THE WILD GARDEN. ^c 



won the tribute it deserves as an early riser, vying with the he- 

 patica, as it does, in its anticipation of spring. I have gathered 

 it, with its compact tiny cushions ot bloom on the naked stems 

 barely two inches high, in early March, when it had plainly stolen 

 a march on the liverworts in its immediate vicinity. But I have 

 never chanced to pick it beneath the snow, which I have done 

 with both the arbutus and hepatica, having found a ruddy cluster 

 of the former as early as February. But the following experi- 

 ence, quoted from a letter from a friend bearing date of January 

 25, 1887, Boston, as far as I know beats the record in driving 

 back the vernal bloom towards the season of the asters, and 

 which, greeting the festal flags of the December witch -hazels, 

 carries the possible wild-flower garland all round the calendar: 



" The Qth of December," writes my friend, " Mr. , my wife's 



father, said to me that he felt quite confident that he could go 

 to the woods in Melrose and bring home hepatica blossoms. I 

 had found them myself in January, but it was after a week or 

 more of warm weather, with the ground bare of snow. In this 

 case, however, a foot or more of snow had fallen a day or two 

 before, preceded by icy cold weather ; so I said, ' No,' not sup- 

 posing he had any thought of putting his confidence to the test. 

 But he took the train, went directly to the spot where grew a 

 cluster of plants which he well knew, dug away the snow, picked 

 an open blossom, and brought it home." 



In the same letter my observant friend continues: "A year 

 ago, in taking a walk from Fabyan's to the Crawford House, I 

 discovered a plant of meadow-rue (Thalictrum cornuti] having 

 purple blossoms. A very distinct variety it seemed to me a 

 very decided color; not so soft and graceful as the blossoms of 

 the white, but having a quite pleasing effect. The stem of the 

 plant was also of a dark color. You may be sure I was surprised 

 and delighted, as I had never heard of such a thing. I took the 

 root to add to my collection of native plants growing in my gar- 

 den. Last summer the plant blossomed handsomely. I took the 

 flowers to Horticultural Hall, but no one there had ever seen 

 them, and no description or allusion can I find in any botany. I 



