PINK 



TWIN-FLOWER. 



[PI. LXXXV 

 Linnaa borealis. Honeysuckle Family. 



Stem. Slender; creeping and trailing. Leaves. Rounded; evergreen. 

 Flowers. Growing in pairs ; delicate pink ; fragrant ; nodding on thread- 

 like, upright flower-stalks. Calyx. Five-toothed. Corolla Narrowly 

 bell-shaped; five-lobed ; hairy within. Stamens. Four; two shorter than 

 the others. Pistil. One. 



Whoever has seen 



" beneath dim aisles, in odorous beds, 



The slight Linnaea hang its twin-born heads," 



will not soon forget the exquisite carpeting made by its nodding 

 pink flowers, or the delicious perfume which actually filled the 

 air and drew one's attention to the spot from which it was ex- 

 haled, tempting one to exclaim, with Richard Jefferies, " Sweet- 

 est of all things is wild-flower air!" That this little plant 

 should have been selected as " the monument of the man of 

 flowers" by the great Linnaeus himself bears testimony to his 

 possession of that appreciation of the beautiful which is supposed 

 to be lacking in men of long scientific training. I believe that 

 there is extant at least one contemporary portrait of Linnaeus in 

 which he wears the tiny flowers in his buttonhole. The rosy 

 twin-blossoms are borne on thread-like, forking flower-stalks, and 

 appear in June in the deep, cool, mossy woods of the North.* 



SPRING BEAUTY. 



Claytonia Virginica. Purslane Family. 



Stem. From a small tuber ; often somewhat reclining. Leaves. Two ; 

 opposite ; long and narrow ; Flowers. White, with pink veins, or pink 

 with deeper-colored veins ; growing in a loose cluster. Calyx. Of two 

 sepals. Corolla. Of five petals. Stamens. Five. Pistil. One, with 

 style three-cleft at apex. 



* They are also found occasionally until the fall. Late one September I 

 received 2i cluster which had just been gathered on the shores of Saranac Lake 

 in the Adirondacks. 



198 



