PHLOX SUBULATA. MOSS-PINK. 7 I 



find some which seem to have opened under the snow, like cer- 

 tain kinds of plants in the Alps of Europe, which, according to 

 Kerner, blossom under similar circumstances. 



Many Phloxes die completely back to the ground, but this 

 one trails or creeps along on the surface, keeping its leaves as 

 green as moss, and indeed, from this character, has obtained the 

 name of " Moss-Pink." It is also called " Mountain-Pink " and 

 " Ground-Pink " ; but the two last names are, perhaps, used only 

 by those " who gather wild flowers," for the commonest garden 

 name is "Moss-Pink." The "Moss" is appropriate enough. 

 " Pink," however, does not properly belong to this genus, but to 

 Dianthus, or that family to which the Carnation belongs. It is, 

 doubtless, one of the true Pinks to which Wordsworth refers 

 when he says, — 



" The wild pink crowns the garden wall, 

 And with the flowers are intermingled stones, 

 Sparry and bright, rough scattering on the hills." 



At any rate, Wordsworth's plant is not a Phlox, as this does 

 not grow wild in Europe ; but our Moss-Pink grows in our 

 country under such similar circumstances, and the flower itself 

 is so like to the real pink of the poet, that the quotation seems 

 to be quite appropriate. All throughout the New England 

 States it delights to grow on rocky hillsides ; but as it wanders 

 south, according to Chapman, it takes to low, sandy places. It 

 is found wild in all the States south of New York to Florida, 

 and west to Michigan and Mississippi. In the Rock}' Moun- 

 tains and thence westward, its place is taken by other cajspitose 

 forms which are indirectly allied to it. One species some- 

 what similar also occurs in Siberia, and this is the only one 

 found outside of the United States. 



Writers on medicine have nothing to say about the Moss- 

 Pink, but it has succeeded in attracting the attention of philoso- 

 phers, for Mr. Darwin gives it a special notice in his " Forms oi 

 Flowers." Dr. Gray had noticed that the plant was hcterostyled; 

 that is to say, had the pistils in some plants shorter than in others. 



