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Saturday, April 12, dawned gray with rain, both threatened and predicted, hanging in the air somewhere between the earth and unseen sun. On this day I planned to explore the wild flowers along county road #624 in Fauquier County. Nothing was going to keep me from that plan. Besides, the new spring green had a fine luminous quality in the moisture filled air.
Usually I want Lee Trott to drive slowly on Route 647, Crest Hill Road, from Flint Hill to Marshall. Spring paints a fine picture on that road. Not today. I was in a hurry. We. did slow down to look at the Shadblow or Serviceberry trees on our right at the Marshall end of the road. Each small tree looked as if it had been decorated with its own private snowfall of feathery flakes. The name of this tree, our earliest with showy flowers to bloom, comes from the belief that, when it blooms, shad are running upstream. For those waiting for the signal, it is time to go fishing.
From Marshall we took Route 710 to Rectortown and, before entering that village, turned right onto Route 624 and began our foray of exploring one of the best kept secrets in Fauquier County: a splendid show of spring wild flowers.
• Houses on the right of the road had yards filled with daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. Though full of admiration for all the color, 1 gave them little attention. My focus was on the parade of delicate and fragile — looking spring wild flowers I hoped to see along the five miles of Route 624. The seeming frailty of these early blooms is an illusion; they are tough survivors in their brief flowering time and must endure and survive erratic April weather and adjust to abrupt temperature changes.
For a time we drove through open country. When the road entered the woods, we saw masses of white flowers of Toothwort on the right side of the road. The common name of this little plant comes from a whitish tooth-like appendage on its root. According to the Medieval Doctrine of Signatures, it was believed that God had put his signature — a kind of clue- on plants to suggest theiij use in curing man’s ills. If the plant has jiver-shaped leaves, diseases of that oigan were indicated for medical aid from the plant. ‘Wort’ is an old English word for plant and turns up frequently in common names such as spleenwort, lungwort and birthwort. Does Toothwort relieve toothache? I don’t know. The
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