STUDIES OP PLANT LIFE 



with round green bell-shaped flowers and dark-tipped 

 anthers. This is Pyrola chlorantha (Swartz). 



Though we have none of the heaths that clothe the hills 

 and common-lands of Scotland and England, we have a 

 large number of beautiful and highly ornamental as well 

 as useful plants and flowering shrubs belonging to the 

 Natural Order Ericaceae, which are widely diffused all 

 over the northern and eastern portions of the continent; 

 wherever there exists a similarity in climate, soil and 

 altitude of the land, there we may expect to find members 

 of the same natural orders. Thus we find spread over the 

 northern and eastern portions of this continent plants that 

 are common to northern European countries; we have repre- 

 sentatives of many familiar flowers, belonging to such 

 families as the Lily, Rose, Violet, Phlox, Saxifrage, Mint, 

 Dogwood, Pyrola, and Campanula in fact we cannot 

 enumerate the half of what we recognize in our woodlands 

 and plains. It is true that the eye of the botanist will dis- 

 cover some differences in the species, but in most instances 

 these are so little apparent that a casual observer would 

 not notice them. The Pyrola has its representative flower 

 in England ; the Linnsea in Norway. Our pretty Smilacina 

 ~bifolia, or " Wild Lily of the Valley,"* and our Low Cornel 

 are also found, with many of our native ferns, in that 

 northern land of mountain, flood and forest. 



It is pleasant to recognize an Qld familiar flower it is 

 like the face of an old friend in a foreign country, bringing 

 back the memory of days lang syne when the flowers that 

 we gathered in our childhood were a joy and a delight to 

 heart and eye. 



"See plate IX. 



66 



