WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 
plant as a substitute for asparagus. It is said to have 
a flavour much like green peas. 
SPRING BEAUTY. CLAYTONIA 
Claytonia virginica. Purslane Family. 
Ever since the beginning of things there has been 
a wide range of temperament exhibited among the 
beauties of creation, and it is no less pronounced among 
flowers than it is peculiar to those who begin to betray 
it at sweet sixteen. So here’s to the Spring Beauty, 
may her tribe increase! Although apparently indif- 
ferent to the cold blasts of March and early April, 
and bold in her effort to be first among the débutantes 
at Nature’s earliest social gathering, she becomes 
extremely sensitive if her whims happen to be opposed. 
She loves the glorious sun and courts and courtseys 
before his radiations with all the charming affectation 
her flushed, wide-spreading petals can command. 
She blushes as she greets him from rising to setting, 
turning as he travels from east to west, and then back 
again each morning to repeat the operation when he 
returns. But let him disappoint her, and she imme- 
diately pouts and droops, and refuses to be consoled 
until the clouds break away, and he reappears. If 
you chance to pluck this dainty miss, she promptly 
sulks, and no amount of coaxing will prevail to change 
her hopeless mood, without the endearing rays of her 
affinity. So much for the sun’s influence upon the 
temperament of the Spring Beauty. During March, 
April, and May the starry flowers of the Claytonia 
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