Читать книгу North American Wild Flowers - Agnes Dunbar Chamberlin - Страница 6
ОглавлениеNat. Ord. Ranunculaceæ.
“Lodged in sunny clefts,
Where the cold breeze comes not, blooms alone
The little Wind-flower, whose just opened eye
Is blue, as the spring heaven it gazes at.”
Bryant.
HE American poet, Bryant, has many happy allusions to the Hepatica under the name of “Wind-Flower;” the more common name among our Canadian settlers is “Snow-Flower,” it being the first blossom that appears directly after the melting off of the winter snows.
In the forest—in open grassy old woods, on banks and upturned roots of trees, this sweet flower gladdens the eye with its cheerful starry blossoms; every child knows it and fills its hands and bosom with its flowers, pink, blue, deep azure and pure white. What the daisy is to England, the Snow-flower or Liver-leaf is to Canada. It lingers long within the forest shade, coyly retreating within its sheltering glades from the open glare of the sun: though for a time it will not refuse to bloom within the garden borders, when transplanted early in spring, and doubtless if properly supplied with black mould from the woods and partially sheltered by shrubs it would continue to grow and flourish with us constantly.
We have two sorts, H. acutiloba, and H. triloba. A large variety has been found on Long Island in Rice Lake; the leaves of which are five lobed; the lobes much rounded, the leaf stalks stout, densely silky, the flowers large, of a deep purple blue. This handsome plant throve under careful cultivation and proved highly ornamental.
The small round closely folded buds of the Hepatica appear before the white silky leaves unfold themselves, though many of the old leaves of the former year remain persistent through the winter. The buds rise from the centre of a silken bed of soft sheaths and young leaves, as if nature kindly provided for the warmth and protection of these early flowers with parental care.
Later in the season, the young leaves expand just before the flowers drop off. The white flowered is the most common among our Hepaticas, but varieties may be seen of many hues: waxen-pink, pale blue and azure blue with intermediate shades and tints.
The Hepatica belongs to the Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceæ, the crow-foot family, but possesses none of the acrid and poisonous qualities of the Ranunculus proper, being used in medicine, as a mild tonic, by the American herb doctors in fevers and disorders of the liver.
It is very probable that its healing virtues in complaints of the liver gave rise to its common name in old times; some assign the name to the form of the lobed leaf.
