66 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
it is not indigenous to America. It bears a considerable likeness 
to the fragrant Galium, however, so that the comparison of the 
two herbs by an untrained collector is not unnatural. To what 
extent the name woodruff for this Galium may prevail in our coun- 
try, I do not know ; but the little incident above related was inter- 
esting to me as affording an object lesson in one source of plant 
misnomers. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
SOME APRIL FLOWERS. 
By Prof. W. Whitman Bailey. 
The first few weeks of Spring are proverbially very fickle. Af- 
ter these, however, though the weather is often uncanny, and even 
"May is so much like Mayn't," things generally so equalize them- 
selves that the experienced wood-lover can forecast almost to a 
day, the advent of any particular flower. 
Emerson used to cite an example of Thoreau's marvellous in- 
stinct, that he would say with confidence, "The Cypripedium 
blooms tomorrow." As a matter of fact it requires no special, 
qualification to assert its coming in the week of the 20th of May. 
So is it with the Arethusa and the painted-cup as well as other 
vernal flowers. 
The writer considers this, so far as wild things go, a fair av- 
erage year. It started to be precocious but recent cold ''snaps" 
have notably retarded vegetation. Last week we had the pleasure 
of gathering Hepatica and Dutchman' s-breeches in abundance in 
Westchester, N. Y. The latter charming plant, for some in- 
scrutable reason, avoids Rhode Island, though it goes all around 
and even far north of us. Up the Hudson Valley it is one of the 
earliest, as it is one of the most charming of the wild-flowers. 
We have heard it called "Ladies-ear-drops," a pretty name, but 
not likely to supplant the homely popular title so vividly suggest- 
ing Rip and his lazy companions of Catskill. 
The plant is a Dicentra or Dielytra (as the name became by a 
misprint), and is first cousin of the "Bleeding-heart" of the gar- 
