THE MUCH-DESPISED SKUNK CABBAGE EARLIEST OF 



SPRING FLOWERS 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, C.M.Z.S. 



MAJOR, MEDICAL CORPS, U. S. A., MEMBER, L'ALLIANCE SCIENTIFIQUE UNIVERSALLE DE FRANCE 



SHOULD the Middle Atlantic States have been treated 

 to an average winter, with respect to temperature 

 and length, the first evidence of the slackening of 

 its grip upon nature usually begins to be observed, by 

 those who habitually frequent the woods and marshes at 

 all seasons of the year, somewhere along toward the 

 latter part of February. Certain indefinable spring-like 

 fragrances then pervade the air, and the first gratefully 

 warm days of the approaching vernal season are wel- 

 comed by every one who loves the out-of-doors. At thi.? 

 time the first northward-bound phoebes have barely 

 reached the season-tempered valleys of middle Virginia, 

 or the vanguard 

 of purple grac- 

 kles the south- 

 ern banks of the 

 Potomac. No 

 flowers in any 

 way worthy ot 

 the name have 

 yet appeared 

 not even in the 

 sunniest nooks 

 of the forest, 

 much less in the 

 open meadows 

 or along the 

 streams. A par- 

 ticularly ven- 

 turesome hepat- 

 ica may have 

 peeped out 

 among the dead 

 oak and poplar 

 leaves in some 

 especially favor- 

 ed place ; but 

 this is rather to 

 be doubted. Still 

 less would one 

 be likely to meet 

 a spring beauty, 

 although the 

 latter is general- 

 ly a wonderful! v 

 early bloomer. 

 These and others 

 will, neverthe- 

 less, soon be 

 along ; one can scores of them here, fully grown 



feel that their Fig. 3 A shady Virginia swamp 

 , , t full development. The Cinnamor 



advent IS ClOSe other plants are just appearing. 



at hand. Indeed, it was only yesterday that a strider or 

 two were seen skimming over the surface of the little 

 brook, close to its bank, over there at the edge of the 

 woods just as they do all summer long every year and 

 far into the autumn. 



What a change we experience, though, as we enter that 

 very same wood. Passing amidst the leafless oaks, chest- 

 nuts, and poplars, we find our way down the side of a 

 gentle, tree-covered hill, to the boggy morass that lies 

 well within this timbered area. The air is more than 

 chilly, and it by no means carries with it the sense of 

 approaching spring. Beneath your feet there is a heavy, 



overlying carpet 

 of last year's 

 leaves, which the 

 snows of the 

 winter have 

 pretty well pack- 

 ed down. At the 

 margins of the 

 swamp, these 

 leaves are black 

 and soggy, and 

 we notice that 

 the cattle-tracks 

 have a little 

 water in each, 

 frozen here and 

 there at their 

 margins. A cou- 

 ple of crows are 

 keeping up .1 

 dismal cawing in 

 the topmost 

 limbs of a near- 

 by pig-nut hick- 

 ory, while some 

 noisy jays sound 

 an alarm in the 

 thick and shrub- 

 by growth lower 

 down. Over- 

 head, the heav- 

 ens are of a 

 clear blue cold 

 and cloudless a 

 gorgeous back- 

 ground for the 

 half-dozen o r 

 more turkey- 

 buzzards that 

 sail on motion- 



225 



late in April, at a time when the skunk cabbages have attained their 

 fern, that flourishes in such places, is already far advanced, and many 



