TRANSIENT BOTANIZING 



By Dr. W. W. Bailey. 



OXE may sometimes do some pleasant botanizing from the 

 windows of a railway car. It is my belief, however, 

 that some inexorable fate compels the train to hurry just at 

 those points where the observer's curiosity is heightened by the 

 sight of some conspicuous flower, ill-determined by the rapid 

 passage. Often have I longed for even a five minutes stop to 

 allow me to ascertain what orchid, perhaps, was offering- its 

 splendid tribute for admiration. 



For several summers I have been impressed by the W^ee- 

 hawken meadows, gay with flowers as the fabled fields of Enna. 

 The A\^est Shore Railway carries one through these and he 

 has views of the long acres of purple loosestrife {LytJiruin 

 salicaria). This becomes still more abundant in Rockland and 

 Orange counties. New York. The splendid carpet of lavender 

 is enriched by frequent ravishing glimpses of tufts of rose mal- 

 low (Hibiscus iiioscJicutos) surely one of the most superb of 

 our native flowers. How cool and inviting are its pavilions of 

 pink, satin-like material into wdiich some troubador bee, gay 

 with black and yellow velvet, plunges for his siesta. 



After all, despite our teaching to the contrary, big flowers 

 are most enticing. For instance, in these same swamps one sees 

 great trumpets of pink and white bind weed, or splendid, single 

 white roses. The tiny flecks of flowers in which the microscope 

 reveals many undreampt-of beauties — the grasses like wild rice 

 or the spartinas for instance — are not wanting, but of these 

 the car window only permits of a view cii masse. 



