288 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



as saponin. This, when inhaled, will cause one to sneeze 

 most violently; and as the saponin is entirely soluble in 

 water, it has a most deleterious effect when taken into 

 the system, producing a very unpleasant disease which 

 may become chronic. Therefore, ground-uij Com Cockle 

 seed will ruin all kinds of flour of which we make bread. 

 The very mention of the name Corn Cockle will set a 

 miller's teeth on edge, and is likely to call forth some 

 pretty strong language. The plant may grow to be a 

 yard or more high; it is fertilized by certain moths and 



or Grass, Snake flower, and Bluc-lhistle. Authors also 

 give Blue-Devil, Blue- Violet, and so on. It ranges from 

 New England southward, being abundant in some local- 

 ities, but more than scarce in others, especially as we pro- 



YOUNG OF ONE OP OUR FAVORITE SONGSTERS 



Fig. 4. — There are other living things to be found in the woods in May beside 

 flowers, and those frequently in the open will be sure to meet the one when out 

 for the other. Indeed, botanizers cannot go far afield in May, in most sections 

 of the country, without coming across various young birds that hatch out during 

 that month. The one here shown is the young of our favorite thrush, the Wood 

 Thrush {Ilylocichla mustdina) , that grand songster which enlivens the wood- 

 lands with his ringing, bell-like notes as the sun ncars the horizon during the 

 entire month of May, not to say far into the summer. There arc other beautiful 

 thrushes in our avifauna related to the Wood 'I brush, while the Robin. Brown 

 Thrasher, and Catbird are near allies. 



butterflies, and especially by the night-flying moth Di- 

 anthcccia, the larvae of which subsist upon its unripe seeds. 

 In the Borage family {Boraginacece) we have another 

 beautiful plant that was introduced from Europe several 

 centuries ago, strictly speaking, from England, along 

 about 1683, at a time when it was nearly exterminated 

 there. Reference is made to the elegant " weed " generally 

 known as Viper's Bugloss, a splendid specimen of which 

 is here shown in Figure 3. This is the Echium mdgare of 

 the botanists, and it receives its name Viper from a writer 

 of ancient history, Dioscorides, who apparently was the 

 first to note the resemblance to a snake's head in the side 

 view of the flower. Since then, many vernacular names 

 have been bestowed upon it, as Blue- Weed, Viper's Herb 



FINE EXAMPLE OF A WILLOW IN BLOSSOM 



Fig. 5. — The Willow family (Salicacea) is a very puzzling oftc to study. There 

 arc many varieties and species of them in this country, and they not infrequently 

 hybridize. Most of them flower out quite early, as the one here shown, which 

 exhibits the flowers of the Silky Willow (Saiix sericea), a large shrub growing 

 in wet places from New Brunswick southward to North Carolina, and westward 

 to Michigan. The side view of the large American moth here shown is a speci- 

 men of a female "Spice-bu,sh Silk-moth (.Callommia fromethen), which emerged 

 from its cocoon in the writer's study early in the spring. Holland, in his Moth 

 Book, says; "Every country boy who lives in the Atlantic States is familiar 

 with the cocoons, which in winter and spring he has found hanging from the 

 twigs of the spice-bush, the sassafras, and other trees. As they dangle in the 

 wind they are easily detected, though they are often wrapped in the dead leaf 

 in which the caterpillar tiriginally spun them." (Pp. 84, 8.S.) 



cccd southward. Laic in May or earh- in June wc may 

 fiml it in bloom as far .south as southern Maryland. Along 

 railroad tracks are good places to search for it. Alice 

 Loun.sberry says: "When growing along the roadsides, 

 its extreme hairiness attracts an immense amount of 

 dust, and not until it has been shaken, or washed oft", is 

 the prcttiness of the blossoms seen." 



