THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 43 



Mitella diphylla tells of a mitella with two leaves on its 

 flowering stem. One of its dainty flowers suggests a snow 

 'Crystal, though it has but five rays. The gay little Polygala 

 paucifolia comes up in the fence corners and sometime after 

 its purple fringed posies have faded, its leaves assume a purple 

 lining which they retain all winter. In the early spring the 

 old leaves are purple all over, a pleasing change, for most 

 leaves are brightest in autumn. 



A colony of Coptis trifolia, holding its blossoms above 

 a mossy bed, resembles, at a distance, a patch of white violets. 

 The young three-divided leaves go to sleep at night like the 

 clover — the lateral leaflets folding face to face and the ter- 

 minal drooping over them. The little plants are easily over- 

 looked, except in blossom time. Though Tiarella cordifolia 

 gets its second name from its leaves a more striking feature is 

 the raceme of fuzzy flowers, which suggest the common name 

 of foam flower. Two cousins in the plant world, Oakesia 

 sessilifolia and Uvularia perfoliata have similar modest, pale 

 yellow flowers, but the foliage differs as their names tell. Panax 

 trifolhun has three leaves and the leaves are three-divided, 

 sometimes, but often there are five leaflets. Raised above the 

 whorl of leaves, on a naked peduncle, is a small umbel of white, 

 fairy flowers. Gray's Manual says, the tuber "is deep in the 

 ground" but with us it is not so. The tender stem is always 

 eager to leave the nut-like root in the ground, but fingers alone 

 can easily unearth it by digging, not by pulling. 



An erect herb stands at the swamp's edge where it must 

 get wet feet, though the part on which it stands resembles teeth 

 more than feet. The white flowers of Dentaria diphylla soon 

 wither, but the pair of leaves are there all summer. Near a 

 marsh lives Arisaeina triphyllum, a big name for Jack-in-the- 

 pulpit, who is ever greeted with pleasure. One may love all 

 plants but there are some we choose for favorites just as best 

 friends are chosen among mortals. A spring without a Par- 

 son Jack would be like a fall without a mandrake apple. When 



