THE FROST- FLOWER 



November jd 



T is called the " frost - weed " in 

 our botany. But when we know 

 that it blooms only in July, and 

 has gone to seed by August, we may 

 well wonder at the christening ; and 

 though the botany clearly tells us why 

 it is so named, it is always a surprise 

 when we first verify it in the fields. 



Properly speaking, we have but one 

 true frost -flower a flower that awaits 

 the season of frost as its chosen period 

 of blossoming and that is the witch- 

 hazel, of which I wrote last week. The chick- 

 weed often blooms beneath the snow in mid- 

 winter, but this is at best a tardy blossom of a plant 

 that bloomed in summer; it is not a true frost-flower 

 like the witch-hazel. The plant which forms the 

 subject of this article is a "frost-flower" in another 

 and more curious sense. 



The botanical name of the plant is Helianthemum 



