From Blue to Purple 



which the delphinium are best adapted, although butterflies visit 

 them quite as frequently, find a convenient landing place prepared 

 for them, and fertilize the flower while they sip with ease. 



More slender, downy, and dwarf of stem than the preceding 

 is the Carolina Larkspur {D. Carolinianum), whose blue flowers, 

 varying to white, and its very finely cleft leaves, may be found in 

 the South, on prairies in the North and West, and in the Rocky 

 Mountain region. 



Liver-leaf; Hepatica; Liverwort; Round- 

 lobed, or Kidney Liver-leaf; Noble Liver- 

 wort; Squirrel Cup 



{Hepatica Hepatica) Crowfoot family 

 {H. triloba of Gray) 



Flowers — Blue, lavender, purple, pinkish, or white; occasionally, 

 not always, fragrant; 6 to 12 petal-like, colored sepals 

 (not petals, as they appear to he), oval or oblong; numerous 

 stamens, all bearing anthers ; pistils numerous ; 3 small, 

 sessile leaves, forming an involucre directly under flower, 

 simulate a calyx, for which they might be mistaken. Stems: 

 Spreading from the root, 4 to 6 in. high, a solitary fiower or 

 leaf borne at end of each furry stem. Leaves : 3-lobed and 

 rounded, leathery, evergreen ; sometimes mottled with, or 

 entirely, reddish purple ; spreading on ground, rusty at bloom- 

 ing time, the new leaves appearing after the flowers. Fruit : 

 Usually as many as pistils, dry, i -seeded, oblong, sharply 

 pointed, never opening. 



Preferred Habitat — Woods; light soil on hillsides. 



Flowering Seaso n — Decembe r — May. 



Distribution — Canada to Northern Florida, Manitoba to Iowa and 

 Missouri. Most common East. 



Even under the snow itself bravely blooms the delicate 

 hepatica, wrapped in fuzzy furs as if to protect its stems and nod- 

 ding buds from cold. After the plebeian skunk cabbage, that 

 ought scarcely to be reckoned among true flowers — and William 

 Hamilton Gibson claimed even before it — it is the first blossom to 

 appear. Winter sunshine, warming the hillsides and edges of 

 woods, opens its eyes, 



" Blue as the heaven it gazes at, 

 Startling the loiterer in the naked groves 

 With unexpected beauty ; for the time 

 Of blossoms and green leaves is yet afar," 



2 17 



