White and Greenish 



Spring- Beauty; Claytonia 



(Claytonia Virginica) Purslane family. 



Flowers White veined with pink, or all pink, the veinings of 

 deeper shade, on curving, slender pedicels, several borne in 

 a terminal loose raceme, the flowers mostly turned one way 

 (secund). Calyx of 2 ovate sepals ; corolla of 5 petals slightly 

 united, by their bases; 5 stamens, i inserted on base of each 

 petal; the style 3-cleft. Stem: Weak, 6 to 12 in. long, from 

 a deep, tuberous root. Leaves : Opposite above, linear to 

 lance-shaped, shorter than basal .ones, which are 3 to 7 in. 

 long; breadth variable. (Illustration facing p. 177.) _, 



Preferred Habitat Moist woods, open groves, low meadows. 



Flowering Season March May. 



Distribution Nova Scotia and fai westward, south to Georgia and 

 Texas. 



Dainty clusters of these delicate, starry blossoms, mostly turned 

 in one direction, expand in the sunshine only, like their gaudy 

 cousin the portulaca and the insignificant little yellow flowers of 

 another relative, the ubiquitous, invincible "pussley " immortalized 

 in " My Summer in a Garden." At night and during cloudy, 

 stormy weather, when their benefactors are not flying, the clay- 

 tonias economically close their petals to protect nectar and pollen 

 from rain and pilferers. Pick them, the whole plant droops, and 

 the blossoms close with indignation; nor will any coaxing but a 

 combination of hot water and sunshine induce them to open again. 

 Theirs is a long beauty sleep. They are supersensitive exquisites, 

 however hardy. 



Very early in the spring a race is run with the hepatica, ar- 

 butus, adder's tongue, blood-root, squirrel corn, and anemone for 

 the honor of being the earliest wild flower; and although John 

 Burroughs and Dr. Abbott have had the exceptional experience of 

 finding the claytonia even before the hepatica certainly the ear- 

 liest spring blossom worthy the name in the Middle and New 

 England States of course the rank skunk-cabbage, whose name 

 is snobbishly excluded from the list of fair competitors, has quietly 

 opened dozens of minute florets in its incurved horn before the 

 others have even started. 



Whether the petals of the spring beauty are white or pink, 

 they are always exquisitely marked with pink lines converging 

 near the base and ending in a yellow blotch to serve as pathfind- 

 ers for the female bumblebees and the little brown bombylius, 

 among other pollen carriers. A newly opened flower, with its 

 stamens surrounding the pistil, must be in peril of self-fertiliza- 

 tion one would think who did not notice that when the pollen is 

 in condition for removal by the bees and flies, the stigmatic sur- 



170 



