HARBINGERS OF SPRING. 11 



ready to unfold as soon as the dormant sap of the 

 parent tree is awakened by a genial south wind. The 

 blossoms of the soft maple usually open a fortnight 

 later than those of the red maple. They are yellowish- 

 green in color and are borne on longer stems. 



Of the herbs which bloom in March there are two 

 which, in central Indiana, vie with the red maple in 

 producing the first wild flowers of spring. They are 

 the little snow trillium, Trillium nicale Riddell, and a 

 species of Draba, or whitlow-grass, both inconspicuous 

 plants and known for the most part only to botanists 

 and close observers of nature. The snow trillium be- 

 longs to the Lily family and grows only at the base 

 of rocky cliffs or in crevices along the sides of ravines 

 which have a sunny southern exposure. It seldom 

 exceeds four inches in height, and, as its name, 

 "trillium," indicates, has its parts in threes or multi- 

 ples of three. Three dark green, ovate leaves grow 

 in a whorl at the summit of the slender stem, and 

 from their midst springs the stalk of the solitary 

 flower. This is composed of three narrow green 

 sepals, three oblong pure white petals, each about an 

 inch in length, six yellow stamens, three styles and an 

 ovary or seed pod containing three cells, each with a 

 number of minute seeds. The plant springs from the 

 ground and blooms in less than forty-eight hours, and 

 where one day all is brown and sere, on the second 

 day thereafter may be found an abundance of these 

 little trilliums true earth-born harbingers of the 

 approaching springtime. 



They may be found in blossom as early as March 

 2d, and are often in their prime by the tenth of 



