84 The Wild Garden 



Saxifrage, and the grey Corydalis. What can be prettier 

 than the PartridgeB«;^ry (Mitchella repens), the Twin- 

 JlcH Eer ( Linnsea borealis)— does well with us— Creeping 

 Winter Green (Gaultheria procumbens), Bearberry (Arctos- 

 taphylos Uva-Ursi), Cowberry (Vaccinium Vitis-idsea), dwarf 

 Cornel (Cornus canadensis), Fringed Polygala (P. paucifolia), 

 the common Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata), with its 

 shining deep green leaves, the Spotted Pipsissewa (C. 

 maculata), the sombre-hued Pyrola and Galax, and that bright 

 Club Moss (Lycopodium lucidulum) ? 



' One day last spring, when strolling through the Medford 

 Wood, I came upon an open meadow with a high bank — 

 cleared timber land — on one side. Adown this bank in 

 a rocky bed came a little stream of water, bordered on both 

 sides with patches of Blood-root, with large blossoms, 

 clasped erect in their own leaf-vases and sparkling in the 

 sun, while the sward and other vegetation around were yet 

 dormant. True, near by in the hollow, the malodorous 

 Skunk Cabbage was rank in leaf and flower, and the Indian 

 Poke was rushing out its plaited, broadly oval leaves, 

 and away in the streamlet a few Marsh Marigolds glittered 

 on the water. But the Blood-root is neither an aquatic nor 

 a bog plant, but most at home in the leaf-mould beds of rich 

 woodlands. 



' Hereabouts, a little wild flower (Erythronium americanum), 

 more commonly known as Dog's-tooth Violet, is a charming 

 plant, with variegated handsome leaves and comely flowers 

 in earliest spring. In low copses, in rich deposits of vegetable 

 mould, it grows around here in the utmost profusion. In 

 one place by the side of a wood is a sort of ditch, which is 

 filled with water in winter, but is dry in summer, wherein is 

 collected a mass of leaf-soil. Here the Yellow Dog's-tooth 



