The Flume Poppy deserves a place for its 
rapid-growing proclivities. Foam Flower 
resembles it on a small scale 
Dutchman’s Breeches ( Dicentra cucullaria) 
makes an eminently satisfactory ground 
cover 
Great Burnet is common enough in some 
places, with its white flowers and attrac¬ 
tive dark foliage 
Some Experiences With Wild Flowers 
BRINGING IN SOME OF THE MORE INTERESTING AND BEAUTIFUL NATIVE 
PLANTS—WHAT TO TAKE AND HOW THEY THRIVE UNDER CULTIVATION 
by H. S. Ad a m s 
Photographs by the author, F. A. Walter and others 
F ROM the time that I was a youngster I have been in the habit 
of occasionally bringing home a few wild plants to see how 
they would accommodate themselves to more or less tame cir¬ 
cumstances. I confess that I like the fun of the thing, if I may 
so express what I really take quite seriously, and I presume that 
the habit will remain an occasional one with me the rest of my 
days. 
I remember that I began with the Columbine (Aquilegia 
Canadensis). Hitherto, the walks and drives in the course of 
which I took my early lessons in nature study had been to the 
woods, meadows and uplands to the east and the south, but now 
my way had led to the rocky ridge to the westward, where alone 
for miles around grew the Columbine and, though I did not know 
it then, a still choicer wild flower. Doubtless it was the novelty 
of the thing; at any rate I carried home a few plants of the 
abundant Columbine and made for them a little bed by the side 
of the house, in partial shade. Although this is now more than 
thirty years ago, I well recall that these plants alone of all that 
I have brought home from the wild showed any marked tend¬ 
ency to “improve” under cultivation. I let the seed ripen, and 
the next spring had a flourishing crop of youngsters that I in¬ 
stalled in a border of their own on the north side of the house, 
and a year later, when they flowered profusely, I was astonished 
to find that the second generation was fully three times as tall 
as the first. As the blossoms had lost correspondingly in brilli¬ 
ancy of color, the departure from normal did not strike me as 
particularly desirable. I have since brought the wild Columbine 
from real mountains, but I think there will never be any quite so 
beautiful as those first ones from the little ridge two miles to the 
westward of home. 
It is a striking commentary on the proverbial neglect of things 
close at hand that it was not until I had been to Europe three 
times, as well as to all four points of the compass in this country, 
that for the first time in my life I went to the top of the said 
ridge to get the view of the valley lying beyond. To a scenic 
revelation well worth while I added a delightful botanical dis¬ 
covery — coming across the veritable Harebell of the poets— 
Campanula rotundifolia —here and there on or near the top of 
the ridge. Now a Harebell, tucking itself between bits of rocks, 
is not easy to dig up with a penknife; but I succeeded in getting 
two plants that August afternoon, making sure that I did not 
overlook the part of the roots with the true leaves. I placed 
the plants in a corner of a border, with a small stone by them 
to make them feel at home, and rather feared that the spring 
would show no trace of such tiny things. But they came along 
vigorously and, instead of flowering in June and July, according 
to Wood, they straggled along until it was the November frosts 
that saw the last of my “blue bells of Scotland.” The smallest of 
all the Campanulas that I am familiar with, they are also the 
daintiest; and if these do not stay by me more shall come in from 
the wild. 
Another pleasant surprise of a summer walk came to me in 
the great meadow a few years ago. I never thought that those 
vast reaches of grass held any secrets from me, but one day I saw 
something very white, very fuzzy and very erect, rising above the 
lush green. I went over to the stranger. It was too big for my 
knife, so I left it for the next trip — only to find that the mowers 
had gone over the ground and, without the white flowers as a 
guide, it was useless to try and find the plant. The next summer 
I watched out for the blossoming, located the plant and with a 
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