July 17, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



283 



and further on, an almost impenetrable thicket composed 

 of a variety of shrubs and small trees, such as Andro- 

 meda, Leucothoe, Rhododendron, Clethra, Viburnum, My- 

 rica and many others, most conspicuous among which are 

 the Swamp IVIaples, with their pale leaves, and some 

 very Japanesque-looking- Tupelos, Nyssa sylvatica. Be- 

 tween the meadow and the road is a long row of fine aged 

 White Willows, which in beauty rival the Elms for which 

 East Hampton is justly famed. 



The swamp and meadow were first visited this year on 

 the 17th of June, and, besides Daisies, Buttercups and 

 white and pink Clovers along the upper dry portion, it was 

 filled all the way down to the bog with Blue-eyed Grass, 

 Sisyrinchium Bermudiana. The plants were so thick every- 

 where that it seemed scarcely possible to step without 

 crushing a hundred, and so tiny that their color did 

 not affect the general tone of the meadow as did the masses 

 of Meadow Soft Grass, Holcus lanatus, the spikes of which 

 were not yet in bloom. A more beautiful sight can hardly 

 be imagined. Whether the salt air helps the color of Hol- 

 cus or not, the manual does not tell, but surely it is no- 

 where as brilliant a silvery pink-purple as it is here, and, 

 perhaps, for the same reason it is known to the farmers as 

 "Red Top." Down nearer the bog, Pogonia ophioglos- 

 soides filled the grass with its little pink buds, with here 

 and there a few in bloom. Splendid Yellow Thistles, Cnicus 

 horridulus, were scattered around, and, notwithstanding 

 their repelling name, are very handsome, decorative things 

 to look at, but at the same time very awe-inspiring to the 

 plant-collector. They are scarcely more than two feet 

 high, usually lower, with a rosette of long, very prickly 

 leaves, spreading flat on the ground ; most beautiful leaves, 

 too, with a broad reddish or reddish-purple midvein and 

 margin, each prickle purple, with a yellowish tip. The 

 flowers are pale, creamy-yellow, with splendid royal pur- 

 ple involucres. 



Creepingjhrough the grass everywhere were the little 

 white flowers and slender shoots of the Running Swamp 

 Blackberry, Rubus hispidus, and the long branches of the 

 Cranberry ; but not a flower on the latter was to be seen, 

 and nowhere in the swamp was a shrub in bloom. Here 

 and there, all over the meadow, were fine clumps of the 

 Flowering Fern, its rusty-brown fertile panicles towering 

 above the tallest grass top and the shorter, paler green 

 tufts of the Sensitive Fern. A slight stretch of the imagi- 

 nation will include in the meadow a waste strip of ground 

 on the edge of the road, where the Lupin runs riot over the 

 sand in long-stemmed, long-spiked masses of deep-blue' 

 Pea flowers. The contrast of the flowers against the yellow 

 sand was very fine. The pod is also handsome, clothed with 

 a long, fine down. Another prominent blue flower, but 

 this one growing in the wettest part of the bog, is the little 

 Blue Flag, Iris prismatica, a slender, graceful thing that at 

 that time was abundant in every wet place. 



The next day more Pogonias were in bloom, and here 

 and there through the grass the Cranberry-buds were show- 

 ing. The little Sundrops were more and more numerous, 

 and rivaled the Buttercups in the brilliancy of their yellow. 

 The species is that described in Gray's Manual ?lS Oenothera 

 fruticosa, van humifusa, and is there accredited as growing 

 only in Suffolk County, Long Island, and it is certainly 

 very common here. It is, as its name implies, a low, 

 spreading plant ; its stems are somewhat woody, reddish, 

 and, as well as the leaves and capsules, very puberulent, 

 but the flowers are not by any means always small ; some 

 of them, when fully expanded, are over one and a quarter 

 inches broad. 



Careful search in a dry corner revealed the curious, deli- 

 cate, little green Orchid, Twayblade, Liparis Losselii. 

 Never found in great numbers, it is a pleasant surprise to 

 come upon a little colony hidden among the grasses. It 

 has a stiff, perky, independent way of growing, with two 

 broad glossy leaves and a delicate spike of thread-like 

 flowers. Often, too, the previous year's dry capsule clings 

 to the old bulb, which persists for quite a while. 



