"If blue is the favorite color of bees, and if bees have so much to do with the origin of flowers, how is it that there are so few blue ones? I believe the explanation to be that all blue flowers have descended from ancestors in which the flowers were green; or, to speak more precisely, in which the leaves surrounding the stamens and pistil were green; and that they have passed through stages of white or yellow, and generally red, before becoming blue." - Sir John Lubbock in "Ants, Bees, and Was

"Botany is a sequel of murder and a chronicle of the dead." - JULIAN HAWTHORNE. "A plant is not to be studied as an absolutely dead thing, but rather as a sentient being…. To measure petals, to count stamens, to describe pistils without reference to their functions, or the why and wherefore of their existence, is to content one's self with husks in the presence of a feast of fatness - to listen to the rattle of dry bones rather than the heavenly harmonies of life. We have reason to be profoundly

"The transition from wind-fertilization to insect-fertilization and the first traces of adaptation to insects, could only be due to the influence of quite short-lipped insects with feebly developed color sense. The most primitive flowers are therefore for the most part simple, widely open, regular, devoid of nectar or with their nectar unconcealed and easily accessible, and greenish, white, or yellow in color…. Lepidoptera, by the thinness, sometimes by the length, of their tongues, were able to

"All variations which render the blossoms more attractive, either by scent, color, size of corolla, or quantity of nectar, make the insect visit more sure, and therefore the production of seed more likely. Thus, the conspicuous blossoms secure descendants which inherit the special variations of their parents, and so, generation after generation, we have selections in favor of conspicuous flowers, where insects are at work. Their appreciation of color, because it has brought the blossom possessin

"I want the inner meaning and the understanding of the wildflowers in the meadow. Why are they? What end? What purpose? The plant knows, and sees, and feels; where is its mind when the petal falls? Absorbed in the universal dynamic force, or what? They make no shadow of pretence, these beautiful flowers, of being beautiful for my sake; of bearing honey for me; in short, there does not seem to be any kind of relationship understood between us, and yet . . . language does not express the dumb feel

Baby's Breath. Large Purple-fringed Orchis. Smaller Purple-fringed Orchis. Hepatica (occasionally). Purple Marsh Clematis. English Violet. Wild Phlox. Catnip. Pennyroyal. Wild Thyme. Peppermint. Spear Mint. Wild Mint. Pasture Thistle. Pink Moccasin Flower. Showy Orchis. Rose Pogonia. Arethusa. Calopogon. Night-flowering Catchfly. Bouncing Bet. Purple-flowering Raspberry. Queen-of-the-Prairie. Wild Rose. Red Clover. Musk Mallow. Prince's Pine. Bog Wintergreen. Pink Azalea. White Azalea. Trailing

WATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY (Alismaceae)   Water-plantain. Arrow-head. ARUM FAMILY (Araceae) Jack-in-the-pulpit. Green dragon. Arrow-arum. Water-arum. Skunk cabbage. Golden-club. Calamus-root. SPIDERWORT FAMILY (Commelinaceae)   Day-flowers. Spiderwort. Wandering Jew. PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY (Pontederiaceae)   Pickerel-weed. BUNCH-FLOWER FAMILY (Melanthaceae)   White hellebore. Bellworts. LILY FAMILY (Liliaceae)   Lilies. Adder's tongue. Hyacinths. Star-of-Bethlehem. Colic-root. LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY FAMILY