A low plant. Leaves.—From the root, long-stalked, parted into two rounded leaflets. Scape.—One-flowered. Flower.—White, one inch broad. Sepals.—Four, falling early. Petals.—Eight; flat, oblong. Stamens.—Eight. Pistil.—One, with a two-lobed stigma.
The twin-leaf is often found growing with the blood-root in the woods of April or May. It abounds somewhat west and southward.
Harbinger-of-Spring.
Erigenia bulbosa. Parsley Family (p. [15]).
Stem.—Three to nine inches high, from a deep round tuber. Leaves.—One or two, divided into linear-oblong leaf-segments. Flowers.—White, small, few, in a leafy-bracted compound umbel.
PLATE IV
MAY-APPLE.—P. peltatum.
The pretty little harbinger-of-spring should be easily identified by those who are fortunate enough to find it, for it is one of the smallest members of the Parsley family. It is only common in certain localities, being found in abundance in the neighborhood of Washington, where its flowers appear as early as March.
Early Everlasting. Plantain-leaved Everlasting.
Antennaria plantaginifolia. Composite Family (p. [13]).
Stems.—Downy or woolly, three to eighteen inches high. Leaves.—Silky, woolly when young; those from the root, oval, three-nerved; those on the flowering stems, small, lance-shaped. Flower-heads.—Crowded, clustered, small, yellowish-white, composed entirely of tubular flowers.
In early spring the hill-sides are whitened with this, the earliest of the everlastings.