EARLY SAXIFRAGE, BLOODROOT, AND JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 



85 



it goes. It would be quite an interesting point to settle, 

 when Early Saxifrage appears this spring, were some 

 reader of this controversy, as I have presented it here, to 

 photograph a growing specimen of this plant in some 

 rocky crevice, where it 

 might prove or disprove 

 this variance of opinion 

 among botanists at the 

 present time. 



Early Saxifrage blooms 

 from the first week in March 

 to well into May in the mid- 

 dle of its range, the plant 

 occurring as far north as 

 New Brunswick, thence 

 southward to southern 

 Georgia, and westward 

 through the valley of the 

 Mississippi. F. Schuyler 

 Mathews tells us that "the 

 buds are formed early, and 

 appear like little (fine- 

 haired) balls in the center 

 of the rosette-like clusters of 

 obovate leaves close to the 

 ground. Eventually a clus- 

 ter expands to a branching, 

 downy stem (Fig. 1), bear- 

 ing many little white, five- 

 petaled, perfect flowers, 

 with ten yellow stamens. 

 The flowers are succeeded 

 by rather odd and pretty 

 madder purple seed-vessels 

 which are two-beaked; often 

 the color is madder-brown. ' ' 

 Mathews is another botan- 

 ist who distinctly denies 

 that the roots of this little 

 plant have the power to 

 fracture rock; at least he 

 says so of the Swamp Saxi- 

 frage, which is, by the way, 

 a larger plant with green- 

 ish-white flowers. 



The Bloodroot 



About a week or ten 

 days after the Early Saxi- 

 frage is in full bloom, we 

 have the advent of another 

 of our most lovely, not to 

 say most interesting, wild 



flowers of spring, the Blood 

 root, associated with all that the early spring woods 

 have in store for us. The picture. Figure 2, presents a 

 whole lot in the history of this famous plant. In the 

 first place, it shows at least one kind of locality in which 

 they flourish; it is on the almost vertical bank of a miry 

 ditch, where I disturbed not a single dead leaf, twig, or 



stick before making the exposure. We see here the flowers 

 of the bloodroot in every stage of their development, as 

 well as their gradual departure after enjoying the most 

 transitory existence, which is more transitory, mark you, 



than that of any other early 

 flower of our forests and 

 glades. Note the gorgeous 

 specimen in full bloom; the 

 two that are losing their 

 glistening white petals, and 

 the one between them where 

 all the petals arc gone but 

 one. Above these we see 

 the two opening buds, and 

 a closed Iiud between them, 

 nearl}' shut out of sight. 



We have but one species 

 and one genus of Bloodroot 

 in our flora. As Sangiiin- 

 aria canadensis it has been 

 arrayed among the poppies 

 or in the Poppy family 

 {Papaveracece). As every 

 one who has ever picked a 

 Bloodroot knows, the juice 

 of the plant is of an orange- 

 red color, hence its name — 

 generic name — Sanguinaria. 

 In former times, this juice 

 was much in use by some of 

 the American Indians as a 

 stain for their faces, and 

 for certain of their trap- 

 pings, tomahawks, and ar- 

 rows. It washes ofT with 

 great difficulty, and I have 

 seen the evidences of it upon 

 children's fingers a week 

 after they plucked the 

 flowers. This will account 

 for other names which have 

 been bestowed on the plant, 

 as "Indian, Paint," "Red 

 Puccoon," and "Indian 

 Plant," with possibly others 

 in other partsof the country 

 where it is found. 



Where Bloodroots are 

 seen to the best advantage 

 is upon some dark-soil hill- 

 side, sparsel}' timbered with 

 various trees of the forest. 

 They commence to put in 

 an appearance early in 

 April, after the first spring winds have blown many 

 of the last year's dried leaves off the most exposed 

 areas in the woods. It is then we note, some fine 

 morning, their first appearance as they send up in many 

 places the first evidence of their awakening. That ele- 

 gantlv curled-up leaf there, enclosed in its tissuey bract. 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT (ARIS.-EMA TRIPHYLLUM) 



(Slightly reduced) 



Fig 3 —This is one of those having the dark purple, light-striped spathes. 

 which arches over the still darker, club-like spadix seen withm. Between the 

 plant and the poplar tree near it, is seen growing a fine May flower plant (roio- 

 fhvllum pellalum). and the leaves of the two must not be confused. The Indian 

 Turnip has but two, and far above that which many take to be the flower of the 

 plant. Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers are. however, known to but few observers, 

 for they are exceedingly small, and situated at the base of the spadix which folds 

 around them. Just above where the tiny florets are found, the club-like spadix 

 becomes suddenly enlarged, thus forming a chamber m which many an insect 

 is entrapped and loses its life. A good account of these tragedies is given in 

 "Nature's Garden" by Neltje Blanchan (p. 368), and it forms most instructive 

 reading for the young botanist. Unfortunately, the story is too long to reproduce 

 in this place. 



