AN ESTHETIC HOUR WITH MY HERBARIUM. 191 
" For cold blew the bitter, biting north 
Upon its early, humble birth, 
Yet cheerfully it glinted forth 
Amid the storm." 
and clad in its silvery, silken hair it lifts its unassuming head in humble guise, 
long before its many cleft leaves arise from their frosty beds. On this sheet is 
the Trailing Arbutus, Epigea repens, — a pleasing reminder of an incident in the 
early history of our nation. When the dreary winter of 1620 was passing away, 
above the brown leaves so dry and dead, this little herald of spring was the first 
to greet the Pilgrims with its rosy hue and sweet perfume. "God be praised," 
said the fathers, "this is the promise of a future harvest; behold our May flower 
here," and this pretty plant thus christened "the May flower" upon the bleak 
shores of New England, has ever been sacred to love and hope. 
There is a cluster of Bluets, Houstonia cerulea, with their pale blue faces and 
bright yellow eyes, — some of them, hoary from very age, donning the pure white, 
— all gathered from yonder meadow, where they form a rich tapestry fit for the 
gods to walk upon. These are gaudy Painted Cups, Castilleja coccinea^ the ad- 
miration not alone of those untaught botanists, the Aborigines, who, in their wierd 
fancy believe the great Manitou has scattered these ragged, painted tufts as sym- 
bols of the warriors' feathers to be worn in the blissful hunting grounds, but of the 
amateur botanist who finds herself puzzled by the brilliant crests of the floral 
bracts, and watches and wonders till her own iris wears their blazing hue. The 
next is the American Senna, Cassia Marilandica, with its six to nine pair of 
oblong lanceolate leaflets, the wedge-shaped gland at the base of the petiole, and 
its bright, yellow flowers. The leaves of this plant with those of its cousins 
german, the C. acutifolia and C. elongata, natives of Africa, are the senna of 
commerce, so largely used by pharmacists. Closely allied to the Cassia is this 
Sensitive Plant, Mimosa pudica, with its pinkish flowers in globular heads, and 
digitate, primate leaflets, a native of Brazil, but often adorning our conserva- 
tories. Notice the knots at the several joints of the leaves ; these are a sort of 
Leyden jar, an undefined electrometer, so sensitive to external pressure, the 
trembling of the ground, or surface irritation, that a single leaflet, a pair or more, 
as well as the entire leaf, will quickly announce any disturbance. 
It is sometimes pleasant for us, when our faith is low, and we are conscious 
of our own ignorance and weakness, to have a lesson palpable, occult for daily 
study, to be strengthened by Nature as well as revelation, and perhaps no plant 
in all my herbarium has been to me such a simple object lesson as this one. For 
years it has been such a reminder that with a feeling quite akin to friendship, not 
to say reverence, it has been cultivated at my window, where I could not fail to 
have the lesson presented to my eyes. It is only the Echinocystis lobata, the wild 
Balsam Apple, alias Wild Cucumber, but from day to day it sends out its deli- 
cate tendrils, as if conscious not only of its need of support, but certain of finding 
it. It finds it, then strengthening and tightening its hold, it lifts itself up an inch, 
