BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 
south to Georgia, New Mexico and California. Alsc 
in Europe, Asia and South America. 
BLUETS. INNOCENCE. QUAKER LADIES. 
QUAKER BONNETS. VENUS’S PRIDE 
Houstonia caerilea. Madder F amily. 
When one has viewed the myriads of Quaker Ladies 
that blossom so vigorously from April to July, it is not 
difficult to realize that the spirit that moved them never 
prompted their dignified namesakes with such strenuous 
activity. Otherwise their azure bonnets would never 
have graced our grassy meadows with so much pro- 
fusion as we are annually privileged to enjoy. The 
slender; spreading'rootstock forms a dense tuft of small 
leaves, from which a frail, sparingly branched green 
stem rises from three to seven inches in height... The 
tiny, toothless leaves are generally oblong in shape. 
The basal ones are broader toward the end and are 
narrowed into short stems. A few smaller ones clasp 
the stem in opposite. pairs. The delicate flowers are 
very‘small, and are set in.a tiny green calyx on ‘the tip 
of the stem, where they nod in the bud.. The corolla is 
funnel-shaped, with four widely spreading and. pointed 
lobes. They are white, faintly tinged with light blue 
or violet, with a circle of yellow in the centre. The 
Bluets often grow in great.colonies in moist, sunny 
fields, along roadsides and fences or on wet rocks, 
from Georgia and Alabama to Michigan, Ontario and 
Nova Scotia. Linnaeus dedicated this genera to 
Dr. William Houston, an English botanist who collected 
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