Let Any One See Them As I Have Seen Them,
A Large Flowerbed Of An Acre And More, One Mass
Of the brightest yellow, a
crystal stream meandering through their midst, the beautiful Falls of
Montmorenci across the river rolling
Their deep strains of Nature's music,
the rising tide of the St. Lawrence beating with refreshing waves at their
feet, and a cloudless azure sky over head, from which the rosy tints of
early morn had hardly disappeared, and if his soul be not ready to
overflow with gratitude to the Supreme Being who has made everything so
beautiful and good, I do not know what to think of him. I would not be
such a man, 'I'd rather be a dog and bay the moon.'"
The whole Gomin bog is studded with Smilacina Bifolia, sometimes
erroneously called the white lily of the valley, also the Smilacina
Trifolia, the Dentaria, the Streptopus roseus or twisted stem, a
rose-colored flower, bearing red berries in the fall. There are also in
this wood, trillium, the May flower, Hepatica, and Symplocarpus,
thickets crowned with Rhodoras in full bloom - a bush a few feet high
with superb rose-colored flowers - the general appearance of a cluster of
bushes is most magnificent. In the same locality, further in the swamp,
may be found the Kalmia angustifolia bearing very pretty compact rose-
colored flowers like small cups divided into five lobes, also the
beautiful Ladies' Slipper Orchis (Cypripedum humile) in thousands on the
borders of the swamp, - such is Sillery wood in May. The crowded flora of
June is the very carnival of nature, in our climes. "Our Parish" is no
exception. The Ladies' Slippers, Kalmia Smilacina, etc., may still
be gathered in the greatest abundance throughout most of this month. Here
is also the bunch of Pigeon berry, in full bloom, the Brooklime Spedwell,
the Blue-eyed-grass, the herb Bennet, the Labrador Tea, the Oxalis
Stricta and Oxalis acetosella, one with yellow, the other with
white and purple flowers: the first grows in ploughed fields, the second
in the woods. "Our sensitive plant; they shut up their leaves and go to
sleep at night, and on the approach of rain. These plants are used in
Europe to give an acid flavor to soup." Here also flourishes the Linnea
Borealis, roseate bells, hanging like twins from one stalk, downy and
aromatic all round. In the middle of June, the Ragwort, a composite flower
with yellow heads, and about one-half to two feet high, abounds in wet
places by the side of running streams. Also, the Anemone, so famous in
English song, principally represented by the Anemone Pennsylvanica,
growing on wet banks, bearing large white flowers; add the Corydalis,
Smilacina racemosa resembling Solomon's Seal. Here we light on a lovely
Tulip bed; no - 'tis that strangely beautiful flower, the pitcher plant
(Saracenia Purpurea). Next we hit on a flower not to be forgotten, the
Myosotis palustris or Forget-me-not. Cast a glance as you hurry onwards
on the Oenothera pumila, a kind of evening primrose, on the false
Hellebore - the one-sided Pyrola, the Bladder Campion - silene inflata,
the sweet-scented yellow Mellilot, the white Yarran, the Prunella with
blue labrate flowers the Yellow Rattle, so called from the rattling of the
seeds. The perforated St. John's Wort is now coming into flower
everywhere, and will continue until late in August; it is an upright
plant, from one to two feet high, with clusters of yellow flowers. The
Germans have a custom for maidens to gather this herb on the eve of St.
John, and from its withering or retaining its freshness to draw an augury
of death or marriage in the coming year. This is well told in the
following lines: -
"The young maid stole through the cottage door,
And blushed as she sought the plant of power;
Then silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light,
I must gather the mystic St. John's Wort to-night,
The wonderful herb whose leaf must decide
If the coming year shall make me a bride.
And the glow-worm came
With its silvery flame,
And sparkled and shone
Through the night of St. John;
While it shone on the plant as it bloomed in its pride,
And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.
With noiseless tread
To her chamber she sped,
Where the spectral moon her white beams shed.
"Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power,
To deck the young bride in her bridal hour;
But it dropped its head, the plant of power,
And died the mute death of the voiceless flower
And a withered wreath on the ground it lay,
And when a year had passed away,
All pale on her bier the young maid lay;
And the glow-worm came,
With its silvery flame,
And sparkled and shone
Through the night of St. John;
And they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay,
On the day that was meant for her bridal day."
Let us see what flowers sultry July has in store for us in her bountiful
cornucopia. "In July," says a fervent lover of nature, "bogs and swamps
are glorious indeed," so look out for Calopogons, Pogonias, rose-colored
and white and purple-fringed Orchises, Ferns, some thirty varieties, of
exquisite texture,
"In the cool and quiet nooks,
By the side of running brooks;
In the forest's green retreat,
With the branches overhead,
Nestling at the old trees' feet,
Choose we there our mossy bed.
On tall cliffs that won the breeze,
Where no human footstep presses,
And no eye our beauty sees,
There we wave our maiden tresses,"
the Willow-herb, the true Partridge-berry, the Chimaphila, Yellow Lily,
Mullein, Ghost Flower, Indian Pipe, Lysimacha Stricta, Wild Chamomile.
August will bring forth a variety of other plants, amongst others the
Spirantes, or Ladies' Tresses, a very sweet-scented Orchis, with white
flowers placed as a spiral round the flower stalk, the purple Eupatorium,
the Snake's head, and crowds of most beautiful wild flowers, too numerous
to be named here.
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