The Newtown bee., 1898-07-08

"spoke tull well. In language quaint and old
en-,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine.
When no called the flowers. so blue and gold
en-,
Stars. that ingearths armament do shine"
And, thinking of the wild flowers OF
these towns, 1t occurred to me that some
of the inhabitants regard them much as
they do the actual stars-with little
knowledge and less interest. They know
that dandellons blossom In the spring, a
certain yellow thing, called cowslips,
comes up In the brooks about the same
time, later there are daisies, and in the
fall golden rod. Beyond this they are
not we'll informed, though they may
have lived here 40 or 80 years. Some
stranger could find in their swamps and
woodlots beautiful but common wild
flowers, that these worthy citizens had
never seen in their lives.
Most OF our country towns abound in
waste places, pleasant spots In which
Nature has her own way still and refus-
es TO be put In harness and labor for the
good of mankind These unsubdued
corners are q tangle of curious and ia
teresting plants. In one single town
that am familiar with, there are repre-
sented 100 botanical families and prob
ably 1000 species, that L., 1000 distinct
kinds of plants, each with its character
istic flower. The briefest possible de-
scription of them would make a good
sized volume, so | can mention only here
and there few.
RanunculaceRe, or the crow foot fam
lily, furnishes some of our prettiest
spring flowers, first among them the
hepaticas, blue flowers that blossom In
sunny woods soon after the snow Is
gone. They are sometimes found In
March.
can the woodland path 10 broken
And the low and sunny slope
IL alive with sudden hope
when appears thy silent token"
Later come two cousins of the hepati-
ca, the frail and delicate wind flowers,
wood anemone and rue anemone. A
very brilliant relative of these Ia the
marsh marigold, incorrectly called the
cowslIp. In May there are other cous-
ms, the columblne and several species of
buttercups.
A SMALL AND EXCLUSIVE FAMILY
are the violets, 30 familiar to everybody.
There are seven or eight varieties In this
region, among them two yellow kinds.
Now there are some good people who
have never seen yellow violet and deny
that such thing exists, nevertheless 1t
does. One sort Is very common In our
woods in the month OF May. The other,
though not common, is by no means
rare. 1t is this that Bryant refers to
when he says: #...
'.when beechen buds begin to swell,
And woods the biue birds MARBLE know,
The yellow yioiet's modest bell
Peeps from last years leaves below"
Ericaceae, the heath family Ii large
and interesting. 1t includes the buckle
berry, biIberry and something very diff
ferent from them, the trailing arbutus.
Also the mountain laurel, the azslias or
swamp honey auckies and In midsummer
those charming little wood plants, the
spotted wintergreen, princess pine, py-
rola and that curious thing, the Indian
pipe, with its brother, the pine sap.
THERE ARE SOME BEAUTIFUL ORCHIDS
Ia our woods, aristocraglc flowers OF
high degree, among them at least three
Kinds Of cypripedium or lady clippers, q
pink ore and two yellow sorts. They
have an equally handsome relative, the
orchIs spectabilia or snowy Orchis, which
sends up Ia May d short spike of pink
ana white nowers from between two
rpundisn green leaves. An eccentric
OF the family II the choral 70 |