FLOWERS OF LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 



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



MAJOR, MEDICAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, HON. MEMBR. ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



THROUGHOUT the entire country, in so far as the 

 United States is concerned, one may truthfully say 

 that during the month of May and far into June, the 

 collector, student, and photographer of our wild flowers 

 certainly has a task on hand of the first magnitude. In 

 the meadows, all through the woods, and along the 

 streams and river-bank, flowering plants, representing 

 hundreds of groups, families, genera, and species, are in 

 evidence everywhere, the whole displaying an array of 

 color and form that, to the eyes of the enthusiastic nature 

 lover, is quite bewildering. 



As you pass through a reach of open woods, you find 



tiful tan carpet below, composed of the dead leaves of 

 the year before. A strong, piney odor in the air is good 

 proof of which kind of tree furnished the great patches 

 of dead leaves on the ground; and where naked areas 

 occur in such woods the crow-foot violets grow in plenty. 

 (Fig. i.) Rarely do they grow close together, but rather 

 in scattered lots, from two or three inches to a yard 

 apart. A few blue violets may be there, too, and what 

 beauties they are ! 



It is high and dry here; and, as the conifers have, to 

 a large extent, shielded the ground from the snows of 

 the winter just past, the carpet of dead leaves is pretty 



TWO OF THE BEST KNOWN SPECIES OF VIOLETS 



Fig. 1. These flowers are among the most beautiful that appear in the early summer, and they are deservedly great favorites with every one. 

 The ones on the right, with dark petals above, are known as the Crowfootviolets (Viola pedata), and on the left we have a single plant of the 

 common Blue violet (.Viola sagittata). 



the tall, straight tulip trees to be in full leaf, and shortly 

 they will be in full flower. In some places they stand in 

 close groups of three or four, while here and there great 

 single ones are seen, each of fine proportions, straight as 

 ramrods, limbless for at least two-thirds of their heights 

 in any case, and topping off at an hundred feet above the 

 ground. Fine oaks and chestnuts also make up this wood, 

 while shade is afforded by the hemlocks and their kind. 

 All these different species of trees grow well apart, but 

 meet overhead to a greater or less degree, and the sunlight 

 struggles through to light up, here and there, the beau- 



much in the same condition as when it was laid down the 

 autumn before. As we pass along to a lower level, how- 

 ever, the dead leaves disappear entirely, or else are to be 

 seen but in soggy, matted, and .wet patches among the 

 tufts of ferns, mandrakes, skunk cabbages, and early 

 grasses. Violets are not to be seen here, but we easily 

 find many of the swamp flowers that bloom in May. 



Further along, the trees are of a greater growth, more 

 symmetrical in outline, and scattered. Here, too, patches 

 of blackberry bramble are massed along the rail fences, 

 and the lay of the land indicates hilly and open ground 



