5Q4: THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



THE GAYEST OF AMERICAN WILD-ELOWERS. 



NO. II. 



It is important to note the readiness with which many plants in a state of nature 

 adapt themselves to altered circumstances, and on the other hand there are not a 

 few kinds which perish when subjected to positions very little different from those 

 in which their progenitors flourished. A small amount of observation and thought 

 on the part of one placed in a region of country like this would make the 

 statements just made have all the weight they are entitled to; and further, 

 would lead to the conclusion that, so soon as all the original forests of America 

 are removed, the number of species of plants then existing in their country will 

 be very much less than at present. Many are bound to become extinct. At 

 one time the site and all around the site of the present city of Lexington was 

 occupied by cane-brake and timbered land, and during that period many beauti- 

 ful though diminutive forms of vegetation now confined to the few remaining 

 morsels of the " forest primeval " of these parts must have had a wide distribution 

 over the area referred to. The considerations alluded to in the foregoing sentences 

 are of the utmost importance to all engaged in the growing of flowers, as I hope 

 to show in the course of these papers ; and if collectors would take note of the 

 matter, and when sending home especially anything precious, state whether or 

 not it has ever been observed thriving on cultivated or cleared ground, the result 

 would necessarily be the saving of many a valuable life ; for if a thing in its own 

 land cannot exist in the open field unshaded from the sun's brightest rays, I think 

 it is not likely to make any very great show in a land where it is a stranger. 



In rambling through the woods of Kentucky very early in spring, now and then 

 the attention cannot fail to be ai-rested by masses of large buds pushing aside the 

 hard earth and making for the light, and it matters not though the ground be a 

 little frozen. Those buds belong to Podophyllum peltatum, and it is well worth 

 while to pause for a moment to examine them. In the common order of things, 

 if the flower of a plant is terminal, it is protected by scales or some such 

 contrivance whilst making for the open day, but the subject before us 

 presents a well-marked exception to this rule. The blades of the leaves 

 are neatly folded back, and the two opposite petioles stand stiffly side by side, 

 having only space between for the flower-bud. At this stage of the growth of 

 the plant the flower-bud is ahead of everything else, and just as naked as ever it 

 can be, and in this condition it continues until all that has got to come through 

 the soil has done so. That point gained, the foliage begins to lengthen rapidly, 

 and soon overtops the flower-bud and hides it. A lady told me that when she 

 was a child, living at her home in Greenville, in the southern part of this State, 

 she has frequently used the leaves of the May Apple for a parasol. And I 

 must say that the magnificence of the great masses of this plant is calculated to 

 excite the admiration even of one but poorly gifted with an eye for the beauties 

 of vegetable life. Accustomed as I have always been before to glimpses of a 

 poor little bit of a thing receiving the fullest exposure in the open ground, or, 

 worse still, ensconced in a pot intentionally and by order half full of crocks, and 

 "dried off" in the winter time, I was amazed, for I knew not the old friend 

 which I had helped to coddle so much. Horticulturally speaking, and when 

 treated aright, this is bound to be a grand fellow, with its sweet-scented blos- 

 soms opening in May, and its large bright yellow fruit ripening about July. 

 The fruit is eagerly sought for by children, and eaten with much relish. I un- 

 derstand that the "root" yields the principal part of the material for "Helm- 



