April and May Flowers. 157 



~~Twraising> playing, reeling in, and placing in his pannier 



"Sly fish, without waiting a moment before a new cast 



*m/ flies to pluck and admire the dark green leaves and 



e bright flowers of the Marsh Marigold !— This Caltka 



' f is (we give its botanical name for the benefit of the stu- 



r not of the aforesaid angler) is indeed one of the hand- 



st of our early flowering plants, and is in its way useful 



80 f r " greens" — every yankee, though personally a stranger 



the color, knows what they mean. Towards the middle and 

 1° of the month, the red and white Baneberries, Aetata rubra 



d alba, are found in the woods, and earlier in the month, or 

 in April, the Blood-root, Sanguinaria Canadensis, with 

 . ren iform leaves and curious white flowers. Let us not forget 

 to mention the wild Columbine, Aquilegia Canadensis, which in 

 April adorns dry hills and rocks with its delicate flowers, far 

 more delicate than any pet of the garden, nor those comical look- 

 ing Aracese, the Skunk Cabbage, Pothos foztida, or Symylocar- 

 or Ictodes, (for by all these names is it known to botanists) 

 ^hich well deserves its common appellation, with its purple 

 spathe drawn like a cowl over and around its spadix ; the 

 Orontium, or Golden Club, with its clavate spike of yellow 

 flowers, so curiously constructed, and the Arum itself, with its 

 trifoliate leaves, hood-shaped spathe, and acrid roots, which 

 we have wickedly, (for which sin of our youth may we be 

 pardoned,) offered to some one of our school fellows, less ac- 

 quainted with its properties than ourselves, as a rare and 

 delicious morsel. 'Young reader, do not imitate this injudicious 

 trick. These last are found in wet places, in low ground, by 

 the sides of brooks and ponds. Of the Cruciferse, only a few 

 flower early, such as the Draba, or Whitlow Grass, the Bar- 

 tered, or Winter Cress, and the Sisymbrium, or Flax Weed — 

 all, insignificant plants. In the open fields, spring up more 

 than one species of the Violet, and open their blue or white 

 petals to the first warm rays of the vernal sun. Nobody, 

 whether a botanist or not, can mistake a violet for any thing 

 else. In going through some old, open, moist wood, near the 

 base of a rock, the eye of the rambler is often caught at this 

 season by a cluster of delicate white flowers, veined with pur- 

 ple, terminating a slender stalk about half a foot high, with 



