50 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
the inner involucre closes and the cells on one side of 
the stem contract, drawing it down almost to the 
ground. There and then the slender beak elongates 
and raises up the pappus or crown of soft white hairs, 
and the fruit ripens. Then the cells expand again, the 
stem stands erect, the involucre is reflexed, and the 
achenes or seed-like fruits with the pappus displayed 
in an open globular head are ready to be carried by 
the lightest wind to form a colony away from the parent 
plant. The shepherd’s purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, 
Moench.), and chickweed (Stellaria media, Smith), 
and field sorrel (Rumex Acetosella, LL.) are the weeds 
of May, which have matters almost their own way in 
the early part of the season. 
But we cannot even mention all the flowers of 
May. The violets must pass unheeded, with the Solo- 
mon’s seal, and the smilacinas, and the dwarf ginseng, 
and the fringed polygala, and the gold thread, and the 
one-flowered cancer-root, and iris, and lupine, and star- 
flower, and blue-eyed grass, and yellow star-grass, and 
columbine, and bellwort, and wild oats, and wild calla. 
Next year the procession will pass by again in nearly 
the same order, and then let us hope to be able to do 
these justice. 
