surface are the pointed buds about half an inch long, white 

 with a reddish or violet tip, at the top of short, erect rootstocks. 

 Under the second or third scale is the first flower bud, densely 

 covered with silky hairs on the peduncle and the three bracts, 

 the sepals just showing at the tip. The next scale, thinner and 

 almost transparent, covers the second bud, slightly smaller than 

 the first. Under otlier scales come the succeeding flowers and 

 at the center a tiny, pointed mass of relatively longhairs indicates 

 the closely folded, three-lobed leaves. 



Just above the ground in the woods one may find slender 

 green leaves from a quarter to a half inch long. These grow 

 from a solid brown corm about quarter of an inch across, buried 

 an inch or two below the surface. From the corm grow several 

 smaller leaves, the narrow blades pale yellow and folded back on 

 the petiole. Usually one or two flower shoots may also be found 

 with several flower buds of assorted sizes between two tiny 

 bracts. Each is covered by two sepals, the tiny petals within 

 showing no hint of the pink lines that make the spring beauty 

 so attractive. As last year's leaves had withered shortly after 

 the seeds matured in the spring these young flowers must have 

 been formed months ago. 



Well buried, two to six inches deep, one may find the hori- 

 zontal rootstocks of the False Solomon's Seal or Wild Spikenard, 

 {Smilacina racemosa) ; these run for a foot or more with occasional 

 branches. An inch or more apart in the rootstock are the scars 

 of flowering stems, often a dozen or more showing that a leafy 

 branch has been sent up into the air each spring for that number 

 of years. At the end of each branch of the rootstock conical 

 buds turn up, the smaller of these contain only leaves, the larger 

 contain leaves and flowers. After removing three or four white 

 scales, the inner ones covering the entire bud, one finds ten or 

 twelve pale yellow leaves each wrapped around the ones nearer 

 the tip of the stem. Inside the last of these is the white flower 

 cluster, a tiny stalk an eighth of an inch long, closely covered with 

 flowers. The latter under the hand lens are seen to be complete 

 with a ring of six stamens and a perianth that can be found only 

 when a flower is dissected out of the cluster and examined from 

 the side. One cannot help but marvel at the beautiful way in 

 which the parts are packed together and prepared so far in 

 advance of the time of opening. This is not all, though, for below 



