Prairie-Flowers . 3 1 



pause long by this " thing of beauty," so crystalline, so fresh from the bosom 

 of spring. Take it to the garden ? You must take with it, then, all that 

 goes to make up its habitat, or vain will be your labor. In pleasing con- 

 trast appear, just above, the dark tufts of that botanical oddity, the wild 

 ginger {Asarum Canadetise), whose solitary flower, a stout, tawny bell, hangs 

 queerly enough underneath the big, rough-looking, orbicular leaves. Inter- 

 mingled all around are pretty clumps of Greek Valerian {Folemonium rep- 

 tans), with bells of blue ; the straggling vetch ( Vicia CaroUniana), gracefully 

 supporting its white-and-purple-crowned peduncles by clinging tendrils; half 

 the nice family of bellworts ( Uvulai-ia), with drapery-like flowers of greenish 

 yellow and creamy hue ; trilliums {T. sessile), with spotted leaves and dark 

 petals; troximons [T. cusp ida turn), bright with yellow bloom on naked 

 scapes; and the early avens {Geum verniim), and delicate rue-anemone 

 {Thalictrum ane/nonoldes) nodding eveiy where. Down near the brook we 

 are startled by coming suddenly upon a curious brotherhood of bloom, — In- 

 dian turnip [Arisce/na triphyllum) and green-dragon {A. Draconiium). Half 

 the family of toothworts {Deniaria), purple and white, rejoice on these green 

 banks ; and beyond, in the bog, the blue-flag {Iris versicolor) sports its 

 sightly banners: but the loveliest thing of them all is the arethusa {A.bulbo- 

 sa), most elegant of pink-purple flowers, fragrant, and gracefully upborne on 

 a slender scape. 



May is far advanced. We will visit these mound-like elevations out on 

 the skirts of the prairie. They are gravelly, thinly overspread on the sum- 

 mit with finest mould, deepening towards the base. Innumerable violets 

 ( Viola pedata) of vigorous growth, with many-parted leaves and large lilac- 

 purplish flowers, sweet-scented and very showy, are wide outspread all over 

 these smooth surfaces ; sprinkled among them are bunches of yellow and 

 bright orange puccoons {Liihospermum hirtum and L. catiescens) ; tussocks 

 of the large-flowering painted cup ( Castilkja sessiliflora), of inconspicuous 

 bloom, are scattered here and there ; and leafy rock-avens ( Geum triflorum), 

 with right regal plumes. 



Now we are down among the American cowslips {Dodecatheofi Meadia). 

 Thousands of drooping umbels of pretty dart-like flowers greet the view 

 along these lower slopes ; and we linger to enjoy the fair array, till sud- 

 denly our eye fixes on another object of marked dissimilitude, — a group of 



