152 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



Our gardens, during the first of this month exhibit few- 

 exotics more beautiful than the Canadian Rhodora, an 

 indigenous shrub, which is at this time in full flower in 

 the wild pastures. It is from two to five feet in height, 

 and. its brilliant purple flowers, unrivalled in delicacy, ap- 

 pear on the extremities of the branches, when the leaves 

 are just beginning to unfold. It is rendered singularly 

 attractive by the contrast between its purple hues, of 

 peculiar resplendency, and the whiteness of the flowers 

 of almost all other shrubs, at this season. This plant, 

 by its flowering marks the commencement of summer, 

 and may be considered an apt symbol of the brilliant 

 and unrivalled charms of the month of June. 



June is also the month of the Arethusas — those 

 most charming flowers of the peat meadows — belong- 

 ing to a tribe that is too delicate for cultivation. Like 

 the beautiful birds of the forest, they were created for 

 nature's own temples ; and the divinities of the wood, 

 under whose invisible protection they thrive, will not 

 permit them to mingle with the multitude that grace 

 the parterre. The cymbidiun, of a similar habit, the 

 queen of the meadows, wdth larger flowers and more 

 numerous clusters, the crimson orchis, that springs up 

 by the river-sides, among the myrtle-like foliage of the 

 craneberry and the nodding panicles of the quaking 

 grass, like a spire of living flame ; and the still more 

 rare and delicate white orchis, that hidden in certain 

 mossy dells in the woods, seldom feels the direct light 

 of the sun, are all alike consecrated to nature and to 

 solitude, as if they were designed to cheer the hearts 

 of her humble votaries, with the sight of some thing 

 that had not been appropriated for the exclusive adorn- 

 ment of the garden and the palace. 



The rambler may already perceive a difference in the 



