VERNAL FLOWERS. 
253 
The Claytonia, or as it is often called, spring beauty, is also 
to be found at this season ; the dandelion too, you well know is 
found among the earliest flowers of spring. The garden violet 
which is an exotic, appears also at this time ; the Viola rotun - 
difolia, or yellow violet, with roundish leaves, lying close to the 
ground, is found in the fields. Besides these, are found several 
species of Carex, a coarse kind of grass ; the trailing arbutus, 
Epig.ea repens, and the Trillium, which we remarked under 
the class Hexandria, as a flower exhibiting great uniformity in 
its divisions. 
In May, many species of the Viola appear ; there is some- 
times a difficulty in determining between these species ; the dis- 
tinctive marks seem often to be blended ; we are in such cases 
obliged to place our plant under that species, to which in our 
judgment, it seems to have most resemblance. 
One of the most interesting flowers of this season, found in 
woods and maedows, is a species of Anemone, the Windflower, 
( virginiana ,) a name, given as some say, because the flower 
expands only in windy weather ; its petals are large and usu- 
ally white, the stem grows to the height of two or three feet, and 
contains one terminal flower. Several other species of the Ane- 
mone are in blossom about this time. 
The Xi/losteum, or fly-honey-suckle, may be found by the 
side of brooks, a shrub with blossoms growing in pairs ; also the 
Evularta, a plant of the lily family having a yellow blossom ; 
and the strawberry, with its numerous stamens growing on the 
calyx ; it has also many styles, each one bearing a seed. 
The Aronia, or shad-blossom, is an early flower, a species of 
which is not unfrequently found in April. It is a shrub, often 
growing upon the banks of brooks, with white petals, clustering 
together in the form of a raceme. 
Many of the mosses are now in blossom ; these, we trust, you 
have learned to consider as presenting much that is interesting, 
to those who understand their structure ; but you will not be 
called on to examine the mosses in the commencement of your 
botanical studies, neither M ill they be likely to force themselves 
upon your notice. You no doubt u r ere surprised to learn that 
they have floM-ers, and are considered as of any importance ; but 
you must recollect they are the u’orkmanship of His hand, M ho 
is no less wise in the formation of a moss, than in the creation 
of a M orld. You have learned, it is to be hoped, so much hu- 
mility, as to see that all that God has made is important, and that 
our ignorance of the uses of natural productions, is not a proof 
of his want of wisdom, but of our blindness. 
Dandelion, &c. — Flowers of May — Viola — Anemone, &c. — Mosses now 
in bloom — 
