Midsummer 



blossoms which appear in June on the 

 wooded hillsides. Although there are 

 eighteen distinct species of milkweed 

 proper, perhaps the above are the only 

 ones which are commonly encountered. 

 Few plant-families add more to the beau- 

 ty of the summer fields. But although 

 its different representatives are deemed 

 worthy of careful cultivation in other 

 countries the well-known swallow-worts 

 of English gardens being milkweeds I 

 doubt if the average American knows even 

 the commoner species by sight, so careless 

 have we been of our native flowers. 



July yields no plant which is more per- 

 fect in both flower and foliage than the 

 meadow lily. It is a genuine delight to 

 wade knee-deep into some meadow among 

 the myriad erect stems, which are sur- 

 rounded by symmetrical circles of lance- 

 shaped leaves and crowned with long- 

 stemmed, nodding, recurved lilies ; lilies 

 so bell - like and tremulous that such a 



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