
II4 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 
setting that it has chosen for its own loveliness. It withers 
and turns black almost immediately after being plucked. As 
it uproots easily, it is often the case that those seeing it for the 
first time and being overcome with delight, tear it up ruthlessly 
and carry great quantities of it away. ‘This thoughtlessness 
can hardly be denounced too strongly ; and it is on the high 
road to exterminating some of our choicest species. 
LARGE FLOWERED MILKWORT. (Pilate LV.) 
Poljgala grandiflora. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Milkwort. Rose purple. Scentless. Mostly south. Late summer. 
Flowers : clustered in long racemes on flower-stalks. Calyx: of five very 
unequal sepals, three small at the base of the flower and two rising, coloured 
and petal-like, at each side, appearing like little wings. Stamezs : six or eight. 
fistil: one. Leaves: alternate; lanceolate. Szem.: much branched; hairy. 
As these quaint little blossoms grow older,—and one would 
never associate the idea of age with them did they not rebel so 
openly themselves,—their rosy hue forsakes them, and they turn 
rather greenish. They retain, however, their lively, fly-away 
expression, which even old Father Time is unable to subdue. 
PURPLE POLYGALA. 
Poljgala virtdéscens. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Milkwort. Rose lavender, white Scentless. New England south to Summer. 
or greenish. NV. Carolina and westward. 
Flowers: growing in a dense oblong head, or spike. Calyx : of five unequal 
sepals, the two inner ones being larger than, and coloured like, the petals. 
Corolla: of three united petals, the lower one shaped like a keel. Stamens: 
six, or more. /ist//: one. Leaves: numerous; alternate; linear. Stem: four 
to eight inches high; upright; leafy; branched. | 
An odd little flower that we all know in the moist meadows 
and by the roadsides, but which few of us can call by name. 
Purple polygala seems such a pretentious title for so fragile a 
blossom. Eye-spy would suit it better as it is always peeping 
out from unexpected places, 

