116 



THE AMERICAN BOTANmT. 



Burroughs says that it is one of the most adaptive plants^ 

 that we have^ and will grow many feet in height tinder 

 promising conditions, or will mature seed a few inches' 

 above the ground ^ as a last revS-ort. 



Ashtabula, Ohio. 



CHILDREN'S NAMES FOR FLOWERS, ' 



BY MRS. A. E. GOETTING. 

 /^HILDREN do not take kindly to Latin names and if 

 we hope to retain their natural love for flowers we 

 must help them to names as full of childish association as 

 possible. In fifty years of close companionship with both 

 children and flowers, I've been puzzled to see so little orig- 

 inality on their part in giving' names ; they take any com-^ 

 mon name given by others. Hoping others have had bet- 

 ter experience^ I report my meager list. 



In western North Carolina a very original little girl of 

 six took me in early spring to see her little pigs/'' She 

 went down among the brown leaves and scratched off the 

 leaf-mold to disclose the swollen though unopened buds of 

 the spotted wild ginger (A sarum Virgitiicum) . All her lit- 

 tle mates had learned of her to talk readily of little pigs. 



Two little brothers in northern Indiana took me one 

 May day to see their bed of pepper-and-salt. From a lit- 

 tle astray a full rod square of dainty blue and white Inno- 

 cense {Collinsia)hsid taken hold of this favored spot in the 

 woods. The children said their father feared in might be- 

 come a troublesome weed if spared but those I trans- 

 planted to my wild bed^ dropped no seeds for the next 

 year. 



Along the sandy ridges in Wisconsin in the sixties the 

 children used to wander in search of images {Poly gala 

 polygama). Their eyes saw the little winged forms that 

 only a lens revealed to me. 



In the turpentine belt of southern Georgia, three child- 

 ren brought to me some antique vaselike seed-pods saying, 



