ACCORDING TO SEASON 



Ignorance 

 of our 

 native 

 flowers 



dry places, with deep pink-purple flowers which 

 grow in smaller, less spreading clusters than those 

 of the butterfly-weed. The swamp milkweed 

 may be found in nearly all wet meadows. It is 

 described by Gray as " rose-purple," but the finer 

 specimens might almost claim to be ranked 

 among the red flowers. 



The dull pink balls of the common milkweed 

 or silkweed are massed by every road-side now, 

 and are too generally known to need description. 

 The most delicate member of the family is the 

 four-leaved milkweed, with fragrant pale pink 

 blossoms which appear in June on the wooded 

 hill-sides. Although there are eighteen distinct 

 species of milkweed proper, perhaps the above 

 are the only ones which are commonly encoun- 

 tered. Few plant-families add more to the beau- 

 ty of the summer fields. But although its differ- 

 ent representatives are deemed worthy of careful 

 cultivation in other countries — the well-known 

 swallow-worts of English gardens being milk- 

 weeds — 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 perfect 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 



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