The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-04-24
Spring Flowers.

plant Which L find to-day Ill secluded little
village among the hills of Connecticut
Has this flower lost one charm in all these
ages? Nay, verify, and its soft white
petals, veined with delicate green lines, are
as fresh and fair as when plucked by the
Greek philosopher eighteen hundred years
ogo.
But this is not to be an essay on the
charms of flowers; it is to be a botanical
lesson in its way-not oppressively scienti-
tic, and with no more of the hard words
shan can be helped and designed to help
those who, loving nature, are resolved to
explore dingle and bosky dell, and make
friends of each wildwood blossom that is
awakened by the kiss of the advancing
spring.
Let us begin, then, with April, and fol-
lowing her footsteps through low land and
high land, we shall be led on from charm
to charm. If, with the delicious opening
year, we take botany for recreation mere
ly, we shall be astonished at the work it
will give us. No heavy-hanging hours for
those who know how to use meadow and
stream, valley and hillside, and the dusky
mystery of forest-paths. First, in these
showery, shiny days, comes the wonderful
TRANSPORTATION of the bare branches around
us-the red flush of the maple-tips, the
silken gray and delicate green tassels of
willow, and birch, and elm, and hosts of
Others melting into deeper and stronger
tints, We might talk hours about trees
! They are perfect wonders; but they are
not our topic now. Our topic, however, is
rapidly developing beneath these very
branches; and nesting among the gnarled
roots, piercing the aromatic covering of
fallen leaves, are vernal shoots and unclos-
ing buds, which will day by day burst from
nook and corner in all the dewy, trembling
| grace of spring flowers.
First on the list, forever and forever, to
every loyal New England heart, comes the
waxen beauty of the peerless May-tlower,
its bewitching shyness counteracted some
how by its betraying fragrance, and its UNI
rivalled delicacy of flower making one i'll
different to its battered and weather-beaten
| leaves. which have b,aved the wintry blasts
Possibly you have never looked for May
| flowers. Perhaps you think it must be
dull and incorporating work. Try it
Go out into the pine-woods, and as you
sauntcr idly over the slippery carpet of
fallen pine-leaveS, or sit upon some rural
seat, suddenly there comes to you delicate
| Of f.,cr dali fhnf
think it surpasses anything of perfume that
you have ever known. What is it? where
is it You look around-all is gray, and
moist and misty in the soft morning of
early spring. Heaped around the tree
trunks are MOSES, and the hollows are fill
ed with dead leaves, whirled there by Win
try gales, but no sign of bud OF blossom is
to be seen.
1t must be fancy, and you resume your
musings. But it comes and keeps coming,
until, finally, you must solve the mystery.
You think it comes form the ground, and
down you stoop and with a stick at first
| push carelessly through wrapping coverings
of leaf, and twig, and woodland matters in
|
viting surroundings, you come upon such a
cluster of pearly-white and rosy-tinted
blossoms, that you cannot believe your
eyes, and hold your breath at your own
careless way of intruding into this sylvan
retreat. Now you are enlisted the stick is
abandoned, and your own white hands are
employed without gloves, i'll tenderly pry-
ing up and gently pushing aside all sorts of
things, no matter how msightly, that you
may trace the trailing branches along and
along, and draw out the hidden sprays of
beauty and fragrance. l am no prophet,
but l predict that if this is your first exper-
fence in May-hower seeking, it will not be
your last.
But we must not stop all day to glorify
| the May-hower. The botanical name is
Epigea repens. 1t is also called Trailing
Arbutus. These delicious flowers are
among the very earliest found in New
England. following closely upon the re-
treating snow-banks, and overtaking them
often, for have picked them beneath leaves
on which the snow was still resting.
About this time comes also, in trembling
grace and beausy, the Anemone family: the
pretty single Anemone (Anemonc nemoro-
sa.) white, shaded with pink, and dropping
lightly over soft, green leaves, and the
Hen and Chickens (Thalictrum ane-
monoides,) where the large upper blossom
| (the hen) looks down upon little troup of
| IL al lln f1,a,
Let all who find the AnemoneS, look
carefully for double ones-they are lovely
| Now also we find the Liver-leaf OIepatica
triloba) with glowing French blue, or
white, or rose-colored blossoms; and the
elegant Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canatlensis
where the pure white buds push their fair
heads out of the little green cloaks so ten
derby wrapped about them by mother Ma
ture. Now come the gay Wild Columbines
| (Aquilegia cauadensis,) Haunting on high
rocks, and the troops of Violets grazing the
lowly dells
| There are twenty OF more varieties in the
Violet family. Then there is the soft, pur-
pie Wild Geranium (Geranium macula-
| ttlli. tiS w dSCl-NoNSlllS
(Caltha palustris,) the curious Squirrel
Corn (Dicentra culcrt1laria,) the fragile
Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana.) the
hardy little Saxifrage (Saxifraga virginien-
sis,) the charming pink Azalea (Azalea
nuditlora.) and Jack-in-the-Pu Pulpit (Arisae-
ma triphyllum,) starting up in all direc-
| tons.
have given the botanical names of those
I have mentioned, hoping that all who are
disposed to treat themselves to the pure
and deep delight of studying wild-tlowers
the coming summer will have book in
which to faithfully register these long
names of their woodland friends. This is
rsscnSial to the true enjoyment and under
standing of this delightful pursuit. ! have
said nothing of cultivated flowcrs-not that
| love shem less but she others more:
Garlen-howcrs are charming, but for the
| botanical student not satisfying as Wild
| flowers. In April, you should find about