NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



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seem to spread and multiply as freely as in its native soil. 

 It is one of our most lovely native Spring flowers. It is a 

 pity that, with the march of civilization, we shall soon lose 

 its fair pure blossoms. It is easily cultivated, and repays 

 care by the increase in size of the flowers, ripening the 

 seeds perfectly and freely. 





 TALL BUTTERCUP Ranunculus acris (L.). 



We see in Canada this old familiar meadow-flower of our 

 childhood bright and gay, growing abundantly in low wet 

 pasture lands, where it becomes to the eye of the farmer a 

 troublesome, unprofitable weed, rejected by the cattle for 

 its bitter, acrid qualities. Yet it is pleasant to meet its 

 old familiar face in a foreign land, where often the sight 

 of some simple flower will awaken tender recollections of 

 early scenes of sunny grassy meadows, where we wandered 

 in days of thoughtless childhood, free of care as the lark 

 that carolled above our heads in the glad sunshine; happy 

 days brought back to memory in all their freshness by the 

 sight of a simple yellow Buttercup blossoming in Canadian 

 wilds and wastes, despised and rejected by others but 

 precious to the heart of the lonely immigrant, who hails 

 it as a tiny link between himself and his early home life. 



EARLY CROWFOOT Ranunculus fascicularis (Muhl.). 



This native species of Ranunculus is one of our earliest 

 spring flowers. It grows low and spreading to the ground, 

 the hairy foliage giving a hoary tint to the divided coarsely- 

 cut leaves; the blossoms are of a pale yellow color, not as 

 large as the common Buttercup. The root is a cluster of 

 thick fleshy fibres. 



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