After the coming of dense leaves in the woods, flowers are 
found mostly in the open places, and in the local flora valley be- 
low many plants are now in bloom. Near the bog are four fami- 
lies of monocotyledons: lily, grass, sedge, and iris families. 
The grasses have round, hollow stems; the sedges, solid 
stems, usually triangular. In the grasses, not in the sedges, the 
lower part of the leaf clasping the stem is slit. The genus Carex 
of the sedges has nearly a hundred species on Long Island, 
many more than any other genus of plants. 
The iris family is readily known by the equitant leaves. 
Flowers may be seen of a native iris, or blue-flag, and of a yellow 
species naturalized from Europe. The little blue-eyed grasses 
may be seen to be like iris in the flower and in the leaves. 
The buckwheat family includes) several common weeds: the 
large docks, of which there are several species; the ladies’ thumb, 
tear-thumb, field-sorrel, and climbing knotwood. The last is 
sometimes taken for a morning-glory, but may be recognized by 
the family mark: sheaths clasping above swollen joints of the 
stem. 
In the pink family also are several common weeds with small 
white star-like flowers and opposite leaves. Here belong chick- 
weed, the fire pink, bladder campion, and soapwort. 
The orpine family also has star-like flowers; the leaves are 
fleshy. The yellow mossy stonecrop and the large purple garden 
orpine are both naturalized from Europe. In the same bed is a 
prickly pear, the only representative here of the great western 
cactus family. 
In the buttercup family may be seen the common tall butter- 
cup of the meadows, Ranunculus acris, and the bulbous butter- 
cup, Ranunculus bulbosus , lower, with somewhat different leaves 
and growing from a bulb-like base; both are naturalized from 
Europe. The meadow-rues are mostly dioecious plants; stam- 
inate and pistillate forms may be seen of the early meadow-rue, 
and staminate ones of the later tall meadow-rue. The purple 
European columbine is a garden escape. The plants of this fam- 
ily have the parts attached to an elongated receptacle, apparently 
a more primitive arrangement than that illustrated by the rose 
family near by. In the latter the receptacle is flattened or cup- 
shaped, and the stamens and petals grow from the edge, a form 
better adapted to insect pollination. Here bloom cinquefoil, 
strawberry, agrimony, and others. 
The great pea family also has a flattened receptacle; but the 
stamens are often united and the flowers have a distinct form, pap- 
ilionaceous (butterfly-shaped), like the pea. The small flowers of 
the clovers are grouped together, each pea-shaped. The white 
clover, widely distributed, is the shamrock of Ireland. The sweet 
