It was over in the Green Forest where the ground was rich and moist that Peter found Solomon's Seal. It was an old friend whom he had long known. There was no mistaking it. Peter would have known it anywhere. He would have known it by the little pale-yellow flower bells hanging in pairs along the stalk below the leaves. The stalk was long and slender and bent gracefully above Peter's head. Growing out from opposite sides were smooth-edged, oval leaves, each broader at the base than at the tip. They were smooth above, but covered with very fine hairs on the underside. The tiny yellow or greenish flowers were like fairy bells, growing almost always in pairs as they swung below the spreading leaves.

Later in the season there would be a blackish berry hanging in the place of each of these pretty little flower bells. Peter had seen them often, for some of his feathered friends occasionally looked for them and Peter had seen them doing it.

Finding the Solomon's Seal reminded Peter of a near relative which in a way looks much like it, and grows nearby in a neighborly fashion. It is the Wild Spikenard or False Solomon's Seal, sometimes called Solomon's Zigzag. It ought to be in bloom now, and Peter promptly went to look for it. He found it almost at once. He would have known it even had it not yet been in bloom. The shape of the plant was much like the True Solomon's Seal, but the leaves were larger and the tips were sharply pointed.

Along this stalk were no little fairy bells. Instead, out from the tip grew a thick, pointed cluster or plume of greenish-white tiny blossoms. These tiny blossoms were set around stems growing out from the main stalk, one above another, the lower ones being longest and the others growing shorter and shorter towards the tip. Small as they were each little flower contained six stamens and a pistil. So tiny were these flowers that together they made that plume seem feathery. Of course Peter Rabbit had never been up in Farmer Brown's flower bed close to his house where lilies-of-the-valley grow. Had he ever seen these, the leaves of both the True Solomon's Seal and of the Wild Spikenard would at once have reminded him of the Lily-of-the-valley leaves, and he might have guessed, what is a fact, that these two friends of his in the Green Forest are members of the Lily-of-the-valley family.

Like the True Solomon's Seal its cousin bears berries, but of course these grow in a cluster, and instead of being almost black are pale red and speckled. Many of Peter's feathered friends delight to find them and feast on them before making their long journey to the Sunny South for the winter.

For some time Peter aimlessly wandered about in the Green Forest, finding no new flowers to interest him. At last he decided that he would run over to the Old Pasture to see if more of the beautiful Pasture Rose blossoms were open. You know he never tires of admiring them. But when he reached the Old Pasture he forgot all about the Roses. Yes, sir, he did so. You see as he was hopping across a bare, open place on the hillside where the soil was so sandy and dry that it didn't seem as if any plant could grow there, he came upon some flowers that seemed as if they must have taken their color from the blue, blue sky itself. No wonder that Peter forgot the Roses. I think had you been in his place you would have forgotten them.

With a little sigh of pure happiness Peter sat down close to the low branching little plant whose flowers were the color of the sky. It was a brave little plant, for, as I have said, it was growing in a place so sandy and dry that it didn't seem as if anything could grow there. Where other plants would have withered and died it held itself erect, while its lovely blossoms smiled up at jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun smiling down on them. It could do this because of its roots, which went far down into the ground and there found the moisture which other plants with roots spreading near the surface could not have found.

The leaves were like little wheels without rims. Each spoke of these little wheels was a smooth-edged leaflet, broader at the outer end and coming down to a point at the center. In some of these little wheel-like leaves there were seven of these leaflets to form the spokes. In others there were nine, ten and eleven. They did not form quite perfect wheels because some of the leaflets were a little shorter than the others. Down the middle of each leaflet was a rib clear to the tip.

Had Peter happened along there after jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the Purple Hills, and the Black Shadows had crept out over the Old Pasture, he might have discovered a most interesting thing. He might have discovered that these leaves go to sleep at night. The leaflets fold down around the stem much like a closed umbrella. With the return of jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun in the morning they open out flat again.

But of course it was the flowers that Peter was most interested in. These grew out around a long stem and made Peter think of little blue Butterflies clinging to that stem. If you have ever seen sweet peas, or if you have ever seen the white blossoms of the garden peas, you will know right away what the shape of these little blossoms was like. Each blossom had five petals. The upper one stood almost straight up. It is called the standard. Two others were like little blue wings and the edges of the remaining two grew together so as to form a tiny, fairy boat. It is called the keel.

In this, hidden and protected, were the pistils, stamens and the nectar. A Bee came buzzing along and alighted on one of the wings. Her weight caused the boat-like petals to open so that she could get the nectar and at the same time become covered with pollen. When she flew away these petals closed again, once more protecting the precious contents.

Peter had found the Wild Lupine which is also called the Wild Pea because it is a member of the Pea family. Another name for it is Old Maid's Bonnets, for these quaint little blossoms are not unlike tiny blue bonnets such as fairies might love to wear. Later in the summer there would hang from that stem little broad, flat, very hairy pods within which would be tiny peas. Of course you know that peas are really seeds. The peas we gather in the garden and eat are seeds not yet ripe.

The blossoms of the Wild Lupine are not always the beautiful blue of the ones Peter had found. Sometimes they are pinkish and sometimes almost white. But as a rule they are blue, and when many of them are in bloom at one time they will make a hillside seem to be reflecting the color of the sky. This flower is often found along roadsides and along the gravelly banks beside the railroad. It is as if Old Mother Nature could not bear to have any spot unbeautified by flowers some time during the year.

When Peter had admired the Lupine to his heart's content he decided he would go home. But happening to look up in the blue, blue sky, he saw Redtail the Hawk sailing in great circles high up above the Green Meadows, and he knew that Redtail was out hunting for a dinner. Peter promptly changed his mind. This was no time to cross the Green Meadows, so he decided to stay in the Old Pasture and see if he could find anything more of interest there.