The American Botanist 



VOL. XII. JOLIET. ILL., MAY, 1907. No, 4 



COLLINSIA VERNA. 



BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. 



THERE are certain flowers in every locality whose bloom- 

 ing makes so profound an impression upon the season as 

 to eclipse and put into the back-ground all others that chance 

 to open their flowers at the same time. Sometimes it is the 

 whole country-side that is placed under the spell, again it is 

 only the bits of boggy meadow, the thickets or even the road- 

 sides. Some of the flowers of which this is true readily come 

 to mind as daisies, goldenrod, dandelions, buttercups, bluets 

 and lupines. Most of these, however, become cheap and com- 

 mon by reason of a too lavish display of bloom, but this 

 charge can never be honestly brought against the beautiful 

 subject of this sketch which among the children goes by the 

 names of wild for-get-me-not innocence, and blue-eyed Mary 

 and to scientists is known as Collinsia verna. 



Without having visited Japan we dare say that our 

 woodlands are as well worth a visit at Collinsia season as 

 any oriental wood is when the cherry flowers are unfolding. 

 That we do not make holiday to see this rare sight is a matter 

 of race not of comparative beauty. While the Collinsia is in 

 bloom it is literally true that one cannot enter its favorite 

 haunts without treading on flowers. It is spread as thickly 

 through the woodlands as ever bluets were in a meadow and 

 the two-colored blossoms nodding and swaying in the dappled 

 shade of bush and tree make a sight not soon forgotten. 



^ The flowers are among the oddest of blossoms. They 



