CULTUKE OF OUR NATIVE PLANTS. 47 



(his country, but we have in our woods two most beautiful native species, 

 perhaps not so showy, but by no means less worthy of every care and 

 attention. 



Actaea alba and rubra are thus distinguished by Bigelow: "A. rubra — 

 raceme, hemispherical; petals, shorter than stamens, acute; pedicels of the 

 fruit smaller than the peduncles. Actaea alba — raceme, oblong ; petals, 

 equal to the stamens, truncate ; pedicels of the fruit as large as the pedun- 

 cle. 'J'he flowers of both are white, and produced about the end of May; 

 leaves of a dark green, heart-shaped, cut and toothed ; berries shining red 

 and milk-white, according to the species." 



We have seen these plants grown in great perfection in the Botanic Gar- 

 den at Cambridge. Their culture is by no means difficult, and will well 

 repay the amateur. Plants may be removed from the woods, or raised 

 from seed. 



A pretty plant, in its wild state, is our common Geranium, (G. macula- 

 turn.) It grows along every hedge, and nods its pretty purple flowers in 

 the May sunshine. For years we have been icnporting new varieties of the 

 kindred species Pelargonium, and nurture with care in our hothouses the 

 pretty varieties of the delicate Erodium ; but this quite as beautiful and far 

 easier cultivated variety is unnoticed. Nothing can be more ornamental 

 than a clump of this variety in the flower border. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in abundance, and vary in color from pink to dark purple. We 

 once met with a plant which produced blossoms almost pure white, but 

 considered it the efiect of a shady situation rather than a peculiar habit 

 of the plant, but we have since regretted we did not transplant it to the 

 garden. By cultivation, the plant increases greatly in size ; the flower 

 stools become more numerous, and, though we have never seen single 

 blossoms larger in the cultivated state, yet much might be done in this 

 way by careful culture. 



Aquilegia canadensis is another plant greatly improved in size by culti- 

 vation, though the individual flowers remain unclianged. Among all our 

 choice varieties of Columbine, we have none that can equal this, our native 

 variety, in symmetry of form or richness of color. Though often exceeded 

 in size, and never, to our knowledge, rendered double by cultivation, yet 

 we would choose this above all the Columbines for grace and beauty. 

 What a field for hybridization between our garden species and this variety 

 is open, and yet, if attempted, we have never met with any results. Will 

 not some amateur experiment in this direction ? 



One of our earliest flowers of spring is the Bloodroot (Sanguinaria cana- 

 densis), a little gem of a blossom. Eirly in May it pushes up its bud, 

 sheathed in the folding leaf; a day of warm sunshine and the flower is 

 open, and the white petals seem to fold the golden stamens as if to siiield 

 them from injury. Though by no means a conspicuous flower, it is well 

 worth a place in the flower garden, if for nothing else because it is one of 

 the first flowers to wake from tlie sleep of winter. In the latter summer 

 months the leaves grow large and spreading, so as to seem to belong to 

 another plant. The seed capsules are very curious, and the seed is en- 



