lAOprintfd, witlioiU cli.-iiiiii' cjf |i;iniiijr, fr<ini the JoniXAL oF TiiE New York 

 FSOTAXUAi, (iAKDK.v 30: i!0!i-21]. /)/. oOi. Sc'i.tciiihcr, 1i)2!». 



WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION^ 



14. " Virginia Cowslip " or " Bluebells " 

 [Mertensia virginica (L.) DC] 



( With plate 304) 

 This is one of the most beautiful members of the Borage Fam- 

 ily, which includes also the Forget-me-nots and that attractively 

 repellent weed, naturalized from Europe, the "Blueweed" or 

 "Viper's Bugloss." The exquisite delicacy and grace of their 

 pendent clusters of flowers and their dainty coloring, varying 

 from pink in the bud to pale blue when fully opened, render this 

 one of the most attractive of our American wild flowers. Their 

 beauty has only recently begun to be appreciated and at last they 

 have been discovered by our commercial dealers and the "fash- 

 ionable, feminine landscape architects." This may spell their 

 decimation or doom, for the commercial supplies all come from 

 wild sources, and, as far as we know, no one has attempted, in 

 the trade, to raise them from seed. Eight North American spe- 

 cies of Mertensia have been described, ranging from Hudson Bay 

 to Alaska, and in the Rocky Mountains from Colorado and Utah, 

 south to Wyoming and New Mexico. Our eastern species occurs 

 from Ontario to Minnesota, south to Nebraska and Kansas and 

 seems to be more abundant in the Middle States, in Ohio, Illinois, 

 and Indiana. Though fine illustrations, like the one accompany- 

 ing this article, have been made from photographs taken in Penn- 

 sylvania, we know of only one station near New York City where 



1 Illustrated by the aid o£ the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of 

 Native Plants. The last previous number (Jour. New York Bot. Gard. 

 23: 137, 138. pi. 277. 1922) of this series was erroneously numbered 14. 



209 



