SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 159 



most of the April flowers, and may be found in great 

 profusion in the Rock Creek and Piny Branch region. 



In each little valley or spring run some one species 

 predominates. I know invariably where to look for 

 the first liverwort, and where the largest and finest 

 may be found. On a dry, gravelly, half-wooded hill- 

 slope the birds-foot violet grows in great abundance, 

 and is sparse in neighboring districts. This flower, 

 which I never saw in the North, is the most beautiful 

 and showy of all the violets, and calls forth rapturous 

 applause from all persons who visit the woods. It 

 grows in little groups and clusters, and bears a close 

 resemblance to the pansies of the gardens. Its two 

 purple, velvety petals seem to fall over tiny shoulders 

 like a rich cape. 



On the same slope, and on no other, I go about the 

 1st of May for lupine, or sun-dial, which makes the 

 ground look blue from a little distance \ on the other, 

 or northern side of the slope, the arbutus, during the 

 first half of April, perfumes the wild-wood air. A few 

 paces farther on, in the bottom of a little spring run, 

 the mandrake shades the ground with its miniature 

 umbrellas. It begins to push its green finger-points 

 up through the ground by the 1st of April, but is not 

 in bloom till the 1st of May. It has a single white, 

 wax-like flower, with a sweet, sickish odor, growing 

 immediately beneath its broad leafy top. By the same 

 run grow water-cresses and two kinds of anemones, 

 — the Pennsylvania and the grove anemone. The 



