IN A WESTERN WOODLAND 



" Nestled at his root 



Is beauty such as blooms not in the glare 

 Of the broad sun. That delicate forest flower 

 With scented breath, and look so like a smile, 

 Seems as it issues from the shapeless mould, 

 An emanation of the indwelling Life." 



A Forest Hymn Bryant. 



Something there is in the perspective of a woodland glade that 

 has a tranquilizing and restorative effect upon the mind. Analysis 

 would -but destroy the charm. And yet, just as one is here 

 aware of a different mental attitude when "far from the madding 

 crowd's ignoble strife," so one must notice the special appeal 

 made by woodland flowers. Usually they are smoother and 

 broader of leaf, more delicately colored, and generally more grace- 

 ful than their kinsmen of the plains. Nor is variety of plant 

 societies lacking. In mixed woods especially, a few steps may 

 take one readily from one type of vegetation to another, the 

 determining factors of the change, of course, being the amount 

 of sunshine finding its way through the foliage and the amount 

 of moisture in the soil. 



In the picture opposite, showing the sloping bank of a wooded 

 ravine, we have in the foreground a rather compact group of 

 spruce trees, and beyond the sunlit aspen forest. In the dense 

 coniferous shade grow mosses and lichens in abundance but 

 flowering plants are few. We may find, however, an odd specimen 

 of the wild sarsaparilla, of the green-flowered wintergreen, the 

 one-sided wintergreen, and small clusters of that curious 

 saprophytic orchid, the early coral-root a plant without leaves, 

 just pale stems bearing small flowers mottled with dull white, 

 yellow, and purple. Moving out into the lighter shade on the 

 edge of the spruce grove we notice flowers of cleaner and brighter 

 colors the pink wintergreen, the dwarf cornel, the fairy bell, 

 and the twin-flower. Under an overhanging bank are lovely 

 soft beds of the oak fern, and lower down a few scattered fronds 

 of the brittle fern. In the more open poplar woods grow colum- 

 bines, geraniums, Canada violets, lungworts, and nodding onions. 

 Going down near the brook, in still more open spaces, we find 

 anemones, fleabanes, and jewel-weeds. In the stream itself 

 are beds of the dainty blue speedwell. 



This list of plants, although by no means complete, will give 

 the reader some idea of the flowers to be found in such a wooded 

 ravine almost anywhere throughout that vast irregular region, 

 stretching from Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains, and lying 

 between the open prairie and the great sub-arctic forest. 



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