Wild-Flower Study 



509 



Dutchman' s breeches, or " boys and girls." 

 Photo by 0. L. Foster. 



DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES AND SQUIRREL CORN 

 Teacher's Story 



"In a gyimiasiiim where things grow. 

 Jolly boys and girls in a row, 

 Hanging down from cross-bar stem 

 Builded purposely for them. 

 Stout little legs tip in the air. 

 Kick at the breeze as it passes there; 

 Dizzy heads in collars wide 

 Look at the world from the tinder side; 

 Happy acrobats a-swing. 

 At the woodside show in early spring." 



A. B. C. 



"And toward the sun, which kindlier burns, 

 The earth awaking, looks and yearns, 

 And still, as in all other Aprils, 

 The annual miracle returns." 



Elizabeth Akers. 



There are many beautiful carpets spread before the feet of advancing 

 spring, but perhaps none of them are so delicate in pattern as those woven 

 by these two plants that spread their fernlike leaves in April and May. 

 There is little difference in the foliage of the two; both are delicate green 

 and lacelike above, and pale, bluish green on the underside. And each 

 leaf, although so finely divided, is, after all, quite simple; for it has three 

 chief divisions, and these in turn are divided into three, and all the leaves 



