6 EIVERBY 



the sky, we are on the lookout for dicentra. The 

 more northern species, called " squirrel corn " from 

 the small golden tubers at its root, blooms in May, 

 and has the fragrance of hyacinths. It does not 

 aflFect the rocks, like all the other flowers of this 

 family. 



My second new acquaintance the same season was 

 the showy lady's-slipper. Most of the floral ladies 

 leave their slippers in swampy places in the woods; 

 only the stemless one (acaule) leaves hers on dry 

 ground before she reaches the swamp, commonly 

 under evergreen trees, where the carpet of pine 

 needles will not hurt her feet. But one may pene- 

 trate many wet, mucky places in the woods before 

 he finds the prettiest of them all, the showy lady's- 

 slipper, — the prettiest slipper, but the stoutest and 

 coarsest plant; the flower large and very showy, 

 white, tinged with purple in front; the stem two 

 feet high, very leafy, and coarser than bear-weed. 

 Report had come to me, through my botanizing 

 neighbor, that in a certain quaking sphagnum bog 

 in the woods the showy lady's-slipper could be 

 found. The locality proved to be the marrowy 

 grave of an extinct lake or black tarn. On the bor- 

 ders of it the white azalea was in bloom, fast fad- 

 ing. In the midst of it were spruces and black ash 

 and giant ferns, and, low in the spongy, mossy bot- 

 tom, the pitcher plant. The lady's-slipper grew in 

 little groups and companies all about. ITever have 

 I beheld a prettier sight, — so gay, so festive, so 

 holiday-looking. Were they so many gay bonnets 



