216 VIRGINIA 



even all that attracted my particular notice, 

 tlie non-botanical reader would quit me for 

 a tiresome chronicler. Hepatica and blood- 

 root had dropped their last petals ; but 

 anemone and rue anemone were still in 

 bloom, with cranesbill, spring beauty, rag- 

 wort, mitrewort, robin's plantain, Jack-in- 

 the-pulpit, wild ginger (two thick handsome 

 leaves hiding a dark-purplish three-horned 

 urn of an occult and almost sinister aspect), 

 two or more showy chickweeds, two kinds of 

 white stone-crop (^Sedum ternatum and S. 

 Nevii, the latter a novelty), mandrake 

 (sheltering its precious round bud under an 

 umbrella, though to-day it neither rained 

 nor shone), pepper-root, gill-over-the-ground 

 (where did it come from, I wondered), 

 Dutchman's breeches (the leaves only). 

 Orchis sjoectahilis (which I did not know 

 till after a few days it blossomed), and 

 many more. A new shrub — almost a tree — 

 was the bladder-nut, with drooping clusters 

 of small whitish flowers, like bunches of 

 currant blossoms in their manner of growth 

 and general appearance ; especially dear to 

 humble-bees, which would not be done with 

 a branch even while I carried it in my hand. 



