FEBRUARY AND PLANT-LIFE STILL SLEEPS IN NORTHERN CLIMES 871 



we often meet with the Thimble-weed, 

 the plant having gone to seed at this 

 season. (Fig. 5.) Many of us know 

 it as the common tall anemone of the 

 waste places, roadsides and brakes along 

 the margins of the woods. Mathews 

 says: "The flowers generally have five 

 inconspicuous sepals, white or greenish 

 white inside and greener outside; the 

 flower-head, usually one inch or less 

 across, is succeeded by the enlarged fruit- 

 head similar in shape to and about as large 

 as a good-sized thimble." Honeybees 

 and bumblebees are the insects chiefly 

 responsible for the fertilization of the 

 Thimble-weed's flowers ; but they are as- 

 sisted in this by some very brilliant little 

 flies (Syrphidae) , which one may easily 

 detect by watching the flowers when they 

 bloom, about the middle of June and 

 later to include August. We have a pret- 

 ty long list of anemones in our flora, and 

 they are all regarded with great affec- 

 growing A in LI wet IS meadow L s L or along tion b y those who love the woods and 

 '- ND c^ RS Li A n L E L fiel ds- Our revered Professor Gray tells 



THEY BELONG 



WITH OTHER SPECIES, 

 TO THE LILY FAMILY. 



Fig. 8 Numerous species of Wild 

 Onions or Garlic (Allium) occur in 

 our eastern flora. This is Allium 

 canadense, the specific name being 

 the old Latin one for garlic. 



Greek and Latin derivation, 

 "a corruption of Naman,the 

 Semitic name for Adonis, 

 from whose blood the crim- 

 son-flowered Anemone of 

 the Orient is said to have 

 sprung." 



Sometimes we find the 

 seeded Thimble-weed heads 

 sticking up above the snow 

 in the middle of the winter, 

 or even when the snow is 

 melting in the early spring. 

 During this part of the 

 year, too, the alder bushes 

 along our streams and 

 borders of our marshlands 

 appear as they are here 

 illustrated in Figure 6. This 

 is the common or Speckled 

 Alder, also called the Hoary 

 Alder (Alnus incana). 

 Commonly it is a shrub, 

 while on the other hand 

 some specimens may grow 

 to become so tall and big as 

 to really demand being rele- 

 gated to the tree class. The 



,. t i. .1 . r rmuuMll.1 Wl Mill Wllrl 



us that the name Anemone is of ancient ples of the tall thistle (Cirdum aitis- 



simum) THAT HAVE GROWN 

 TO BECOME TEN FEET IN 

 HEIGHT; HERE IS A MARY- 

 LAND SPECIMEN THAT WAS 

 FULLY THAT TALL 



Fig. 9 Thistles, of which we have 

 a great many species, belong to the 

 Compositae. In their relations they 

 stand next to the much smaller 

 genus of Burdocks (Arctium), the 

 flowers of which have a thistle- 

 like appearance. 



one in the cut that is its 

 twigs were taken from a 

 "shrub" fully ten feet in 

 height. It is well known in 

 the dendroflora of many 

 parts of Europe, and the 

 ancient Latins bestowed the 

 name of Alnus upon it. We 

 have several species of these 

 alders in our country, as 

 the Smooth Alder (A. 

 rugosa), the Black Alder 

 (A. vulgaris) which is a 

 tree sure enough and the 

 Seaside Alder, which is 

 likewise a small tree. This 

 last species is only found in 

 Delaware and Maryland, 

 not far from the Atlantic 

 coast-line; it has also been 

 discovered in Oklahoma (A. 

 iistles grow so close together sometimes, that one maritima). Then there is the 



CANNOT PASS AMONG THEM EXCEPT AT THE RISK OF MANY Oepn nr Mniinr-aJn AlA~r- 

 PAINFUL PUNCTURES FROM THEIR STRONG SPINES K " ul iviuunuuii ruuer 



Fig. 10-This is a late autumn or early winter group of common thistles; ^' cns P a ) an d the Downy 



rn d airother nt p D artic U ula a r d . mir<! ** fr " iting "" ' h Ugh "" P ' ant ffend ' Green - th e AlnUS mollis. 



