92 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



breast or back, there opening and closing its 

 wings rapidly for a few seconds, then starting 

 out on a short circuit soon to return again. On 

 yesterday I saw its cousin, the woodland butter- 

 fly 32 or pearly eye, a rare species hereabouts, 

 resting on the base of an old stump. Argynnids 

 or fritillaries, freshly moulted and beautiful, 

 are common, flitting here and there close to 

 earth, seeking doubtless some wild violet on 

 which to place their eggs. 



A large flowered mint 33 grows abundantly on 

 the low ground within twenty yards of my tent, 

 while the graceful bishop's cap 34 and branching 

 spikenard 35 o'erhang the ledges near my spring. 

 The Synandra, most handsome of our native 

 mints, formerly grew in abundance in a ravine 

 just north of my old home. It probably flour- 

 ished there during all my boyhood days yet I 

 saw it not. While studying botany in college 

 I first became acquainted with it and many 

 other of our wild-wood flowers and on a visit 

 home was delighted to find the mint in that 

 ravine. The same thing occurred with the snow 

 trillium which grows here in numbers less than 

 half a mile from the old home. 



Nothing is more pleasing in nature than an 

 open woodland pasture on a perfect June day 

 like this. It is the high tide of one of nature ? s 



82 Debis portlandia Fab. w Synandra hispidula Michx. 

 84 Mitella diphylla L. ** Aralia racemosa L. 



