276 



RECREATION. 



GENTIANA AUGUSTIFOLIA- IN 

 FLORIDA. 



It would seem strange to a flower lover 

 of the North, who does not see a wild 

 flower in bloom in the barren Northern 

 woods from October to April, to step out 

 here some day in mid-winter and find 

 blooming at his feet one of the most beau- 

 tiful and delicate flowers imaginable. Yet, 



MID-WINTER BLOSSOMS. 



here in Western Florida, where most vege- 

 tation is killed early in November, and 

 where the mercury sometimes registers as 

 low as zero, these little gems blossom from 

 November to March. 



This flower is, as its names implies, nar- 

 row leaved and slender stalked, not being 

 able to support, upright, the single flower, 

 without the aid of the grass through which 

 it rises. Gray's Manual recognizes 2 

 colors of this variety, one azure blue, and 

 one greenish and white variety; while one 

 form has pure white lobes. The throat is 

 greenish and the exterior tube is a 

 peculiar shade of dull greenish purple, 

 that at a distance looks blackish. 



The home of our winter gentian is the 

 low, moist, open ground bordering streams, 

 usually in heavy grass. Its height is a few 

 inches to a foot or more. The flowers are 

 about 2 inches long, and are sensitive to 

 heat and light, opening each bright, warm 



day, and remaining closed for days at a 

 time in cold, bad weather. I have found 

 gentians blooming on bright days follow- 

 ing almost zero weather. This peculiarity 

 renders them difficult to photograph, for 

 they begin to close in a few minutes after 

 removing them from the warm sunshine. 

 Changing them from a warm temperature 

 to a cooler often wilts them. Two of the 

 buds in the illustration closed during opera- 

 tions and most of the flowers were getting 

 limp. Gentian plants arc perennial, and 

 extend abundantly from New Jersey to 

 Florida in one form or another. 



C. E. Pleas, Chipley, Fla. 



AN INTERESTING RELIC, 



Sun Dial Presented to Yale University, by E. A. 



Caswell. Base from Stewart Mansion. Dial 



made by Gall & Lembke, New York. 



