88 /r/ZA OK NATIVE FLOWERS 



So numerous are the varieties, that it would be tedious to enumerate 

 them. One of the handsomest is H. strgiosiis, (L. ) The Sun-flowers form 

 one of the distinguishing floral ornaments of the Canadian plains, and 

 of the extensive prairies of the North- West, where miles of Sun-flowers, 

 Rudbeckias, Liatris and other gorgeous flowers — blue, white, red — may 

 be seen all through the hot summer months. The orange and yellow 

 stars of the Helianthus tribe above all most conspicuously apparent. 



The garden Sun-flower may often be met with within the forest, 

 tlie seed having been carried by the Ground-hog or Squirrel, and 

 dropped on the road. 



I have seen little piles of the ripe seed of the garden Sun-flower 

 lying on stumps and rails to dry ; the industrious little gleaners deposit- 

 ing them in such places, to be hoarded at their convenience in their 

 granaries. The same thing may be noticed during the harvest-time 

 near the Wheat-fields. 



I have watched with no little curiosity, the heaps of Wheat left by 

 these little, innocent gleaners, and seen them come with their com- 

 panions to fetch away their newly threshed stores, having first carefully 

 destroyed the germs. Who taught the Squirrel that wise precaution, to 

 prevent the germination of the grain ? 



Many years ago, while living on a wild lot, on the Rice Lake, my 

 son in digging the ground for the construction of a root house, discovered 

 a granary cf a Squirrel, or it might be of a Ground-hog, the Canadian 

 Marmot. A large supply of Indian Corn, Beech-nuts and Acorns, 

 was stored many feet below the surface of the dry sandy soil ; but the 

 eye or germ had been carefully bitten out of each one. 



Dand]':lion — Taraxacum Dens-lcouis, (Desf ) 



The Composite Order presents us with more numerous families of 

 plants than any other, and supplies us with a host of flowers, and also 

 some troublesome weeds, which are of wide diffusion, the winged seeds 

 being borne to great distances, and establishing themselves wherever 

 they chance to alight. Many an un-named flower exists, no doubt, in 

 unfrequented spots, where as yet the foot of man has never trod, — those 

 unfreciucnted wilds where even the hardy lumberman's axe has never 

 been heard, those rugged hills known only to the Eagle and the Falcon ; 

 those deep cedar swamps that afford shelter to the Wolf, the Bear and 

 the Wild-cat, conceal many a graceful shrub and rare plant that one day 

 may be gazed on with admiring eyes by the fortunate naturalist whose 

 reward may possibly be to have his name conferred upon the newly 

 discovered floral treasure. 



