22 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
or sweet olive (Osmmthus Americanus) and ought to be satis- 
fied. Although the olive often attains the proportions of a small 
tree, it has many characteristics that recall the arbutus. Its 
leaves are evergreen, and the flow^ers, though rather smaller are 
very similar in appearance. They are borne in axillary clusters 
and are probably more fragrant than those of the arbutus. The 
flov^'er-sellers usually place a spray of these flowers in the center 
of their bunches of violets for the sake of added fragrance. The 
tiny stands of these flower-sellers, it may be added, are among the 
characteristic sights of New Orleans. Here and there, in con- 
venient corners along the sidewalks — or banquettes as they are 
called here — they are located. At this season they are usually 
piled high with bunches of violets, and the buyer may have his 
choice of the lot for five cents. 
As elsewhere, the weeds vie with other early flowers for first 
place. If the chickweed ceases blooming at all it must be during 
the dryest and hottest part of Summer, and other weeds appear 
scarcely less persistent. Late in January, I plucked a plant of 
yellow oxalis from between two paving stones in a city street and 
found it full of buds, blossoms and fresh green seed pods, the lat- 
ter nearly an inch long. When the blossoms that produced these 
pods opened, is a matter for conjecture. I have a suspicion that 
the early flowers are cleistogamous. 
No doubt the coming months will bring something fine in the 
way of wild flowers ; but at present the woods have a deserted air 
to one accustomed to the sight of trilliums, bloodroot, bellwort, 
adder-tongue, spring beauties, hepaticas and the host of other 
flowers that make the northern spring beautiful. Here are acres 
upon acres of swamp land and not a single skunk's cabbage to 
push its spotted cowl above the flood and keep the peeping frogs 
company. Everywhere the earth teems with promises of spring 
— quickening seeds, unfolding buds, lengthening shoots, radical 
leaves daily spreading into larger rosettes, thistles already large 
enough to fill a wash-tub' — but as yet few or no showy flowers, al- 
though various species of butterflies are winging their way over 
the fields apparently in search of them. The bulbous plants and 