A couple of days later the first Wild Rose, Rosa lucida, 

 was seen ; the tall, somewhat flesh-colored stems of 

 Aletris farinosa were noted among the grass, and off 

 among the rushes faint white gleams told of the Wool- 

 grass, Eriophorum cyperinum, that was beginning to 

 bloom. 



Two more days, and on the 2 2d, the Pogonia flowers by 

 the hundred extended as far as the eye could reach, grow- 

 ing sometimes out of the water. There were so many of 

 them that their perfume, a curious mixture of violets and 

 vanilla, pervaded the atmosphere. They are charming, 

 dainty things, and have a contented way of growing up 

 out of the Sphagnum without any visible means of support 

 in the bulb line, like their near relatives, the Twayblade. 

 Another Orchid, Calopogon pulchellus, the Pogonia's almost 

 invariable companion, made its first appearance that day ; 

 it is taller, larger, bright magenta-purple, and very gaudy 

 and self-assertive. There was only one of them in bloom, 

 but little, round, greenish buds here and there at the top of 

 slender flexuous stems told of many more to come. 



The Arrow-wood, Viburnum dentatum, suddenly ap- 

 peared in full bloom on the outskirts of the meadow, great 

 flat cymes of snowy flowers that, unfortunately, were 

 covered with that all-devouring pest in this region, the 

 rose-bug. 



Sunday, the 23d, was a dull day, and nothing new was 

 noticed except that one Swamp Honeysuckle, Rhododen- 

 dron viscosum, had ventured to put out a few blossoms. 

 Everything else was doing its best to atone for the gray 

 skies, and a marvelous sight they were, the rusty bog, with 

 its fringes of bright green Ferns, dotted here and there with 

 yellow Sundrops, the delicate purple grass in full bloom 

 making a kind of iridescent veil over all the meadow, and 

 above the great silvery mass of the old Willows against the 

 leaden sky. A spell of wet weather followed, and when it 

 was dry enough to penetrate into the meadow most of the 

 Sisyrinchium had disappeared, and in the place of the little 

 blue flowers were the many hundreds of small, hard, round, 

 green capsules. The bloom of the Arrow-wood was also 

 destroyed ; many of the Red Clovers, Trifolium pratense, 

 had turned brown ; the Iris was fast shriveling, and the 

 Wool-grass was very wet and bedraggled. The only 

 things that had not suffered were the Pogonias, which, if 

 possible, were larger, finer and more numerous than be- 

 fore. The Roses had come out, many of them, too, but 

 mostly little dwarf things, only a few inches high in the 

 meadow, where they were kept low by being cut down 

 with the grass. Among the shrubbery the Black Alder, 

 Ilex verticillata, showed its tiny round buds. They were 

 scarcely larger than, a common pin-head, but ready to 

 bloom on the first sunny day. Both kinds are there — the 

 stamniate, with small sessile clusters; the fertile, with soli- 

 tary little buds in the axils of the leaves. Here and there 

 were the flexuous spikes of a Habenaria only six inches or 

 so above the ground. The Star-grass, Aletris farinosa, was 

 in bloom, an attractive plant, often found in sandy soil. It 

 has a spreading rosette-like cluster of flat lanceolate leaves 

 at the base on the ground and a solitary, tall, stiff stem with 

 a wand of white flowers of the size and aspect of those of 

 the Lily-of-the-valley at the top. The corolla is all crisped 

 and wrinkled, and looks as if made of fine white paper 

 crepe, and just appearing at the top of the bell are six little 

 orange-colored stamens. The yellow Loosestrife, Lysima- 

 chia stricta, made its first appearance that day, and the lit- 

 tle sticky leaves of the Round-leaved Sundew, Drosera 

 rotundifolia, were •noticed in quantities riding on the top of 

 the peat-moss. 



A long week's rain ended the month, and on the last da)'' 

 the fog was too thick to see across the swamp, where the 

 water stood deep in every depression, and the peat was as 

 soft as a wet sponge, quite impassable, even to a weed- 

 hunter. Once clear skies again, the July flowers will 

 appear all the faster and be fresher and more brilliant for 

 the good soaking they received in June. 



East Hampton, L. I. A luia Murray J 'ail. 



