ANEMONE PATENS. NUTTALL S PASQUE-FLOWER. 5 I 



"There is a power, a presence, in the woods, 

 A viewless Being, that with life and love 

 Informs the reverential solitude. 

 The rich air knows it, and the mossy sod. 

 Thou, Thou art there, my God ! 

 The silence and the sound 

 In the low places breathe alike of Thee ; 

 The temple twilight of the gloom profound, 

 The dew-cup of the frail Anemone.''' 



The Anemone patens is indeed among the frailest of flowers, 

 but it is not often found in the : ' reverential solitude " of lonely 

 woods. It seems to prefer more exposed situations, and the 

 writer of this never observed in it any nearer approach to a 

 wood-loving habit than the fact that it grows under the scattered 

 pine-trees of the Rocky Mountains. 



Among the closely allied species of Europe and Asia many 

 beautiful colored varieties have been found which commend 

 themselves to the cultivator ; but in this country we have noted 

 only the one shade represented in the plate, although Don says 

 there is a cream-colored variety here. 



The same author also states that the prairie dogs are very 

 fond of the early flowers. This is a singular taste, and we may 

 well wonder, if the report be correct, what they find enjoyable 

 in them, more especially when we consider the bad reputation 

 which the plant had in times gone by. An old writer speaks of 

 it as follows : " The Herb, Flower, or Root being taken inwardly 

 in Substance, are without doubt deleterious, or deadly: It kills 

 by making the Patient look Laughing all the while, whence it 

 obtained the Name of Apium Risus (Laughing Parsley). And 

 yet notwithstanding the Standers-by, or lookers-on, may think 

 that the Patient is really a Laughing, or in a Laughing Humour, 

 there is indeed no such thing. It only by its Poisonous qual- 

 ities hurts the Senses and Understanding, thereby causing 

 Foolishness ; and Convulsing the Nerves, especially of the 

 Mouth, Jaws, and Eyes, draws them this way and that way, and 

 sometimes in a manner all ways, making the sick seem to the 



