium nivale_

_Flowers_--Solitary, pure white, about 1 in. long, on an erect or curved peduncle, from a whorl of 3 leaves at summit of stem. Three spreading, green, narrowly oblong sepals; 3 oval or oblong petals; 6 stamens, the anthers about as long as filaments; 3 slender styles stigmatic along inner side. _Stem_: 2 to 6 in. high, from a short, tuber-like rootstock. _Leaves_: 3 in a whorl below the flower, 1 to 2 in. long, broadly oval, rounded at end, on short petioles. _Fruit_: A 3-lobed reddish berry, about 1/2 in. diameter, the sepals adhering.

_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist woods and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--March-May.

_Distribution_--Pennsylvania, westward to Minnesota and Iowa, south to Kentucky.

Only this delicate little flower, as white as the snow it sometimes must push through to reach the sunshine melting the last drifts in the leafless woods, can be said to wake the robins into song; a full chorus of feathered love-makers greets the appearance of the more widely distributed, and therefore better known, species.

By the rule of three all the trilliums, as their name implies, regulate their affairs. Three sepals, three petals, twice three stamens, three styles, a three-celled ovary, the flower growing out from a whorl of three leaves, make the naming of wake-robins a simple matter to the novice.

One of the most chastely beautiful of our native wild flowers--so lovely that many shady nooks in English rock-gardens and ferneries contain imported clumps of the vigorous plant--is the Large-flowered Wake-Robin, or White Wood Lily (_T. grandiflorum_). Under favorable conditions the waxy, thin, white, or occasionally pink, strongly veined petals may exceed two inches; and in Michigan a monstrous form has been found. The broadly rhombic leaves, tapering to a point, and lacking petioles, are seated in the usual whorl of three, at the summit of the stem, which may attain a foot and a half in height; from the centre the decorative flower arises on a long peduncle.

Certainly the commonest trillium in the East, although it thrives as far westward as Ontario and Missouri, and south to Georgia, is the Nodding Wake-Robin (_T. cernuum_), whose white or pinkish flower droops from its peduncle until it is all but hidden under the whorl of broadly rhombic, tapering leaves. The wavy margined petals, about as long as the sepals--that is to say, half an inch long or over--curve backward at maturity. One finds the plant in bloom from April to June, according to the climate of its long range.

* * * * *

Perhaps the most strikingly beautiful member of the tribe is the Painted Trillium (_T. undulatum_ or _T. erythrocarpum_). At the summit of the slender stem, rising perhaps only eight inches, or maybe twice as high, this charming flower spreads its long, wavy-edged, waxy-white petals veined and striped with deep pink or wine color. The large ovate leaves, long-tapering to a point, are rounded at the base into short petioles. The rounded, three-angled, bright red, shining berry is seated in the persistent calyx. With the same range as the nodding trillium’s, the Painted Wake-Robin comes into bloom nearly a month later--in May and June--when all the birds are not only wide awake, but have finished courting, and are busily engaged in the most serious business of life.

Purple Trillium, Ill-scented Wake-Robin, or Birth-root

_Trillium erectum_

_Flowers_--Solitary, dark, dull purple, or purplish red; rarely greenish, white, or pinkish; on erect or slightly inclined footstalk. Calyx of 3 spreading sepals, 1 to 1-1/2 in. long, or about length of 3 pointed, oval petals; stamens, 6; anthers longer than filaments; pistil spreading into 3 short, recurved stigmas. _Stem:_ Stout, 8 to 16 in. high, from tuber-like rootstock. _Leaves:_ In a whorl of 3; broadly ovate, abruptly pointed, netted-veined. _Fruit:_ A 6-angled, ovate, reddish berry.

_Preferred Habitat--Rich_, moist woods.

_Flowering Season_--April-June.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia westward to Manitoba, southward to North Carolina and Missouri.

Some weeks after the jubilant, alert robins have returned from the South, the Purple Trillium unfurls its unattractive, carrion-scented flower. In the variable colors found in different regions, one can almost trace its evolution from green, white, and red to purple, which, we are told, is the course all flowers must follow to attain to blue. The white and pink forms, however attractive to the eye, are never more agreeable to the nose than the reddish-purple ones. Bees and butterflies, with delicate appreciation of color and fragrance, let the blossom alone, since it secretes no nectar; and one would naturally infer either that it can fertilize itself without insect aid--a theory which closer study of its organs goes far to disprove--or that the carrion-scent, so repellent to us, is in itself an attraction to certain insects needful for cross-pollination. Which are they? Beetles have been observed crawling over the flower, but without effecting any methodical result. One inclines to accept Mr. Clarence M. Weed’s theory of special adaptation to the common green flesh-flies (_Lucilia carnicina_), which would naturally be attracted to a flower resembling in color and odor a raw beefsteak of uncertain age. These little creatures, seen in every butcher shop throughout the summer, the flower furnishes with a free lunch of pollen in consideration of the transportation of a few grains to another blossom. Absence of the usual floral attractions gives the carrion flies a practical monopoly of the pollen food, which no doubt tastes as it smells.

