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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wildflowers in Betsy-Tacy and Tib

On a recent re-read of the early books in the series, I noticed that Maud mentions a lot of Minnesota wildflowers. Since many of these were new to me, I decided to look them up to see what they looked like. (With names as intriguing as butter-and-eggs and Indian pipes, I was curious!) I left out the common ones, like clover and daisies, but here are some visuals of the flowers mentioned in Betsy-Tacy and Tib. (Click image for source.)

Sumac
Reddening sumac bushes crowded close, almost concealing the wall. (252)
Behind the sumac bushes Betsy and Tacy and Tib hardly dared to breathe. (254)
Mullein
Vervain
Tall woolly mullein stalks and blue vervain and sunflowers crowded around the low stone wall which was crumbling and falling apart. (251)
Butter-and-eggs
No clover or butter-and-eggs or daisies grew beneath the beeches. (250)
Indian pipes
Tacy found some clammy Indian pipes but mostly the grass was empty now. (250)
You may have noticed that all of these mentions are from Chapter 9, titled "The Secret Lane."

2 comments:

  1. I didn't remember the early mentions - I was sure they would all be from their shenanigans with the herbariums in high school!

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  2. Oh, yes! I'll definitely have to do a mention of that infamous incident. (Love that story!)

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