INTRODUCTION 



which the forest strews over them before the snow 

 falls, thus giving them air and relieving them of the 

 dense pressure of the snow. The few foreign plants 

 which are found among our early bloomers are in the 

 main perennials, or what may be called winter an- 

 nuals — plants w^hose seedlings get such a start in the 

 fall that they are able to respond to the first warmth 

 of the sun and swing into the race at once. It is super- 

 fluous to state that in the language of this world they 

 are known as weeds. Examples are Chickweed, Dande- 

 lion, Dead-Nettie, and Red Sorrel. 



The first flower of the Northern spring is curious and 

 interesting, but Httle known and rarely seen, for its 

 chosen home is the swamp and its time of bloom the 

 sunny days of February and March. Its name, too, 

 is against it. Skunk-Cabbage is neither euphonious 

 nor pleasantly suggestive, and Spathyema foetidus is 

 long and cumbersome. As all the odds are on the 

 other side, it will doubtless remain as it now is, prac- 

 tically unknown, nevertheless its pre-eminence in point 

 of time cannot be disputed. The first spring flower 

 that is generally known in New England and the 

 Middle West, is the Hepatica, which in early April, 

 carpets ravines and open sunny woods with a mass of 

 color — pale blue, soft pink, white, and tinted lavender. 

 This is one of our few spring flowers abundant enough 

 to produce color effects. Closely following the Hepatica 

 and so nearly together that no real precedence can be 

 established among them are: Bloodroot, Spring- 

 Beauty, Dwarf Ginseng, Adder's-Tongue, Dentaria, 

 Meadow-Rue, Anemone, Saxifrage, and in northern 

 Ohio, Harbinger-of-Spring. Trailing Arbutus is placed 

 by New England writers in the earliest group, but it 



