WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 



their vernal foliage, the flower stalks press through the 

 leafmould with the buds snugly enfolded in a delicate 

 silvery, paper-like leaf that seems to serve like the 

 cape of a debutante, from which emerges the single, 

 stately bud, corsaged in a two-parted green calyx. 

 While the leaf is expanding, the bud continues to rise 

 for several inches, and then, fully developed, sud- 

 denly bursts open, dropping its calyx and exposing 

 its six, eight or more beautiful, snowy white petals, 

 and a brilliant golden yellow centre of some twenty 

 odd pyramided stamens. The petals are long, narrow 

 and taper at either end. The alternating inner four 

 are distinctly narrower than the outer ones, and form 

 a square, rather than a perfectly round outline. On 

 bright, sunny days the lovely, solitary blossom expands 

 almost flat, and the tips of the petals curve upward 

 with a graceful tilt. They close at night, and remain 

 partly folded on dull days. They are very fragile, and 

 of few days' duration. Wind and rain are their undoing 

 and unless closely watched for, they are more than 

 likely gone to seed ere their beauty has been observed. 

 The blossom is often an inch and a half broad and 

 is sometimes tinted with pink. Soon after the flower 

 is spent the leaves reach the height of ten or twelve 

 inches, and a narrow, pointed seed pod matures in 

 their shadow. The pale, yellow green stems are tinged 

 with red. The leaves, usually two, or often one, are 

 large, coarse-looking, and rounded, deeply lobed or 

 heart-shaped at the base, and toward the end more or 

 less indented, with from one to five smaller lobes, 



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