WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 
their vernal foliage, the flower stalks press through the 
leafmould with the buds snugly enfolded in a delicate 
silvery, paper-like leaf that seems to serve like the 
cape of a débutante, from which emerges the single, 
stately bud, corsaged in a two-parted green calyx. 
While the leaf is expanding, the bud continues to rise 
for several inches, and then, fully developed, sud- 
denly bursts open, dropping its calyx and exposing 
its six, eight or more beautiful, snowy white petals, 
and a brilliant golden yellow centre of some twenty 
odd pyramided stamens. The petals are long, narrow 
and taper at either end. The alternating inner four 
are distinctly narrower than the outer ones, and form 
a square, rather than a perfectly round outline. On 
bright, sunny days the lovely, solitary blossom expands 
almost flat, and the tips of the petals curve upward 
with a graceful tilt. They close at night, and remain 
partly folded on dull days. They are very fragile, and 
of few days’ duration. Wind and rain are their undoing 
and unless closely watched for, they are more than 
likely gone to seed ere their beauty has been observed. 
The blossom is often an inch and a half broad and 
is sometimes tinted with pink. Soon after the flower 
is spent the leaves reach the height of ten or twelve 
inches, and a narrow, pointed seed pod matures in 
their shadow. The pale, yellow green stems are tinged 
with red. The leaves, usually two, or often one, are 
large, coarse-looking, and rounded, deeply lobed or 
heart-shaped at the base, and toward the end more or 
less indented, with from one to five smaller lobes, 
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