2o8 PLANTS GROWING IN LIGHT SOIL. 



heavy fuzz that protects them from the cold. They knew 

 better than the leaves how glad we all should be to see them 

 here. 



Mr. Gibson regarded them as our earliest spring flowers. 



WIND-FLOWER. WOOD-ANEHONE. {Plate CVIII.) 



Anemone quinquefblia. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Cro7v/oot. White, or tinted with Scentless. General. April, May. 



blue or pink. 



Flowers : terminal ; solitary. Calyx : of four to seven petal-like sepals. 

 Corolla : none. Stamens : numerous. Pistils : numerous, forming a head. 

 Leaves : from the base ; three also on the flower stem, whorled below the 

 flower and divided into five-toothed leaflets. Stem : delicate ; slender. 



It is said that the Greeks named their anemone wind-flower 

 because it appeared at the windy season ; but we would rather 

 connect our lovely blossom with the pathetic grief of Venus 

 over the body of the slain Adonis. As she approached Cyprus 

 in her swan-drawn chariot she heard coming up through mid- 

 air the groans of her beloved. She therefore turned back to 

 the earth, alighted, and bent over his lifeless body. Overcome 

 with grief she reproached the Fates and said : 



"Theirs shall not be wholly a triumph; memorials of my 

 grief shall endure, and the spectacle of your death, my Adonis, 

 and of my lamentation shall be annually renewed. Your blood 

 shall be changed into a flower ; that consolation none can envy 

 me." 



She then sprinkled nectar on the blood and the flowers arose. 

 The wind blows them open and then blows the petals away. 

 So they are short lived ; their coming and going being attribu- 

 table to the wind. 



" Wind-flowers we since these blossoms call, 

 So very frail are they, 

 Tear-drops from Venus's eye let fall, 

 Our wood anemone." 



The European species, A. pavonina and A. r amine uloides^ are 

 scarlet and purple respectively. 



