f 



NEW YOk^K 



BOTANICAL 



UAKDEN 



The American Botanist 



VOL. XXX. JANUARY, 1924 No. 1 



But these young scholars who invade our hills, 



Bold as the engineer who felled the Wood, 



jind travelling often in the cut he makes. 



Love not the flowers they pluck, and know them not 



j4nd alt their botany is Latin names. 



Emerson. 



THE PASQUE FLOWER 



By Fannie Mahood Heath. 



T^HE Pasque flower (Anemone patens, variety Nuttalli- 

 ana) is the first flower to greet us in early spring. It 

 is indeed a most pleasing sight to come upon a sunny, sandy 

 slope or dry knoll of light soil where these flowers grow, as 

 they are usually found in large colonies, each well establish- 

 ed plant with from six to fifteen flowers, the ground liter- 

 ally carpeted with the bright blossoms. Each stout, furry 

 stem is from four to eight inches high, and crowned with 

 l)lossoms from one and a half to two inches wide. The 

 sepals form tulip-like cups of varying shades from almost 

 pure white, thru all the shades of smoke blue, to a soft deli- 

 cate purple, each with many golden anthers and numerous 

 pistils. The flowers are followed by fruit of long plumose 

 tailed achenes in a globular, fluffy head. 



Pasque flowers are found over a wide range of terri- 

 tory thruout the North-western United States and Western 



