Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/105

Rh relatives. This disagreeable shrub, to make itself doubly sure of escaping the ravages of foraging animals, has armed itself with multitudes of keen prickles upon all its parts. It has won in the race, for in many places on the low land along the streams it occupies the ground to the exclusion of all else of a woody nature. The small-flowered buttercup is an instance of where, in a large genus having mostly showy flowers, the petals of a species may be much reduced. The wild gooseberry is a plant with possibilities that still remain undeveloped. It may have vast resources that only the practical horticulturist can develop in his own time and way. The gooseberry is not the only wild fruit plant that deserves the quickening hand of skill to bring it, in an improved and acceptable form, before the world. Our wild apples, plums, cherries, blackberries, thorn-apples, papaws, huckleberries, cranberries, and an extended list of native fruits, are all hopeful subjects for the fruit-grower. Let any who would begin the work of subjugation look at the results already obtained from the culture of the American grapes.

The 22d of the month has Astragalus caryocarpus (Ker.) and Celtis occidentalis (L. ) scored against it. The former is a vetch, with a pod so hard and plump that it has taken the common name of "ground-plum." The latter, the hackberry, is a choice tree closely related to the elms, but bearing berry-like fruits instead of those with wings.

From this time forward the list for each day lengthens. For the 23d, the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale, Weber); the two wood-sorrels (Oxalis violacea, L., and O. corniculata, var. stricta, Sav.); false Solomon's-seal (Smilacina stellata, Desp.); wild ginger (Asarum Canadensis, L.); slippery-elm (Ulmus fulva, Michaux); and the wild sweet-william (Phlox divaricata, L. ), make up a full list that ought to satisfy any ambitious collector. If we except the slippery-elm and the dandelion—the latter, because it grows as a weed in our lawn and not from any lack of inherent beauty—we have five species of spring flowers, strictly so called, and objects of the flower-hunter's search. The tyro will be quite sure to find the "prairie phlox" with its high and showy flower-cluster, and likewise he should return with the first of the smilacinas and the sorrels, but no blame will rest upon his head if he oversteps the inconspicuous although large flowers of the wild ginger that shyly keep close upon the ground beneath the plant's large reniform leaves. The next day added the following to the list of plants in flower: Gill or ground-ivy (Nepeta glichoma, Benth.); the great bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora, Smith); the little Anemonella thalictroides (Spach.), before mentioned with isopyrum; and Ostrya Virginica ( Willd.), the hop-hornbeam. The bellwort has the most showy flower of the day, and the hornbeam the least conspicuous. April 25th continues the list as follows: The star-grass (Hypoxis erecta, L.), the old hand-leaf violet (V. cuculata, var. palmata, Gray),