Cowslip, and other similar species with smaller flowers, are found in Eastern United States, and about six other species are found mostly in the Western states. In some of these species the flowers are white and in one with much smaller flowers and floating leaves the flowers are often pink. They belong to the Crowfoot family. Some varities, such as the Bird-on-the-wing, Polygala paucifolia, also called Fringed Milkwort, Flowering Wintergreen and Gaywings, are found in moist rich woods from New Brunswick and Saskatchewan south to Minnesota, Illinois and Georgia, being confined largely to the mountainous sections of its more southerly range, and ascending to an altitude of two thousand five hundred feet in Virginia and it belongs to the Milkwort family.
In some of these flowers the central part of the corolla is white, and very rarely the entire flower is white. Occasionally a few small, hidden, underground flowers are also found. The root has a decidedly wintergreen flavor. The flowers are rare, and much in need of protection. The Hepatica or Liver-leaf, Hepatica aniericana; H. triloba, belongs to the Crowfoot family and is found in woods from Nova Scotia to northern Florida and west to Manitoba and Missouri and in Alaska.
It is one of the earliest spring flowers and as the young leaves and flower buds unfold they are covered with long silky white hairs, which are very unusual, but no less attractive, and intriguing. The flowers at first are usually deep blue, and often vary to pinkish, or nearly white in color. The leaves on the under side are of a dark purplish-red color, like the liver, from which the plant gets its name. While the flowers are common in many places they should not be picked for large bouquets unless very abundant in the interests of saving the species for future generations to enjoy, and nurture.
Only one other species, with more sharply lobed leaves is known from North America. Its range is similar to the above but it is rarely found near the Atlantic coast. The Virginia Bluebell, Mertensia virginica, belongs to the Borage family and is found in low meadows and along streams from southern Ontario to New Jersey, and South Carolina, west to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas. One similar species is found in the eastern states, and about thirty other species mostly in the western half of the United States. The flowers wilt quickly and should be picked sparingly unless abundant.
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