352 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



fresh specimen replacing it the moment it was brought 

 in. However, few of our wild flowers require such hasty 

 action as this in that we may secure good photographs of 



them. 



From the geraniums we may pass to such a beautiful 

 group as the typical narcissi, with their cup-shaped coro- 

 nas (Fig. -). There are upwards of twenty species of 

 these, the majority of them falling in the flora of Europe. 

 ITiey are great 

 avorites every- 

 where amoni; 

 the flower cul- 

 turists, as they 

 readily lend 

 themselves to 

 the production 

 of beautiful 

 types all fa- 

 mous for their 

 exquisite frai;- 

 rance. It is 

 well know n 

 that one fine 

 specimen o f 

 narcissus i s 

 sufficient t o 

 perfume a 

 large room 

 and we are all 

 more or less 

 familiar with 

 1 1 s extreme 

 delicacy 

 of odor. Per- 

 fumers have 

 taken advant 

 age of this 

 property and 

 produced from 

 its flowers 

 some of the 

 finest perfumes 

 made, the best 

 oils being ob- 

 tained from 

 Narcissus 

 odorus, culti- 

 vated for this 

 very purpose. 



Returning to 

 the hyacinths, 

 we find that the name of these plants has been loosely 

 applied ; and not only to these but to the grape hyacinth ; 

 the blue iris ; the gladiolus and to the conmion larkspur 

 as well. It has also been applied to a sub-precious stone. 

 Long ago Gray placed our wild hyacinth or Eastern 

 camass in the lily family, stating that it is found grow- 

 ing in rich ground from western Pennsylvania to Minne- 

 sota southward to Texas and Georgia, and he remarks 



that 'This species should be carefully distinguished from 

 the larger-flowered plant of the Northwest which has 

 long passed" under another name in botanical science. 

 In Gray we find the genus created to contain the wild 

 hyacinth, and placed between the genera containing the 

 dog's tooth violet and the Star of Bethlehem the flow- 

 ers of neither of which remind us of the cultivated hya- 

 cinth here shown in Figure 8. The Star of Bethlehem 



is directly fol- 



1 o w 

 Gray, 

 well 

 grape 



e d in 



by the 



known 



hya- 



WILD STONECROP 



Fig. II. This lovely specimen of Stonccrop (Scdum tcnuitum) grew in rocky woods found 

 about VV'ashington;* it is here; seen in full flower. Note the little lady fern often seen 

 growing near it. 



cinth. Dr. F 

 H. Knowlton, 

 the dis t i n- 

 guished Amer- 

 ican botanist, 

 tells us that the 

 hyacinth is 

 originally "a 

 native of the 

 Levant and 

 grows in 

 a b u n d a n ce 

 about Aleppo 

 a n d Bagdad. 

 The root is a 

 tunicated bulb ; 

 the leaves are 

 1) r o a d and 

 green; the 

 scape is erect 

 bearing numer- 

 ous often 

 drooping bell- 

 shaped flowers 

 of almost all 

 colors and both 

 single and dou- 

 ble flowered. 

 The hyacinth 

 appears first to 

 have been cul- 

 tivated as a 

 garden flower 

 Dv the Dutch 

 al)out the be- 

 ginning of the 

 si.xth century 

 It was intro- 

 duced into England about the end of that century, and 

 is now one of the most popular cultivated bulbous 

 plants." 



We have an excellent picture of the well-known or- 

 pine or live-forever in Figure 9, and a picture is shown 

 in Figure 10 of its cultivated relative. It is most inter- 

 esting to note how the flowers and leaves of the former 

 have been changed so as to assume the form they have 



