WILD FLOWERS WHITE AND GREENISH 



the Bloodroot. The name is very suggestive and has 

 real significance, but in our search to find it, we could 

 hardly be expected to roam about pulling up every 

 strange flower to see if its root is full of blood. It 

 might just as well be called "bloodstem" as its leaf and 

 flower stems have the same " bleeding" habit when they 

 are plucked. Happily, however, many common names, 

 such as Bloodroot, Cardinal Flower, Bluebell, or 

 Wintergreen, really assist in their identification. And 

 so we come upon the Goldthread. Hear the name 

 alone and we might search in vain for this plant unless 

 we happen to uproot it, but the instant we see the bright 

 rootlets, we know why it received its name, and we shall 

 not easily forget it. But imagine looking for wind in 

 the Wind Flower, or for the wind exclusively where this 

 Anemone grows, and for only one Spring Beauty 

 when there are dozens of wild flowers equally deserving 

 the same title. It is right here that scientific classi- 

 fication demands observance, and this subject is thus 

 briefly introduced with the sincere hope that the 

 reader will eventually become deeply interested in its 

 study. The small, solitary, glossy-white flowers of 

 the Goldthread appear from May to August in cool, 

 moist, mossy woods and bogs from Maryland and 

 Minnesota to Alaska. The prominent calyx might 

 easily be mistaken for petals. The sepals are narrow 

 and pointed, white in colour, with a yellowish base, and 

 from five to seven in number. These petal-like sepals 

 soon fall away. The five or six real petals are very 

 small and inconspicuous and are easily confused with 



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