A Window in Arcady 
him. A few days of fine weather, however, make a new 
man of him and he is now among the jauntiest of all the 
woodfolk. Every country child knows the intense, biting 
acridity of the bulb-like root of this plant, which also goes 
under the name of the Indian turnip because the redmen 
used it for food. One must respect the memory of that 
aboriginal genius of the kitchen, whoever she was, who 
discovered that roasting the fiery vegetable transformed it 
into a harmless ball of starchy nutrition. 
Near neighbor to the Indian turnip in rich woods grow* 
the wild ginger. This is one of the oddest of our sylvan 
blossoms and is sure to interest those who see it for the first 
time. In April the creeping, snake-like root puts up buds, 
each of which develops a pair of stout, heart-shaped leaves 
and between them a short-stalked, furry little flower 
grayish without and dark purple within, and resembling 
a cup with three wavy, tapering handles. At first the two 
leaves interlock in such a way as to form a protecting 
chalice about the flower, but when the latter’s infancy 
is passed the leaves grow upward beyond the reach of the 
short-legged blossom, which then lays its cheek confidingly 
against old Mother Earth’s and so lives out its little life 
to the profit of sundry humble bugs that creep about the 
ground, glad of a chance at pollen and honey-stores scj 
convenient to their reach. A pleasant characteristic of the 
wild ginger, which, by the way, is no relation at all of true 
ginger, is the aromatic fragrance which it exhales from 
root and leaf—a pungent perfume which has given rise to 
the popular name of the plant, and has caused the root tc 
be extensively employed in the manufacture of perfumery. 
[38] 
