VIRGINIA BLUEBELLS 



Mertensia virginica (Linnaeus) De Candolle 



The lovely Virginia bluebells, with their exquisite bright green 

 leaves, burst forth in unsuspected places in spring. Each year, after the 

 blooming and seeding season, the plants disappear before midsummer, 

 and not until another winter has passed and the spring sun and rains 

 have enticed them from their hiding places, do we again locate them 

 by their tender bronze-green shoots pushing through the moist earth. 

 They love the rich soil of river meadows or the banks of streams, and 

 cover the ground with their masses of bloom and tender green leaves. 

 Virginia bluebells yield easily to cultivation in a wildflower garden, 

 but they are not so well known as other members of the Borage Family, 

 the forget-me-nots and the heliotropes. In Europe they are much ap- 

 preciated in cultivated gardens. 



Virginia bluebells may be found from Georgia northward to New 

 York and southern Ontario, and westward to Kansas and Minnesota. 



The specimen sketched was obtained near Washington, District of 

 Columbia. 



PLATE 2.0 



