Midsummer 



blossoms which appear in June on the 

 wooded hillsides. Although there are 

 eighteen distinct species of milkweed 

 proper, perhaps the above are the only 

 ones w^hich are commonly encountered. 

 Few plant-famihes add more to the beau- 

 ty of the summer fields. But although 

 its different representatives are deemed 

 worthy of careful cultivation in other 

 countries — the well-known swallow-worts 

 of English gardens being milkweeds — I 

 doubt if the average American knows even 

 the commoner species by sight, so careless 

 have we been of our native flowers. 



July yields no plant which is more per- 

 fect in both flower and foliage than the 

 meadow lily. It is a genuine delight to 

 wade knee-deep into some meadow among 

 the myriad erect stems, which are sur- 

 rounded by symmetrical circles of lance- 

 shaped leaves and crowned with long- 

 stemmed, nodding, recurved liHes ; Hhes 

 so bell - like and tremulous that such a 

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