BLUE-EYED MARY i Baby Blue Eyes) 



Collinsia verna Nutt. 



May Tt is May. 'V\\r hilly woods are full of drifts of lavender 



Hilly woods plilox, with the last of the spring beauties and the yellow 

 of hellwoit. The oaks are puttin'T out new little velvet 

 leaves which now arc pale pink and white and carmine, snuiU, as if cut 

 out in miniature liom soft velvet. Birds are eveiywhere now ami tlie 

 morning chorus of song lias gi'own to the proportions of that splendid 

 annual spring concert which nuikes the mornings memorable. 



In certain hill woods in Illinois there are hosts of little blue and 

 white flowers which blossom lor a little while mid I hen are gone into the 

 ol)]ivion into which spring llowers go when their time is up. 



'J'hese are the blue-eyed Marys or ("oUinsias. Animals, they come np 

 from seeds dropped tlie sunmu'r before and ])roduee thin, easily wilting, 

 little green ])lants with opposite, stemless leaves. The flowers appear 

 at the tops of the stalks, and in its flowers the Collinsia is rescued from 

 oblivion or ordinariness to which its sim])le, weak plant might condemn 

 it. F(U' the llow«'rs arc the soi't to make pcoi)le exclaim when tlu'y iirst 

 find them, flowers to make any woods exciting. 



The flower is deeply chM't in five, though it a))]>ears to be two petals 

 abov(> and two below. Th(» ui)|)er are creamy white, the lower bright 

 gentian blue marked with white lines. In whorls around the stem these 

 bright flowers bloom briefly while spring is at its height. 



The violet collinsia {Collinsia riolorca) abounds in rich sandy soil 

 from Arkansas to Texas, and in Illinois it occurs in two small stands 

 in Shelby County. The ui)per lip of the corolla is whit*' or nearly white, 

 the lower deep violet. 



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