(Plate XCVIII)

Family

Polemonium.

Colour

Pink purple or white.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

New England southward and westward.

Time of Bloom

April-June.

Flowers: on pedicels: growing in terminal racemes. Calyx: of five narrow lobes. Corolla: with five obovate lobes, notched at the apex. Stamens: five, unequal, in the throat of the corolla. Pistil: one; stigma, three-lobed. Leaves: scattered; lanceolate; pubescent. Stem: creeping; rising slightly from the ground.

It may be imagined how lovely is the hillside where this little plant spreads a carpet of its soft bloom. The mingling of the many colours and the dark eyes that peep out coquettishly seem as though they were coaxing one to stop and play with them awhile.

The plant requires little moisture, and in a time of a drought, when the earth was almost cracking for want of rain, they were noticed to be the only flowers on a sterile, rocky hillside that were not languishing.