26 FLORA OF MICHIGAN. 



rhododendron, Labrador tea, shin-leaf, pipsissewa, and most others which 

 have broad evergreen leaves. The hot suns in summer, but especially 

 those in March, kill the leaves. 



In a garden we have a chance to study the effect of large masses of one 

 species of wild plant. The shape and color of the leaves and the posi- 

 tions assumed by each are very interesting studies. For example, the 

 dark lanceolate leaves of several sorts of wild sunflowers, each bunch five to 

 eight feet in diameter, hang down, overlapping one another in a beautiful 

 manner somewhat like the shingles of a roof. For the back part of a gar- 

 den in front of a tall fence, a building, or some trees or shrubbery, these 

 plants are appropriate and much more attractive than many suppose. 



The large coarse plants of Silphium perfoliatum, cup-plant, are almost 

 subtropical in effect. 



Wild lettuce has smooth pinnatifid leaves which hang down from the 

 erect stem, which is often ten feet high. Before flowering, this plant is a 

 real beauty. 



Wild senna has long, pinnate leaves and racemes of yellow flowers. A 

 mass five feet high and six feet in diameter cannot fail to awaken the 

 admiration of every true florist. When placed together, it is striking to 

 study, by day or night, the change of position of leaves of most legumi- 

 nous plants, such as the last mentioned, including peas, locust, clovers and 

 the like. 



Several of the wild asters and golden-rods, when placed in damp, rich 

 soil, in large bunches which are a trifle isolated, will astonish almost any- 

 one who has never seen them thus situated. The graceful, even outline, 

 the leaves and the flowers are a study. 



Let us here call attention to the idea of growing some of our grasses in 

 large unmixed masses. The andropogons, wild sorghum, Panicum 

 virgatum, several species of Elymu<s (wild rye), bottle-brush grass, in fact 

 almost every grass we have, and there are sixty or more in almost every 

 neighborhood, are fine ornamental plants. 



The horticulturist will be well repaid by a study of the sedges, of which 

 he will find a number that are valuable for use in masses, each sort by 

 itself in bogs or low places. 



The fruits of our different species of Trillium are quite dissimilar and 

 afford good points for distinguishing them. , 



In a botanic garden or wild garden, throughout the season, from the 

 first willows to the witch-hazel and gentians, the apiarist can see what his 

 favorite insects visit for nectar and pollen. The mints always attract the 

 bees; they hum and crawl about the flowers of germander, blue-curls, 

 pennyroyal, spearmint, peppermint, watermint, catmint, bugle-weed, hore- 

 hound, dittany, hyssop, basil, marjoram, thyme, summer savory, calaminth, 

 balm, stone-Aot, sage, Oswego-tea, bergamot, horsemint, blephilia, gill, 

 dragon-head, cedronella, synandra, self-heals, skullcap, hedge-nettle, dead- 

 nettle and mountain mints. All of these and many more are mints, and 

 they are much benefited by the visits of bees, which are rewarded with 

 nectar for services rendered. One who passes by such plants can scarcely 

 help picking fragments for a nosegay. 



The figworts, too, in large numbers are hardly less valuable, and to them 

 belong the mulleins, toad-flax, snap dragon, snakehead, pentstemon, 

 mimulus, and a host of others. The immense sunflower family contains 

 hundreds of plants valuable for bees. 



Here the young and enthusiastic entomologists sweep in our insect 



