BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 



Ontario and Minnesota, south to North Carolina, 

 Ohio and Michigan. 



ROBIN'S PLANTAIN. POOR ROBIN'S PLANTAIN. 



ROSE PETTY. ROBERT'S PLANTAIN. 



BLUE SPRING DAISY 



Engeron pulchellus. Thistle Family. 



The Blue Spring Daisy would seem to be a sort of 

 favourite name for this earliest of the Aster or Daisy- 

 like flowers. It is found in the grass in damp fields and 

 on hillsides or banks along woodland borders, where 

 the direct sunlight is broken into shaded spots. It 

 flourishes in scattered communities, and blooming as 

 it does, from April through June, it is not likely to be 

 confused with any of the later-flowering Asters, which 

 it strongly suggests. One can tell this species from an 

 Aster by its hairy surface, and also by the rosette of 

 basal leaves noticeable characteristics which the 

 Asters do not possess. It is a perennial, and may be 

 found in the same locality year after year, where it 

 increases by stolens and offsets. The singular, hairy, 

 light green stalk is thick and juicy, and rises from ten to 

 twenty inches high, from a rosette of leaves. It is 

 hollow, grooved and sparingly leafy. The flowers 

 are rather large and pleasing, and several of them are 

 borne in a terminal flat-topped cluster. They are 

 Daisy-like in design, with a bright yellow centre of 

 many small disc florets, surrounded with a finely cut 

 fringe of ray flowers of a light bluish purple. The 

 latter colour varies greatly, and often it is faded white. 



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