The Sessile-flowered Wake-Robin (_T. sessile_), whose dark purple, purplish-red, or greenish blossom, narrower of sepal and petals than the preceding, is seated in a whorl of three egg-shaped, sometimes blotched, leaves, possesses a rather pleasant odor; nevertheless, it seems to have no great attraction for insects. The stigmas, which are very large, almost touch the anthers surrounding them; therefore the beetles which one frequently sees crawling over them to feed on the pollen so jar them, no doubt, as to self-fertilize the flower; but it is scarcely probable these slow crawlers often transfer the grains from one blossom to another. A degraded flower like this has little need of color and perfume, one would suppose; yet it may be even now slowly perfecting its way toward an ideal of which we see a part only complete. In deep, rich, moist woods and thickets the sessile trillium blooms in April or May, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota southward nearly to the Gulf.

Carrion-flower

_Smilax herbacea_

_Flowers_--Carrion-scented, yellowish-green, 15 to 80 small, 6-parted ones clustered in an umbel on a long peduncle. _Stem:_ Smooth, unarmed, climbing with the help of tendril-like appendages from the base of leafstalks. _Leaves:_ Egg-shaped, heart-shaped, or rounded, pointed tipped, parallel-nerved, petioled. _Fruit:_ Bluish-black berries.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist soil, thickets, woods, roadside fences.

_Flowering Season_--April-June.

_Distribution_--Northern Canada to the Gulf states, westward to Nebraska.

“It would be safe to say,” says John Burroughs, “that there is a species of smilax with an unsavory name, that the bee does not visit, _herbacea_. The production of this plant is a curious freak of nature.... It would be a cruel joke to offer it to any person not acquainted with it, to smell. It is like the vent of a charnel-house.” (Thoreau compared its odor to that of a dead rat in a wall!) “It is first cousin to the trilliums, among the prettiest of our native wild flowers,” continues Burroughs, “and the same bad blood crops out in the Purple Trillium or Birth-root.”

Strange that so close an observer as Burroughs or Thoreau should not have credited the carrion-flower with being something more intelligent than a mere repellent freak! Like the Purple Trillium, it has deliberately adapted itself to please its benefactors, the little green flesh-flies so commonly seen about untidy butcher shops in summer.

AMARYLLIS FAMILY _(Amaryllidaceae)_

Yellow Star-grass

_Hypoxis hirsuta (H. erecta)_

_Flowers_--Bright yellow within, greenish and hairy outside, about 1/2 in. across, 6-parted; the perianth divisions spreading, narrowly oblong; a few flowers at the summit of a rough, hairy scape 2 to 6 in. high. _Leaves:_ All from an egg-shaped corm; mostly longer than scapes, slender, grass-like, more or less hairy.

_Preferred Habitat_--Dry, open woods, prairies, grassy waste places, fields.

_Flowering Season_--May-October.

_Distribution_--From Maine far westward, and south to the Gulf of Mexico.

Usually only one of these little blossoms in a cluster on each plant opens at a time; but that one peers upward so brightly from among the grass it cannot well be overlooked. Sitting in a meadow sprinkled over with these yellow stars, we see coming to them many small bees--chiefly Halictus--to gather pollen for their unhatched babies’ bread. Of course they do not carry all the pollen to their tunnelled nurseries; some must often be rubbed off on the sticky pistil tip in the centre of other stars. The stamens radiate, that self-fertilization need not take place except as a last extremity. Visitors failing, the little flower closes, bringing its pollen-laden anthers in contact with its own stigma.

IRIS FAMILY _(Iridaceae)_

Larger Blue Flag; Blue Iris; Fleur-de-lis; Flower-de-luce

_Iris versicolor_

_Flowers_--Several, 2 to 3 in. long, violet-blue variegated with yellow, green, or white, and purple veined. Six divisions of the perianth: 3 outer ones spreading, recurved; 1 of them bearded, much longer and wider than the 3 erect inner divisions; all united into a short tube. Three stamens under 3 overhanging petal-like divisions of the style, notched at end; under each notch is a thin plate, smooth on one side, rough and moist (stigma) on side turned away from anther. _Stem:_ 2 to 3 ft. high, stout, straight, almost circular, sometimes branching above. _Leaves:_ Erect, sword-shaped, shorter than stem, somewhat hoary, from 1/2 to 1 in. wide, folded, and in a compact flat cluster at base; bracts usually longer than stem of flower. _Fruit:_ Oblong capsule, not prominently 3-lobed, and with 2 rows of round, flat seeds closely packed in each cell. _Rootstock:_ Creeping, horizontal, fleshy.

