RUE-ANEMONE (Wind Flower) 

 Anemonella thalictroides (L.) Spacb. 



April On the north slopes of day hills whore the shooting star 



Woods, hills o])eiis its locket-liko hlossoms and hrittle ferns nnourl, 

 and tlie ruby-crowned kin-;lets sinj; their minute songs 

 among the shadl)usli llowers, the nie-anemones eome into their fullest 

 heanty. They are part of a vernal interlude whieh comes between winter 

 and summer, ])art of the picture whieli includes delicacy and airiness and 

 exquisite grace in the turn of a stem, the shape of a small leaf, the grace 

 of a flower. 



There is moi'e substance to a rue-anemone llinn there is to a false 

 rue-anemone; thai is one way to distinguish them there in the spring 

 woods. There are many other dilfeivnees, most of them subtle, yet often 

 the two are misnamed by those who come to find flowers in the spring- 

 time of the yrjii-. 



Kue-ancmone has round-petaled flowers of lavender, ])ink, or white 

 Avith a delicate, yellow-stamened lenter. The llowers st^iud above the 

 whorls of round, tliree-lobed. dark green leallets, and the entire plant of 

 many stems rises from a group of fleshy little rootstocks in the ground. 



Rue-anemones are truly flowers of the sj)ring winds. Wiry as they 

 are, the stems are unbelievably sturdy in the gusty woods of mid-April. 

 When oaks sustain broken boughs or poplars tojjjile, the rue-anemones 

 simply bend and >\\;iy ;intl >t,iiid erect again when tornadoe^s and high 

 winds are past. 



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