Pink 



get to a whitish hue. . . . They have some smell, but 1 

 cannot say it is very pleasant. However, the beauty of the 

 flowers entitles them to a place in every flower-garden." While 

 our pink azalea could hardly be called "dark red" under any 

 circumstances, it varies greatly in the color of its flowers. 

 The azalea is the national flower of Flanders. 



FRINGED POLYGALA. 



Poly gala paiicifolia. Milkwort Family. 



Flowering-stems. — Three or four inches high, from long, prostrate or 

 underground shoots which also bear cleistogamous flowers. Leaves. — The 

 lower, small and scale-like, scattered ; the upper, ovate, and crowded at the 

 summit. Flowers. — Purple-pink, rarely white; rather large. Keel of Co- 

 rolla. — Conspicuously fringed and crested. Stamens. — Six. Pistil. — One. 



*' I must not forget to mention that delicate and lovely flower 

 of May, the fringed polygala. You gather it when you go for 

 the fragrant showy orchis — that is, if you are lucky enough to 

 find it. It is rather a shy flower, and is not found in every 

 wood. One day we went up and down through the woods look- 

 ing for it — woods of mingled oak, chestnut, pine, and hemlock 

 — and were about giving it up when suddenly we came upon 

 a gay company of them beside an old wood-road. It was as if a 

 flock of small rose-purple butterflies had alighted there on the 

 ground before us. The whole plant has a singularly fresh and 

 tender aspect. Its foliage is of a slightly purple tinge and of 

 very delicate texture. Not the least interesting feature about the 

 plant is the concealed fertile flower which it bears on a subter- 

 ranean stem, keeping, as it were, one flower for beauty and one 

 for use." 



It seems unnecessary to tempt ''odorous comparisons" by 

 endeavoring to supplement the above description of Mr. Bur- 

 roughs. 



2IO 



