YELLOW 



YELLOW ADDER'S TONGUE. DOG'S TOOTH VIOLET. 



Erythronium Americanum. Lily Family. 



Scape. Six to nine inches high ; one-flowered. Leaves. Two ; ob- 

 long-lance-shaped ; pale green mottled with purple and white. Flowers. 

 Rather large ; pale yellow marked with purple ; nodding. Perianth. Of 

 six recurved or spreading sepals. Stamens. Six. Pistil. One. 



The white blossoms of the shad-bush gleam from the thicket, 

 and the sheltered hill-side is already starred with the blood -root 

 and anemone when we go to seek the yellow adder's tongue. 

 We direct our steps toward one of those hollows in the wood 

 which is watered by such a clear gurgling brook as must appeal 

 to every country-loving heart ; and there where the pale April 

 sunlight filters through the leafless branches, nod myriads of 

 these lilies, each one guarded by a pair of mottled, erect, senti- 

 nel-like leaves. 



The two English names of this plant are unsatisfactory and 

 inappropriate. If the marking of its leaves resembles the skin 

 of an adder why name it after its tongue ? And there is equal- 

 ly little reason for calling a lily a violet. Mr. Burroughs has 

 suggested two pretty and significant names. " Fawn lily," he 

 thinks, would be appropriate, because a fawn is also mottled, 

 and because the two leaves stand up with the alert, startled look 

 of a fawn's ears. The speckled foliage and perhaps its flowering 

 season are indicated in the title ''trout-lily," which has a 

 spring-like flavor not without charm. It is said that the early 

 settlers of Pennsylvania named the flower " yellow snowdrop," 

 in memory of their own "harbinger of spring." 



The white adder's tongue, E. albidum, is a species which is 

 usually found somewhat westward. 



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