_Preferred Habitat_--Marshes, wet meadows.

_Flowering Season_--May-July.

_Distribution_--Newfoundland and Manitoba to Arkansas and Florida.

This gorgeous flower is thought by scientists to be all that it is for the bees’ benefit, which, of course, is its own also. Abundant moisture, from which to manufacture nectar--a prime necessity with most irises--certainly is for our blue flag. The large, showy blossom cannot but attract the passing bee, whose favorite color (according to Sir John Lubbock) it waves. The bee alights on the convenient, spreading platform, and, guided by the dark veining and golden lines leading to the nectar, sips the delectable fluid shortly to be changed to honey. Now, as he raises his head and withdraws it from the nectary, he must rub it against the pollen-laden anther above, and some of the pollen necessarily falls on the visitor. As the sticky side of the plate (stigma), just under the petal-like division of the style, faces away from the anther, which is below it in any case, the flower is marvellously guarded against fertilization from its own pollen. The bee, flying off to another iris, must first brush past the projecting lip of the overarching style, and leave on the stigmatic outer surface of the plate some of the pollen brought from the first flower, before reaching the nectary. Thus cross-fertilization is effected; and Darwin has shown how necessary this is to insure the most vigorous and beautiful offspring. Without this wonderful adaptation of the flower to the requirements of its insect friends, and of the insect to the needs of the flower, both must perish; the former from hunger, the latter because unable to perpetuate its race. And yet man has greedily appropriated all the beauties of the floral kingdom as designed for his sole delight!

“The fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of chivalry,” says Ruskin, “has a sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart.” When that young and pious Crusader, Louis VII, adopted it for the emblem of his house, spelling was scarcely an exact science, and the _fleur-de-Louis_ soon became corrupted into its present form. Doubtless the royal flower was the white iris, and as _li_ is the Celtic for white, there is room for another theory as to the origin of the name. It is our far more regal looking, but truly democratic blossom, jostling its fellows in the marshes, that is indeed “born in the purple.”

The name iris, meaning a deified rainbow, which was given this group of plants by the ancients, shows a fine appreciation of their superb coloring, their ethereal texture, and the evanescent beauty of the blossom.

Blackberry Lily

_Belamcanda chinensis_ (_Pardanthus chinensis_)

_Flowers_--Deep orange color, speckled irregularly with crimson and purple within _(Pardos_ = leopard; _anthos_ = flower); borne in terminal, forked clusters. Perianth of 6 oblong, petal-like, spreading divisions; 6 stamens with linear anthers; style thickest above, with 3 branches. _Stem:_ 1-1/2 to 4 ft. tall, leafy. _Leaves:_ Like the iris; erect, folded blades, 8 to 10 in. long. _Fruit:_ Resembling a blackberry; an erect mass of round, black, fleshy seeds, at first concealed in a fig-shaped capsule, whose 3 valves curve backward, and finally drop off.

_Preferred Habitat_--Roadsides and hills.

_Flowering Season_--June-July.

_Distribution_--Connecticut to Georgia, westward to Indiana and Missouri.

How many beautiful foreign flowers, commonly grown in our gardens here, might soon become naturalized Americans were we only generous enough to lift a few plants, scatter a few seeds over our fences into the fields and roadsides--to raise the bars of their prison, as it were, and let them free! Many have run away, to be sure. Once across the wide Atlantic, or wider Pacific, their passage paid (not sneaking in among the ballast like the more fortunate weeds), some are doomed to stay in prim, rigidly cultivated flower beds forever; others, only until a chance to bolt for freedom presents itself, and away they go. Lucky are they if every flower they produce is not picked before a single seed can be set.

This Blackberry Lily of gorgeous hue originally came from China. Escaping from gardens here and there, it was first reported as a wild flower at East Rock, Connecticut; other groups of vagabonds were met marching along the roadsides on Long Island; near Suffern, New York; then farther southward and westward, until it has already attained a very respectable range. Every plant has some good device for sending its offspring away from home to found new colonies, if man would but let it alone. Better still, give the eager travellers a lift!

