THE MUSEUM. 



77 



After an hour or two spent here, the 

 party returned to the beach. It was 

 determined that thiee men should go 

 off in the skiff, to lighten the load of 

 the ship's boat. The surf was passed 

 without difficult) , but before the skiff 

 had gone far it was seen that she leak- 

 ed so that the men must return to the 

 shore at once or sink. All had pre- 

 pared for a swim by removing their 

 boots, but the beach was reached be- 

 fore the boat sank. Just as all hands 

 were about to spring out and run the 

 boat up beyond the waves, a breaker 

 broke beneath the stern, lifted it high, 

 struck the boat's nose into the sand, 

 and unceremoniously dumped out the 

 passengers The large boat was then 

 launched with no more serious disaster 

 than shipping a few barrels of water, 

 and the ship was reached again with- 

 out trouble. — G. B. G in Forest and 

 Stream, March, 1900 



Winter Botanizing. 



In the early years of my botanical 

 experience, saj s Wm. H. Rich, in 

 December Rhodora, October brought 

 to a close the collecting season, and 

 with the appearance of the Witch- 

 Hazel flowers I thought it useless to 

 continue further exploration. As the 

 Hepatica was to me, in those years at 

 least, the first flower of the year, so 

 the Witch-Hazel was the last. These 

 two species marked the beginning and 

 the end of my botanical calendar For 

 eleven years my note-books show no 

 date later than October 22, but as the 

 seasons came and went subjects of al- 

 luring interest presented themselves, 

 gradually extending the botanical year 

 at both ends, so that now to quote a 

 sentence from Thoreau, "You cannot 

 say that vegetation absolutely ceases 

 at any season in this latitude." 



The late E. H. Hi'chings of inter- 

 esting memory has recorded the fact 

 that "the wild flowers even in this cold 

 region, blossom every month in the 

 year," adding in proof of his statement 

 that he had found the Hepatica in 



flower from September to May, nine 

 consecutive months. Somewhat sur- 

 prised as well as interested by these 

 statements, and with a desire to know 

 for myself the extent to which our 

 plants are found in flower during the 

 winter months, I have during the past 

 few years noted all such as I have seen 

 or that have come to my notice through 

 other observers. It is not of course 

 intended in this article to include cryp- 

 togamous plants, such as mosses, lich- 

 ens, fungi and algae, many of which, 

 indeed, attain their fullest development 

 more abundantly in the winter than in 

 the summer month?. 



That wild-flowers bloom all the year 

 round in New England, though liter- 

 ally true, is a statement obviously to 

 be taken with many qualifications, and 

 it may be remarked that the smallest 

 botanical box will be sufficiently large 

 to hold all that may be found during 

 the months of January and February. 

 The two months just mentioned are, 

 however, the only ones in which flow- 

 ering plants will be found at all scarce. 



Beginning with November let us 

 briefly review the floral conditions ex- 

 isting in eastern Massachusetts during 

 the colder months of the year. In 

 this month plants in flower are so 

 numerous as hardly to excite comment. 

 On a recent excursion, November 13, 

 fifty-one species still in flower were re- 

 corded, and the list might easily have 

 been enlarged by further search. 



In December during the earlier part 

 of the month, should the ground be 

 free from snow and the weather mild, 

 as is frequently the case in this region, 

 numerous plants still lingering in flower 

 can usually be found without much 

 effort. In that delightful sketch, "De- 

 cember out of Doors," by Bradford 

 1 orrey, occurs the fullest list of De- 

 cember flowers that I have yet seen. 

 He records the names of sixteen spec- 

 ies, and to that number I have thus 

 far been able to add but three others, 

 as follows: Hepatica [Hepatica triloba, 

 Chaix), recorded by E. H. Hitchings; 

 Common Dandelion ( Taraxacum offi- 



