Nat. Ord. Portulacace.®. 
Claytonia Virginica. 
Where the fire had smoked and smouldered 
Saw the earliest flower of Spring time, 
Saw the beauty of the Spring time, 
Saw the Miskodeed (*) in blossom. 
Hiawatha. 
I HIS simple, delicate little plant is one of our earliest April 
flowers. In warm springs it is almost exclusively an 
April flower, but in cold and backward seasons, it often 
delays its blossoming time till May. 
Partially hidden beneath the shelter of old decaying timbers 
and fallen boughs, its pretty pink buds peep shyly forth. It is often 
found in partially cleared beech-woods, and in rich moist meadows. 
In Canada, there are two species ; one with few flowers, white, 
both leaves and flowers larger than the more common form; the 
blossoms of the latter are more numerous, smaller, and of a pale pink 
colour, veined with lines of a deeper rose colour, forming a slender 
raceme ; sometimes the little pedicels or flower stalks are bent or 
twisted to one side, so as to throw the flowers in one direction. 
(*) Miskodeed—Indian name for Spring Beauty. 
