40 THE SCOURING-RUSHES. 



embryo fruit-spikes seem never to become fully developed. 



The first spores are ripe at about the time the anemone 



and spring beauty are blooming. 



The dwarf scouring - rush is found from 

 Greenland and Alaska south to Pennsylvania, 

 Illinois, Nebraska, Montana, and British Co- 

 lumbia. It is also found in northern Europe 

 and Asia. The stations on the southern limits 

 of its range in America are widely separated, 

 and the plant does not begin to become 

 common until the northern boundary of the 

 United States is reached. 



A writer in the Fern Bulletin reports it as 

 covering several acres in western Connecticut, 

 and says of its habitat : 



CATKIN " ^ seems to favour moist, thickly wooded hillsides 

 for the place of its abode, although Mr. Grout found 

 it in a cold boggy meadow. The place where I first saw this plant 

 is a steep hillside thickly grown up to hemlock and white pine. 

 Underneath, the little Taxus, or ground hemlock, grows in abun- 

 dance, and the twisted-stalk, showy orchis, red trillium, and round- 

 leaved violet are its companions." 



It is also found on wooded banks, decayed logs, and 

 among fine grasses, usually in forest regions. Since it so 

 nearly resembles the grasses and sedges among which it 

 grows, the best time to search for it is early in the year, 

 before the other early vegetation has started up. 



