WILD FLOWERS yellow and orange 



lance-shaped sepals. The bright deep yellow flowers 

 are frequently an inch broad. The five petals are 

 usually oblique or contorted, and are finely notched 

 along one side to the tip, in a singular manner. Their 

 surface is more or less covered with tiny black specks, 

 particularly along the margins. Numerous yellow 

 stamens radiate from the three-pronged, light green 

 pistil, in three sets. The flowers are grouped in several 

 or many open terminal clusters, and they continue to 

 blossom throughout the season. When they first 

 open they are very showy and attractive, but as they 

 fade, the petals wither to a rusty brown. They do not 

 drop off, and consequently lend an unsightly appear- 

 ance to the otherwise beautiful flowers, with which they 

 are freely mingled. St. John's-wort is common in fields 

 and waste places from June to September, but is less- 

 common in the South. It is also native to Asia. 



LONG-BRANCHED FROSTWEED. FROSTWORT. 

 CANADIAN ROCK ROSE 



Helidntbemum canadense. Rock Rose Family. 



The study of wild flowers would become a very 

 dull and monotonous subject indeed, if it were not for 

 the continual panorama of interesting changes that 

 it presents when comparing the characters and habits 

 of one species with those of another, or even of the 

 peculiarities of the same species at different seasons of 

 the year. The Rock Rose, for example, has two sets 

 of flowers, and a description of its flowers made when 

 they first appear would compare ridiculously with a 



147 



