MARCH AND APRIL. 



from Siberia, come to stay in our country. It is 

 perfectly hardy, and its refreshing blue in among 

 the new grass blades is peculiarly harmonious with 

 the background of green. 

 We have one native variety 

 called S. Fraseri, or wild 

 hyacinth ; this is common on 

 moist banks and prairies from 

 Ohio westward ; it grows 

 about ten inches high, and its 

 flowers are pale violet-blue, a 

 color not so pretty as the 

 purer blue of the cultivated 

 Siberian variety, which may 

 be seen in early spring dot- 

 ting the greensward of the 

 Public Garden, Boston. The 

 bulb of S. Maritima, a Medi- 

 terranean variety, is officinal, 

 and Sirup of Squills is used 

 for bronchial troubles. 

 Skunk Cabbage. The ^ earliest 

 &ympiooarpus harbinger of 



the skunk cabbage. This skunk cabbage, 



most suggestively repellent plant is about as attract- 

 ive in odor as it is in name ! Yet, aside from this 



