The Arrow-wood, Viburnum dentatum, suddenly ap- 

 peared in full bloom on the outskirts of the meadow, great 

 fiat cymes of snowy flowers that, jLin fortunately, were 

 covered with that all-devouring pest in this region, the 

 rose-bug. 



Sunday, the 23d, was a dull day, and nothing new was 

 noticed except that one Swamp Honeysuckle, Rhododen- 

 dron viscosum, had ventured to put out a few blossoms. 

 Everything else was doing its best to atone for the gray 

 skies, and a marvelous sight they were, the rusty bog, with 

 its fringes of bright green Ferns, dotted here and there with 

 yellow Sundrops, the delicate purple grass in full bloom 

 making a kind of iridescent veil over all the meadow, and 

 above the great silvery mass of the old Willows against the 

 leaden sky. A spell of we' weather followed, and when it 

 was dry enough to penetrate into the meadow most of the 

 Sisyrinchium had disappeaicd, and in the place of the little 

 blue flowers were the many hundreds of small, hard, round, 

 green capsules. The bloom of the Arrow-wood was also 

 destroyed ; many of the Red Clovers, Trifolium pratense, 

 had turned brown ; the Iris was fast shriveling, and the 

 Wool-grass was very wet and bedraggled. The only 

 things that had not suffered were the Pogonias, which, if 

 possible, were larger, finer and more numerous than be- 

 fore. The Roses had come out, many of them, too, but 

 mostly little dwarf things, only a few inches high in the 

 meadow, where they were kept low by being cut down 

 with the grass. Among the shrubbery the Black Alder, 

 Ilex verticillata, showed its tiny round buds. They were 

 scarcely larger than a common pin-head, but ready to 

 bloom on the first sunny day. Both kinds are there — the 

 staminate, with small sessile clusters ; the fertile, with soli- 

 tary little buds in the axils of the leaves. Here and there 

 were the flexuous spikes of a Habenaria only six inches or 

 so above the ground. The Star-grass, Aletris farinosa, was 

 in bloom, an attractive plant, often found in sandy soil. li 

 has a spreading rosette-like cluster of flat lanceolate leaves 

 at the base on the ground and a solitary, tall, stiff stem with 

 a wand of white flowers of the size and aspect of those of 

 the Lily-of-the-valley at the top. The corolla is all crisped 

 and wrinkled, and looks as if made of fine white paper 

 crepe, and just appearing at the top of the bell are six little 

 orange-colored stamens. The yellow Loosestrife, Lysima- 

 chia stricta, made its first appearance that day, and the lit- 

 tle sticky leaves of the Round-leaved Sundew, Drosera 

 rotundifolia, were noticed in quantities riding on the top of 

 the peat-moss. 



A long week's rain ended the month, and on the last day 

 the fog was too thick to see across the swamp, where the 

 water stood deep in every depression, and the peat was as 

 soft as a wet sponge, quite impassable, even to a weed- 

 hunter. Once clear skies again, the July flowers will 

 appear all the faster and be fresher and more brilliant for 

 the good soaking they received in June. 

 East Hampton, L. 1. Anna Murray J at'/. 



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