The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-22
IN wHITsuNTIpE WOODS.

IN WHITSUNTIDE WOODS.
 The wild azalea is everywhere filling
 the woods and glades of Whitsuntide
 with the glory of it's bloom This trim
 little shrub can always be depended
 upon to come into blossom at this sea-
 son of the church's Pentecostal festi- val, which was known among the early
 Dutch settlers as Pinkster--a word near
 akin to our present-day Pennsylvania
 German Pinfgsta; and as the flower
 loving burglars of New Amsterdam
 could not fail to notice, the profuse bloom of the beautiful wilding they gave it the name of Pingster flower, by which it is known in the vicinity of
 New York to this day, Pennsylvanians
 usually call it the wild honeysuckle,
 though really it is not that, but true
 azalea. The lovely flowers when at l their best are arranged in soft buoyant
 spheres at the branch ends-often of a | red so deep as to make one almost think 1 the flame of a new Pentecost has come
 upon the bushes.
 The wild azalea is famous for often
 bearing upon it's twigs certain luscious 1 Jumps of greenish- white pulp. which
 are crisp juicy and refreshing in the
 mouth of thirsty childhood and not ut
 terly despised by older folk, The exact
 nature of these lumps-honey suckle | apples they are calied-was long a mat l ter of dispute among the learned. Some authorities have claimed that they are gals produced by the sting of
 an insect, but others say that they are a fungus; and as the latter faction | have given the growth scientific
 name almost as big as itself, and got it into the dictionary, they may be al- lowed to have gained the day
 The woods would seem to be taking other notice of Whitsuntide, too. There is, for instance, another preacher
 there now besides our familiar friend
 Jack n-the-pulpit. The newcomer is a strange little orchid which loves to in habit the loamy banks and hollows along woodland streams. Its flower at a short distance appears for all the world like the head of coWled monk with a long, flowing white beard; or looked at more closely, the upper part of the blossom is seen to be formed like miniature purple hood or sounding board, and the pistil beneath it Is not unlike the face of one speaking within. So the plant has come to be popularly known as the preacher in-the-pulpit, though the scientific call it by name that means the showy orchis.
 Then hard by among the rocks we Rn1 ha vii ta a glance at it's pods acquaints us with the fact that it, too is something of churchman; for the double pointed seed vessels are bifurcated and shaped like so many bishops init res-a charming feature of the plant often overlooked by those who admire it's white blooms in early spring, but do not think of it again in the later year.
 Id the pastures. also, where the daisies are just beginning to open their eyes to the May, there is a touch of the same churchly feeling. Here in the shadow cast by the woods grows a stemless bulbous plant with clustered erass-like leaves and star shaped flow CTS, which are white within and green outside with white margins. This is lub olHI-OI-D WHICH IS ildtlNF to Palestine, the Levant and parts of Europe and, like the Heavenly star for which it has been named, has spread it's rays far and wide in the earth. It is a very particular little flower about it's weather, and if the sun does not shine just to it's liking, it becomes sulky and 1 stays shut; even under the most favor able conditions it seems to open late in the day and close early
 The irregularity of its flowers to open has given rise to number of quaint | names for it in the old world. Thus in England it is sometimes called sleepy | Dick. and sometimes Betty-got to-bed- l at-noon; while to the French it is the | l .dy of eleven o'clock.
 If the rattlesnake were of vain dis position he would probably be a good | deal fattered by the number of name 1 sakes which he has in the plant world. | Rattlesnake plantain, rattlesnake root, | master, and many more at | test to the extent to which this disa- greeable reptile has engaged the rustic | mind in the search for an entidote to | the deadly bite. Then there is the rat tlesnake fern, common in rich woods. l Every one with an eye for such things knows it's daintily dissected triangular frond spreading horizontally from the middle of feshy stem The latter is continued several inches above the leaf, and terminates in bunch of readike spore cases, which may have suggested to some fearful mind resemblance to l rattlers tail, and so the name.
 This pretty fern has a secret which is not known to every one. If we examine he flat stalk near the bass we shall ind that there is, hollowed out at one side of it and Curtained by thin veil, a ,avity which contains the young bud of lext years plant. There, safe from the Derils of the wood and snug as baby )possum in the maternal pouch, the orehanded little bud passes it's un- ,ventfu infancy, looker-on at the crest drama in which next season it will have a part to play. By midsum- ner the bud is so far developed that me who knows where to look can often letect it without breaking it's protecting creen So, to those who will heed, Ioes the rattlesnake fern give as from lature's own lips, an assurance of an ther summer beyond the winter that is Q come,- Philadelphia Record.