22 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
In the vanguard comes the familiar Hepatica, a graceful and 
interesting flower, the more interesting because of mythological 
beliefs which attach to it. Scholars of the middle ages believed it 
to be the Leichen of the Greeks and invested it with the interest 
with which mythology surrounds the fate of that unfortunate damsel. 
Reared by her mother to a life of piety, and educated in medicine 
by her father, who was himself the god of physicians, and by whom 
she was given in marriage to a youth of good report, she died sud- 
denly on her wedding eve and the gods turned her dead body into 
a flower, the Hepatica, because of her skill, before her death, in 
curing diseases of the liver, which the Latinized Greek word 
‘‘ Hepatica” implies. 
Now the beautiful but fugacious Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Can- 
ademise), unfolds her gleaming petals and her palmate leaves. The 
Windflower (Anemone nemorosa), swings its solitary bell between 
a pair of compound leaves, and the pretty little pink and white fairy 
known as spring beauty carpets the ground. 
The dainty Violet next attracts attention. . It is a numerous and 
by no means inconspicuous household. Some species confine their 
flowering period to the spring, others bluom throughout the entire 
summer. Some adorn the low and moist ground, others prefer high 
and dry situations. ‘The flowers are of yellow, white, and all the 
various shades of purple. 
In passing we note the Erythronium or Adder’s Tongue, with 
scape bearing a single yellow gem, rising from between two long, 
spotted, satiny leaves. 
During May and June we have the most abundant wealth of 
bloom. Now we have the Uvularia or Bellwort, the beautiful Phlox 
divaricata, the Dicentra cuccularia and the feathery Tiarella cordi- 
folia or Foam flower. 
The Trilliums, abundant on every hillside, call to mind a host 
of happy children waving their white sunbonnets and dancing to the 
music of the breeze. 
The wild Columbine with nodding balls of red and yellow is 
graceful and attractive. 
A little later the glories of the genus Cypripedium burst upon 
us. This genus includes several species found in this locality, viz. : 
