SHOOTING STAR; AMERICAN COWSLIP 



Dodecatheon pauciflorum (Durand) Greene 

 PRIMROSE FAMILY 



The Shooting Star is one of the most interesting and beautiful 

 of our wild flowers, whether we consider in detail its form and 

 color or its general effect on the June landscape. It grows in 

 wet meadows and the bright blossoms dancing above the grass 

 are a delightful sight. Even as with Wordsworth's daffodils 

 "A poet could not but be gay, 

 In such a jocund company," 

 and those of us who are not poets can also feel our hearts fill with 

 pleasure and dance with the sprightly Shooting Stars. Although 

 one may sometimes see ten thousand at a glance, they do not 

 form a solid mass of color but are so scattered as to retain the 

 effect of lightness and grace. 



The habit of the plant is shown by the picture. From the 

 smooth, light green leaves rise the scapes six to fifteen inches 

 high, carrying in umbel-like clusters three to ten or more nodding 

 flowers. With their reflexed and twisted corolla-lobes, they re- 

 semble their relative, the cyclamen, of the greenhouse, but are 

 much more slender and dainty. The color is a bright purple, 

 almost cerise, with the throat showing ;i pretty combination of 

 white and yellow with an encircling wavy line, narrow but sharply 

 defined, of dark purple. The stamens closely surround the slender 

 style giving a tapering point to this quaint, winged blossom. 

 A fragrance, as of hyacinths, completes the charm. 



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