THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 8l 



made the acquaintance of Thoreau's Cypripedium, about July ist. 



This habit of exact observation of the time and place of the 

 blooming of plants is a most important one, and adds much to the 

 interest and value of the study. I would advise all who are entering 

 upon the study to practise it ; you will thereby gather a large and 

 valuable fund of interesting information ; you will then be able to 

 tell when you may go into the woods and find the plant you are in 

 search of. 



J would like to remark here that in preparing a Local Flora, 

 the time of flowering of each plant is an important consideration. I 

 am satisfied that many interesting -facts in this connection escape the 

 notice of botanists, because of their reliance upon the dates given in* 

 the manuals. Take the time of the flowering of the Hepatica 

 Triloba, for instance, one of the most common Spring flowers. I 

 have found it in Mount Albion ravine as early as the second week in 

 March, while it has been found on one or two occasions as early as 

 the last of February. The difference is not always in the season so 

 much as in the fact that we do not think to look for them so early, 

 or do not know of the most likely situations to find them in bloom. 



When the flowers of Hepatica come out in Spring, the last 

 year's leaves are still present, but apparently functionless. The new 

 leaves are developed, and perform their work during the late Spring 

 and Summer months, resulting in the production of one or more 

 buds in which are contained the rudiments of next year's develop- 

 ment. 



If these buds be examined in, say November, they are found to 

 consist of from five to seven scales enclosing each other, and 

 under each, except the first one or two, will be found a flower bud 

 on a scape a quarter of an inch or less long, the whole being densely 

 covered with long silk hair, which must afford much protection dur- 

 ing severe weather. In the centre, covered by the flower buds and 

 their protecting scales, the rudiments of next year's leaves are found, 

 also thickly covered with long straight hair. The outermost flower 

 blooms first, and, when there is a lack of warmth, seems to appro- 

 priate to itself all the activity of the plant, lengthening its scape to 

 one or two inches, coming into bloom and even perfecting its seeds 

 while the other flowers remain snugly covered by their protecting 

 scales. Sometimes a second bud wiH burst from its scale before the 

 first has run its course. The scape is always shorter in these early 



