THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN 



BY BESSIE L. PUTNAM 



NATURE is most lavish with her blossoms in early 

 springtime, and those who wish to transfer a bit 

 of woodland beauty to the lawn or garden as a 

 permanent decoration will, if care is made in the selec- 

 tion, rarely find her treasures disappointing. We can 

 scarcely expect to grow the woodland ferns on a south- 

 ern exposure, or lovers of the bog in ordinary garden 

 soil; yet there are some ex- 

 ceptions even as surprising 

 as these. However, the most 

 successful collection is made 

 from plants which seem nat- 

 urally to thrive best under 

 conditions nearly identical 

 with those which we have to 

 offer. 



There is great pleasure in 

 growing them, thus being 

 enabled to watch the daily 

 transformations in growth 

 more completely than is usu- 

 ally practicable in their na- 

 tive haunts. Most of them 

 may be transplanted during 

 the season of active growth, 

 though doubtless if they 

 could be located during the 

 dormant season the results 

 might in some cases be bet- 

 ter. Note the character of 

 the soil and the general sur- 

 roundings, duplicating them 

 as far as possible, and in 

 most instances the results 

 will be gratifying. 



The Bloodroot, Sangui- 

 narian Canadensis, common 

 in rich woodlands where it 

 has not been exterminated 

 by professional root diggers 

 for its reputed medicinal 

 value, is in bloom with the 

 crocus and readily adapts it- 

 self to garden culture. It is 

 an interesting as well as 

 beautiful plant throughout; the bright red juice abound- 

 ing in the thick rhizomes and giving to the plant its 

 suggestive name is changed to an orange color in the 

 leaves and stems, even the stamens and pistils being 

 charged with it, and we marvel at the miracle of the 

 spotless petals evolved from the colored fluid. Like 

 its near relative, the poppy, the flowers are ephemeral, 

 but their rare beauty compensates for this disap- 

 pointment. Once planted, it will thrive indefinitely, 



Photograph by Dr. R. W . Shvfeldt. 



BLOODROOT 



One of the most beautiful of our native perennials, and pure whiteness 

 of the petals are in rare contrast to the blood-red stems. 



and is one of our most beautiful native perennials. 

 Only a few days later come the hepaticas, varying in 

 color from the most intense blue or pink through all the 

 intermediate shades to pure white. The leaves are ever- 

 green, renewed in early spring, and this is a valuable 

 plant for a rockery, thriving best and showing its most 

 intense colors when grown in partial shade, though it 



grows fairly well even in 

 sunshine if supplied with 

 moisture. 



The spring beauty, Clay- 

 tonia, is notable as the first 

 plant that Dr. Gray ever 

 tried to analyze; and while 

 he made a little mistake in 

 the species, the only real dif- 

 ference between C. Virginica 

 and C. Caroliniana, the only 

 species of the East, is in the 

 shape of the leaf, his error, 

 corrected later, is not sur- 

 prising. It is easily recog- 

 nized by the carmine-pencil- 

 ed blossoms, the intensity of 

 coloring being largely regu- 

 lated by the amount of shade 

 furnished, though the plants 

 thrive equally in sunshine or 

 shadow. The dark brown, 

 slightly flattened bulbs grow 

 as much beneath the surface 

 as the plant extends above 

 it, a hint to the one who 

 transplants; if care is taken 

 in digging it up not to in- 

 jure the stem it is as easy 

 to grow as an onion. The 

 bulbs are admirably adapted 

 to lawn after the manner 

 of the crocus, since like the 

 latter they die to the ground 

 before the coming of the 

 lawn mower, but not until 

 they have matured seed for 

 an increase of beauty. 

 The same treatment may be given to the Yellow 

 Adder's tongue, Erythronium Americanum, which John 

 Burroughs has poetically styled "fawn lily." There is a 

 two-fold appropriateness in the name, for the erect 

 leaves have well been likened to the ears of a startled 

 deer, while the mottled colors, with a distinct fawn color 

 more or less in evidence on the outside of the miniature 

 yellow lilies, easily suggest the name. The leaves are 

 strangely beautiful, with their satiny sheen, each irregu- 





