"The Marsh Marigolds, With The Bright Yellow Buttercup-Looking Flowers,
Are Now In Full Luxuriance Of Bloom In Wet Places Near Running Water; They
May Not Be Esteemed Beautiful By All, And Yet All God's Works, And All His
Flowers, Are Good And Beautiful.
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.
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