Yellow Loosestrife—Wet places.
Early Summer Flowers—Pink.
The Pink Lady Slipper, like the Yellow, is another orchid. Baldwin, to whom we have referred before, tells us where he usually found them; he says: "The finest specimens I ever saw sprang out of a cushion of crisp reindeer moss high up among the rocks of the exposed hillside, and again I have found it growing vigorously in hills upon swamps, but nearly colorless from excessive moisture." He further says that "A lady who has found it in the Adirondacks says she found it to have a great fondness for decaying wood and often saw a whole row perched like birds along a crumbling log."
A smaller laurel with dark pink flowers blooms in June. It is called "Lamb-killer," because of the belief that it is poisonous to sheep.
Corydalis—Rocky woods.
Adder's Mouth—Swamps.
Early Summer Flowers—Red.
Thoreau writes: "The Painted Cup is in its prime. It reddens the meadow, painted cup meadow. It is a splendid show of brilliant scarlet, the color of the cardinal flower and surpasses it in mass and profusion. I do not like the name; it does not remind me of a cup, rather of a flame when it first appears. It might be called 'flame flower' or 'scarlet tip.' Here is a large meadow full of it, and very few in the town have ever seen it. It is startling to see a leaf thus brilliantly painted, as if its tip were dipped into some scarlet mixture, surpassing most flowers in intensity of color."
Early Summer Flowers—Blue and Purple.
The Blue-eye Grass, which belongs to the same family as the Blue Flag, carpets the moist meadows at this season of the year. The Blue Flag and Fleur-de-lis is the flower of France; the name "Fleur-de-lis," the flower of Louis, King Louis VII having chosen it as his particular badge. Look for it in damp meadow grounds in June.