FLOWERS OF LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER 



293 



THE SHELL OF THE BOX TURTLE IS OFTEN VERY BEAUTIFUL 



Fig. 9. These three adult, living specimens of Cistudo Carolina were collected in the country around 



Washington. Remarkable differences in coloration are seen to exist, running all the way from yellowish 



white with darker markings, to where the plastron is black, with no markings, as in the one on the right. 



vania, westward. It may grow to be fully six inches 

 high, and it has unusually long, slender runners; its 

 leaves are thin, and notably ovate in outline. The sepals 

 are reflexed, away from the smooth, pointed fruit. 

 On the shining surface of the latter, the seeds 

 are borne, not in pitlets, as in the case of the com- 

 mon strawber- 

 ry, but right on 

 the surface. 

 Another thing, 

 we must note 

 the silvery, 

 p u bescent 

 growth on the 

 nether side of 

 the leaves of 

 this species. 



It may be as 

 well to state 

 that the straw- 

 berries run in- 

 to the very 

 numerous cin- 

 quefoils or five-fingers (Potentilla), which latter are also 

 of the Rosaceae or rose family, and of which there are 

 many species in this country. Botanists generally con- 

 sidered the yellow-blossomed barren or dry strawberry 

 the single spe- 

 cies of the 

 genus Wald- 

 s t einia ( W . 

 f r a g aroides) 

 the plant most 

 nearly related 

 to the cinque- 

 foils ; Small de- 

 scribed a sub- 

 species of it 

 ( W . p arvi- 

 flora). 



Barren straw- 

 berry plants 

 may be found 

 in May and 

 June, in suita- 

 b 1 e localities, 

 from New Eng- 

 land to Georg- 

 ia, especially on 

 wooded, hill- 

 sides, and from 

 thence west- 

 ward, half-way 

 to the valley of 

 the Mississippi. 

 This is the 

 plant we know so well, having yellow flowers, and it is 

 easily distinguished from our common wild one. There 

 are several other strawberries in the eastern United 

 States, but they will have to be described at some other 



WE HAVE SEVERAL SPECIES OF BOX TURTLES THIS 



(Cistudo Carolina) 



Fig. 8. Thestudy of this animal is most interesting and instructive. It lays ellipsoidal, white eggs, 

 which are either hidden under leaves or buried in soft earth. The young are rarely discovered, even 

 when special search is made for them. 



time. The Indian strawberry is one of them (Duchesnea 

 indica), with its red, insipid fruit. This genus was named 

 for Antoine Nicholas Duchesne, an early botanist who 

 published a monograph on the strawberry plant. Then, 

 too, near the close of the Seventeenth century, there 

 lived another writer who devoted himself to Fragaria 



Dr. Robert Sib- 

 bald, at that 

 time a profes- 

 sor at Edin- 

 burgh ; for him 

 the genus Sib- 

 b a I d i a was 

 named. We 

 have another 

 yellow - flower- 

 ed, low straw- 

 berry, which 

 flour ishes in 

 Arctic Ameri- 

 ca, southward 

 to Quebec and 

 the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire, and in the Rockies of 

 Utah, known as Sibbaldia procumbens or Sibbald's 

 strawberry. Another is Chamaerhodos erecta, a west- 

 ern prairie species, with white or purplish blossoms, 



which are 

 c r o w d e d to- 

 gether in small, 

 rounded cymes. 

 In the far 

 West there are 

 probably still 

 others, but they 

 will not be re- 

 ferred to here. 

 One of the 

 most interest- 

 ing plants we 

 have in the At- 

 lantic States is 

 the common 

 Virginia wild 

 ginger (Asara- 

 bacca), seen in 

 Figure 12. It is 

 found in both 

 the Virginias, 

 as far south as 

 Georgia.. There 

 are several oth- 

 er species of it 

 in the Atlantic 

 States, as far 

 south as Florida 

 and northward to Connecticut. We find the Virginia wild 

 ginger in various places in the suburban parts of Wash- 

 ington, in the District of Columbia as well as across the 

 river, in the hilly parts of Virginia. It grows in very 



IS THE COMMON SPECIES 



