Zygadenus elegans. Lily Family. 



Stem. Smooth; slender; one to three feet high, from bulb. Leaves. 

 Linear, flat, keeled. Flowers. Greenish- white, panicled. Perianth. Ot 

 six, thin, petal-like sepals, each one marked with a large obcordate gland 

 at base. Stamens. Six. Pistil.- One, with three styles or stigmas. 



Throughout midsummer, in New York and parts of New Eng- 

 land, in wet and, in my experience, rocky places, these pretty 

 lily-like flowers are in their prime. They rejoice especially in 

 the neighborhood of mountain streams. I have found their 

 tufted clusters, wet with the spray of falling water, springing 

 from such moist precipitous rocks as harbor the harebell and the 

 bulbous bladder fern. Indeed, in my mind, they are associated 

 altogether with such remote enchanted spots, where the swift 

 rush of the stream and the notes of the shy wood birds alone 

 break the stillness* 



MEADOW-SWEET. 



[PI. XXXV 

 Spirtza salicifolia. Rose Family. 



Stem. Nearly smooth; two or three feet high. Leaves. Alternate; 

 very broadly lance-shaped ; toothed. Flowers. Small; white or flesh-col- 

 or ; in pyramidal clusters. Calyx. Five-cleft. Corolla. Of five rounded 

 petals. Stamens. Numerous. Pistils. Five to eight. 



The feathery spires of the meadow-sweet soar upward from 

 the river banks and low meadows from July onward. Unlike 

 its pink sister, the steeple-bush, its leaves and stems are fairly 

 smooth. The lack of fragrance in the flowers is disappointing, 

 because of the hopes raised by the plant's common name. This 

 is said by Dr. Prior to be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon mead- 

 wort, which signifies honey-wine herb, alluding to a fact which is 

 mentioned in Hill's " Herbal," that "the flowers mixed with 

 mead give it the flavor of the Greek wines." 



Although the significance of many of the plant-names seeing 

 clear enough at first sight, such an example as this serves to 

 show how really obscure it often is. 



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