bury, Conn., were near by. A little later came the saxifrage, 

 bellwort, Solomon's seal, bluets, columbine, yellow cinquefoil, 

 and a lovely mass of wild geranium. The wood and rue ane- 

 mone and wild strawberry were here, too, and I finally succeed- 

 ed in establishing the spring beauty. Still later in the spring, we 

 had the star of Bethlehem and in the fall, the tansy and wild 

 clematis brought from Martha's \'ineyard. I also had several 

 pussy willows grown from slips cut from wild bushes. 



At one time, we had several very handsome, yellow ram's 

 head orchids and some fine specimens of the pink moccasin 

 flower and rattlesnake plaintain. These precious plants, brought 

 carefully from Vermont, and nursed tenderly, were dug up by 

 our pet dog! 



Each spring I read ^^'hittier's "Jack-in-the-puipit" to my 

 classes and I was usually able to show them li\dng specimens of 

 most of the flowers mentioned, taken from my own back yard. 



One flower I never tried to transplant, because of its very 

 deep corm was the yellow adder's tongue, though after my suc- 

 cess with the spring beauty, I planned to try it. 



Considering that every summer, from June to September, 

 the weeds grew rank and there was no one to fight caterpillars 

 or water the yard, I think my wild flowers did pretty well. We 

 fertilized them with tea leav^es, cofi'ee grounds, wood and paper 

 ashes, bone meal and sheep manure, chiefly the three former, 

 however ! 



Three of the fences were covered with luxuriant ten year-old 

 woodbines and near the fern corner stood a maple tree trans- 

 planted in my childhood as a seedling from Central Park. 



With the exception of the clematis, tansy, and lady slippers, 

 all of the flowers were collected within an afternoon's drive 

 from the heart of the city — most of them came from regions of 

 Westchester County, which are being rapidly developed, or 

 from the edges of the main roads where they had been overlooked 

 by motorists whose chief object is to cover mileage and who, 

 consequently, do not see the smaller wild flowers. 



I hope this brief account will prompt others, who are inter- 

 ested in saving our native wild flowers, to transplant them to 

 city back yards — if they are fortunate enough to have a yard, 

 where, at least these flowers will not be left to "bloom unseen" 

 and unappreciated. 



New York, N. Y. 