Pointed Blue-eyed Grass; Eye-bright; Blue Star

_Sisyrinchium angustifolium_

_Flowers_--From blue to purple, with a yellow centre; a Western variety, white; usually several buds at the end of the stem, between 2 erect unequal bracts; about 1/2 in. across; perianth of 6 spreading divisions, each pointed with a bristle from a notch; stamens 3, the filaments united to above the middle; pistil 1, its tip 3-cleft. _Stem:_ 3 to 14 in. tall, pale hoary green, flat, rigid, 2-edged. _Leaves:_ Grass-like, pale, rigid, mostly from base. _Fruit:_ 3-celled capsule, nearly globose.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist fields and meadows.

_Flowering Season_--May-August.

_Distribution_--Newfoundland to British Columbia, from eastern slope of Rocky Mountains to Atlantic, south to Virginia and Kansas.

Only for a day, and that must be a bright one, will this “little sister of the stately blue flag” open its eyes, to close them in indignation on being picked; nor will any coaxing but the sunshine’s induce it to open them again in water, immediately after. The dainty flower, growing in dense tufts, makes up in numbers what it lacks in size and lasting power, flecking our meadows with purplish ultramarine blue on a sunny June morning. Later in the day, apparently there are no blossoms there, for all are tightly closed, never to bloom again. New buds will unfold to tinge the field on the morrow.

Usually three buds nod from between a pair of bracts, the lower one of which may be twice the length of the upper one; but only one flower opens at a time. Slight variations in this plant have been considered sufficient to differentiate several species formerly included by Gray and other American botanists under the name of _S. Bermudiana_.

ORCHIS FAMILY _(Orchidaceae)_

Large Yellow Lady’s Slipper; Whippoorwill’s Shoe; Yellow Moccasin Flower

_Cypripedium pubescens (C. hirsutum)_

_Flower_--Solitary, large, showy, borne at the top of a leafy stem 1 to 2 ft. high. Sepals 3, 2 of them united, greenish or yellowish, striped with purple or dull red, very long, narrow; 2 petals, brown, narrower, twisting; the third an inflated sac, open at the top, 1 to 2 in. long, pale yellow, purple lined; white hairs within; sterile stamen triangular; stigma thick. _Leaves:_ Oval or elliptic, pointed, 3 to 5 in. long, parallel-nerved, sheathing.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist or boggy woods and thickets; hilly ground.

_Flowering Season_--May-July.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Alabama, westward to Minnesota and Nebraska.

Swinging outward from a leaf-clasped stem, this orchid attracts us by its flaunted beauty and decorative form from tip to root, not less than the aesthetic little bees for which its adornment and mechanism are so marvellously adapted. Doubtless the heavy, oily odor is an additional attraction to them.

These common orchids, which are not at all difficult to naturalize in a well-drained, shady spot in the garden, should be lifted with a good ball of earth and plenty of leaf-mould immediately after flowering.

The similar Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper _(C. parviflorum)_, a delicately fragrant orchid about half the size of its big sister, has a brighter yellow pouch, and occasionally its sepals and petals are purplish. As they usually grow in the same localities, and have the same blooming season, opportunities for comparison are not lacking. This fairer, sweeter, little orchid roams westward as far as the State of Washington.

Moccasin Flower; Pink, Venus’, or Stemless Lady’s Slipper

_Cypripedium acaule_

_Flowers_--Fragrant, solitary, large, showy, drooping from end of scape, 6 to 12 in. high. Sepals lance-shaped, spreading, greenish purple, 2 in. long or less; petals narrower and longer than sepals. Lip an inflated sac, often more than 2 in. long, slit down the middle, and folded inwardly above, pale magenta, veined with darker pink; upper part of interior crested with long white hairs. Stamens united with style into unsymmetrical declined column, bearing an anther on either side, and a dilated triangular petal-like sterile stamen above, arching over the broad concave stigma. _Leaves:_ 2, from the base; elliptic, thick, 6 to 8 in. long.

_Preferred Habitat--Deep_, rocky, or sandy woods.

_Flowering Season_--May-June.

_Distribution_--Canada southward to North Carolina, westward to Minnesota and Kentucky.

Because most people cannot forbear picking this exquisite flower that seems too beautiful to be found outside a millionaire’s hothouse, it is becoming rarer every year, until the finding of one in the deep forest, where it must now hide, has become the event of a day’s walk. Once it was the commonest of the orchids.

“Cross-fertilization,” says Darwin, “results in offspring which vanquish the offspring of self-fertilization in the struggle for existence.” This has been the motto of the orchid family for ages. No group of plants has taken more elaborate precautions against self-pollination or developed more elaborate and ingenious mechanism to compel insects to transfer their pollen than this.