NATIVE PLANTS IN FIELD, FOREST AND GARDEN. 



VARIOUS lAVORITF.S. 



LIKE the idea of drawing 

 attention to our native 

 plants, for among them 

 we have some of the best 

 gems in Flora's realm, 

 and many of them are 

 amenable to garden cul- 

 tivation. I would rather 

 spend an hour in Tuck- 

 erman's Ravine or by the Lakes of the 

 Clouds, than in Erastus Coming's 

 orchid houses. 



The fringed polygala occcurs in 

 moist, shady woods on Long Island, 

 but it is not nearly so abundant nor beautiful as in 

 the woods of Maine. The first white flowering ones 

 I had were sent to me about twelve years ago from 

 New Hampshire. Since then I found it in the 

 woods at Lewiston, Maine. The fringed polygalas, 

 with special care, grow well in our gardens, but 

 they will not thrive in open, sunny borders. Poly- 

 gala Chamcebuxics is a tiny shrubby species from 

 the Alps, and has long been cultivated and much 

 esteemed for garden rock-work. 



The yellow lady slipper {Cypripediiiiii pubescens), also 

 its near relative, C. parvifloriitu, are excellent garden 

 plants, easy to grow, long lived, and they are sure to 

 bloom every year. They like a somewhat shady spot, 

 not under trees, but rather on the north or east side of 

 a fence, wall or other shade-giving object ; also a some- 

 what moist soil with a loose, spongy surface such as 

 might be given by a coating of half-rotted leaves. And 

 the lovelier C. spectabile is just as good a garden plant 

 and is as easy to grow as are either of the preceding 

 yellow-flowered species, only it is two or three weeks 

 later. 



Both the calopogon and calypso are hard to estab- 

 lish and difficult to manage as garden plants, and 

 under artificial conditions never appear so beautiful as 

 when studded about over the surface of cold, mossy, 

 open meadows. But there are exceptional cases in which 

 they are, the calopogon especially, well grown in gardens. 



Orchis spectabilis grows in shady woods, and is easily 

 cultivated in the garden in such a place as cypripediums 

 enjoy. 



Habenaria ciliaris (Fig. 2) is an attractive orchid 

 abounding in great quantity near here along the side of 

 a neglected meadow bordering a wood and within a. few 

 hundred yards of the seashore. It is in fine bloom 



about the first of August. Most all of the showy habe- 

 narias can be grown well in the garden. They like a 

 moist soil, sandy or peaty if practicable, and a mossy or 

 shaded surface ; but the plants themselves, if their roots 

 are moist and shaded, seems to like to grow up into 

 moderate sunlight rather than shade. 



The Lithospenniiin cajiesceiis has never become as 

 popular a garden plant as its 

 merits deserve, although it is 

 showy when in flower, and 

 easy to grow as an open 

 border plant. I had it some 

 years ago from my kind friend 

 James Goldie, of Ontario. 



The rattlesnake plantain 

 [Gaoifyern pubescens, Fig. 1) 

 grows quite plentifully in the 

 woods hereabout, sometimes 

 in low, rich, moist, shady 

 woods, but oftenest on the 

 slopes of rather dry woods. 

 By bringing home sods of 

 plants, being careful to lift 

 the sod deep enough so as not 

 to injure the fleshy roots, it is 

 easily transferred to the gar- 

 den ; and by imitating 

 nature's conditions it thrives 

 very well in captivity. Like 

 many of our prettiest wild 

 plants that are difficult to 

 establish in the open yard, it 

 really seems to enjoy life 

 when grown in pots, pans or 

 wooden flats set in a shaded 

 cold frame. It is one of the 

 best of all native orchids. 

 Its leaves are always attract- 

 ive. 'I 



pJtW 



The spotted win- 

 tergreen (Chivia-^?~^^^^i. 

 phila maculata) is 

 quite common in 

 the damp, rich 

 woods here, and it 

 is always a plant 

 that attracts the 

 eye even of people 

 who don't know 

 anything about 

 plants. But it is one of the plants I cannot recommend 

 for general cultivation. To begin 'vith. it is hard to 



Fig. 



I. Rattlesnake Plantain 

 ( GooJyt'ia pul'cscc-iis). 



