124 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



will probably aid in prolonging the life of desirable plants. 

 In their native haunts the species favor rich soil in rocky 

 places and in the garden are frequently planted in the rockery, 

 though they do equally well in any good garden soil. Prac- 

 tically all the species are flowers of spring or early summer. 

 Although the genus is so well known it is likely that there are 

 a number of species still to be discovered. 



WAYSIDE FLOWERS 



By ADEI.I.A Prescott 



/^ NE of the pleasures that automobiles have brought to 

 ^-^ nature lovers who by reason of limited time or strength 

 are unable to spend much time in the field, is an increased 

 knowledge of the distribution of plants. Species that are 

 scarce or even rare in one locality are sometimes quite plenti- 

 ful a few miles distant. In the vicinity of my own home, 

 the quaintly dignified turtle head {Chclone grahra), that 

 lover of low grounds and watersides, is seldom found — so 

 seldom that a little thrill of pleasures comes with the finding 

 of a fine plant — but last summer I was surprised and delighted 

 to find it bordering the ditches and filling the fence corners 

 along a road only thirty miles distant and growing with a 

 luxuriance I had never seen before. 



Bouncing Bet would hardly be expected to cause a thrill 

 under any circumstances but this same free-and-easy denizen 

 of our roadsides gave me a vision of loveliness that rarer 

 flowers might be glad to emulate. One day our road ran 

 parallel to a railroad whose roadbed was fifteen or twenty 

 feet above the level of the highway and for two or three miles 

 the track was b(jrdered with Bouncing Bet which swept down 



