BLUE AND PURPLE GROUP 



Sepals, slightly turned back. Lip, large for the flower, broad, 

 nearly $ inch long. Leaves, 2, at the base of the flower-stem, 



2 to 5 inches long, oval or ovate, clasping the stem with large, 

 loose sheaths. Flowers, few or many, scattered, in terminal 

 racemes, on slender pedicels. Scape, 4 to 10 inches high. 



Low herbs from solid bulbs, with scales on the scape be- 

 sides the 2 large leaves. Leaves, shining, green. Rich, 

 moist woods, Maine to Georgia and westward. 



Putty-root. Adam-and-Eve 



Apledrum hiemale. — Family, Orchis. Color, variegated. (See 

 P- 372-) 



Crane Fly Orchis 



Tipulkria discolor, — Family, Orchis. Color, greenish, tinged 

 with purple. (See Green Flowers, p. 24.) 



Wild Ginger. Asarabacca 



Asarum canadinse. — Family, Birth wort. Color, dull brown- 

 purplish. Corolla, wanting. Calyx, bell-shaped, spreading, with 



3 short, pointed lobes lying flat, open. Stamens, 10. Style, 6- 

 lobed at summit, with 6 spreading stigmas. Fruit, a fleshy, 

 roundish capsule, bursting irregularly and scattering many seeds. 

 Leaves, 2, on long petioles, from creeping rootstocks, kidney- 

 shaped, 4 to 5 inches broad, thin, and translucent. Early May. 



The flower grows low down near the root, from between 

 the leaves, on a short peduncle. Its dull color enables it to 

 hide itself with ease under the broad pair of leaves which rise 

 above it. Unless one should recognize the leaf, it would be 

 difficult to discover this plant. Its rootstock has a pungent, 

 aromatic, ginger-like taste. It has pretensions to being 

 among our earliest spring flowers, being mentioned by Mr. 

 Gibson as among the possible March bloomers. Rich, damp 

 woods. Common. (See illustration, p. 306.) 



Virginia Snakeroot 



Aristolochia Serpent aria. — Family, Birthwort. Color, purplish or 

 greenish. Calyx, tubular, bent like the letter S, smaller in the 

 middle, the small limb at the top 3-lobed. Petals, none. Stamens, 

 6, with sessile anthers joining in pairs, each pair overtopped by 

 one of the 3 lobes of the stigma. Ovary, 6-celled. Leaves, alter- 

 nate, ovate, or long and narrow, heart-shaped at base, acute at 

 apex. Stem, upright, 6 to 18 inches high, covered with soft, 

 downy hairs, branched below. July. 



Flowers all near the root on short peduncles. The root 



3°5 



