CROWFOOT FAMILY 



Corolla. — Wanting. 



Sepals. — Petal-like, five to eight, oblong, obtuse. 



Stamens. — Many. 



Carpels. — Many, one-celled, one-ovuled. 



Akenes. — Short-beaked, hairy. 



I, country-born and bred, know where to find 

 Some blooms that make the season suit the mind, 

 An' seem to raetch the doubtin' bluebird's notes, — 

 Half vent'rin' liverworts in furry coats. 



— "The Biglow Papers," Lowell. 



This is the first spring flower of the fields- that people ordinarily 

 see. The skunk cabbage is indeed earlier, but it is coarse, ill- 

 smelling, and little known; while the Hepatica is delicate, beauti- 

 ful, and everywhere recognized. The blossoms appear in warm, 

 sheltered places the last of March and are abundant in sunny 

 ravines and hollows in early April. They precede the new leaves 

 by some weeks, the rusty old ones being obliged to do duty as 

 foliage while the plant is in bloom. The buds and new leaves 

 are very fuzzy, with long silky hairs, which disappear later in the 

 season. The flowers vary in color from pale-blue to pure-white, 

 shading to lavender and soft-pink, and the flower stems come out 

 of the ground in little tufts; one root frequently producing ten to 

 thirty individuals. 



The blossom is wonderfully sturdy. It opens at the regula- 

 tion time, and though afterward the winds blow, the frost comes, 

 or April snow falls thick and fast, it is all one to the little creature, 

 for the tinted sepals then close about the stamens and pistils, the 

 three-leaved involucre enfolds them all, each tiny blossom bows 

 its head to the storm and waits till the clouds roll by. Cradled 

 in the arms of arctic snows for innumerable ages, the plant has 

 acquired a hardiness out of all proportion to its apparent delicacy. 



A group of blossoms that are to-day closed tight in patient en- 

 durance of wind and snow will to-morrow stand open-eyed in 

 the sunshine. The strength of the North is in their tissues; the 

 endurance of the North marks their vitality. 



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