THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 



25 



most of them dropped off. The new berries kept on grow- 

 ing and on April 23rd when I refilled the dish with the 

 delicate young fronds of fragile bladder fern {Cjstopteris 

 fragilis). I put the Mitchella back to see what it would 

 do ; it kept right on growing and the berries were ripe be- 

 fore the first of August. This was, of course, an indoors 

 experiment^ but, I am sure that in this locality Mitchella 

 repens blossoms in late June and early July and ripens its 

 fruit before the first of October. In April and May I find 

 the vines with the berries of the previous year fresh and 

 large, but in June, when I look for the plant in blossom, 

 the few berries I find are small and shrivelled. 

 Little Falls, N. t. 



HEN the first rains come to California, be ready for 



the botanizing of the new year. For within a few 

 hours the first plants have come to the surface and within 

 a few days have attained a size to show the most indiffer- 

 ent passer what and who they are. The brightest and 

 loveliest of all these precocious children is the filaree {Erod- 

 wm cicutarium) . It has with almost incredible swiftness 

 sent out a whorl of leaves that lie flat on the ground in 

 the form of a rosette, long leaves and short leaves alter- 

 nating in the most exquisite fashion. Each leaf is finely 

 cut like a fern, dark green, with the exception of the first 

 one or two, which have by the time the rosette is formed^ 

 turned to the richest red and yellow. These rosettes keep 

 on sending out leaves, growing ever thicker and larger till 

 such a time as the warmth of the sun warrants them in 

 sending up a flower stem. I know of nothing more beau- 

 tiful in the leaf world, not even ferns. 



With the coming of spring you some day suddenly 

 come upon a patch of filaree in bloom. It looks like slender, 

 long-stemmed verbena blossoms, pink or lilac, among dark 

 green ferns, and in a season of abundant rains, they are 



THE FILAREE. 



BY M, F. BRADSHAW. 



