AT NATURAL BRIDGE 215 



special profusion : the tall, fragrant white 

 Canadensis^ the long-spurred rostrata^ — 

 of a very pale blue, with darker streaks and 

 a darker centre (like our blue meadow vio- 

 lets in that respect), — and the common 

 palmata. The long-spurred violet was new 

 to me, and both for that reason and for it- 

 self peculiarly attractive. As I passed up 

 the glen on the right of the brook beyond 

 Hemlock Island, so called, carpeted with 

 partridge-berry vines bearing a wondrous 

 crop (" See the berries ! " my notebook 

 says), I began to find here and there the 

 large trillium (71 grandifloruni)^ some of 

 the blossoms clear white, others of a delicate 

 rosy tint. The rosy ones had been open 

 longer than the others, it appeared ; for the 

 flowers blush with age, — a very modest and 

 graceful habit. Like the spurred violet, the 

 trillium is a plant also of northern New 

 England, but happily for my present enjoy- 

 ment I had never seen it there. And the 

 same is to be said of the large yellow bell- 

 wort, which was here the trillium's neighbor, 

 and looked only a little less distinguished 

 than the trillium itself. 



If I were to name aU the plants I saw, or 



