84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



it received no sun at all. In a few weeks it surprised us by 

 sending up a flower stalk and we had the pleasure of watching 

 the bud develop into a flower. It would be interesting to hear 

 from others who have experimented with this plant in winter. 

 — Mrs. Viola F. Richards, South Deerfield, Mass. 



Color Combinations. — Everv localitv I have been in 

 could lay claim to superior beauty of its color combinations 

 at some season. The most striking were the sweeps of prim- 

 roses and forget-me-nots on the upper slopes of Pike's Peak. 

 Of course the effect was intensified by the absence of trees, 

 the background of immense bare cliffs, and the wonderful 

 blue of the sky. The purple mists of pentstemons that drift 

 over the foot-hills of Colorado in July are no more wonderful 

 than the crimson flames of paint-brush {Castilleja)tha.t kindle 

 the \\'yoming ranges in June. The golden blaze of ten thous- 

 and acres of rabbit-brush in September in no more beautiful 

 than the gray film that clouds league after league of sage land 

 in the hunting season. Our own local colors are blue and 

 gold, the blue from dense acres of Wasatch beard-tongues 

 sweeping up to steeps densely sodded with dwarf sunflowers 

 and visible for miles in June when the lower gravel hills are 

 red from the ripening Broiims tcctorum, locally called June 

 grass. — Mrs. M. E. Soth, Pocatello, Idaho. 



The Bluet in Winter. — A very common little plant has 

 been the source of much pleasure to me during the winter. 

 This is the modest bluet {Honstonia cocrnlca). The time to 

 secure these plants for winter use is in autumn after several 

 severe frosts have occurred. By careful search of those places 

 in which you remember to have seen the bluets in bloom you 

 will be able to find the tiny round leaves, now rather brown 

 but quick to respond to warmth and moisture. Take up sev- 

 eral of the little clumps — it is not necessary to have much earth 



