NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



dark bluish green. The stem is simple and bends grace- 

 fully. The flowers, notwithstanding the name, are mostly 

 solitary. Our woods hide within their shades many a 

 lovely flower seen only by the Indian hunter and the back- 

 woods lumberer or the axe man; by the former they are 

 noted for some medicinal or healing quality, by the latter 

 they are trodden under foot, while to the uneducated settler 

 whose business it is to clear the forest land of the trees and 

 wild productions of the soil, on which the life-supporting 

 grain and roots are to be sown or planted, . these natural 

 beauties have no value or charm, and he says, " Cut them 

 down, why cumber they the ground." In these things he 

 sees not the works of the Creator; they are, in his eyes, 

 " weeds, weeds, weeds, nothing but weeds." 



Our Bellworts and Trilliums, Smilacinas and Orchids are 

 among the most interesting and attractive of our native forest 

 flowers, but as the woods are levelled and the soil changed 

 by exposure to the influence of the elements and the intro- 

 duction of foreign plants, these native beauties disappear, 

 and soon the eye that saw and marked their lovely forms 

 and colors will see them no more. 



MAY-APPLE MANDRAKE Podophyllum peltatum (L.). 



(PLATE VI II.) 



The Mandrake, or May-apple, is found chiefly in the rich 

 black soil of the forest, where partially clear of underwood; 

 in such localities it forms extensive beds. When the broad 

 umbrella-like leaf first breaks the soil, early in May, it 

 comes up closely folded round the simple fleshy stem, in 

 color of a deep bronze or coppery hue, smooth and shining, 

 but assuming a lighter shade of green as it expands. The 

 blossom appears first as a large round green bud between 



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