92 THE AMERICAN' BOTANIST. 



duced and has been cultivated since 1665. The white one 

 {E. albidum) was introduced in 1824 and was followed 

 by E. grandiflorum and E. gigantium^ the latter oftea 

 bearing as man}^ as ten flow^ers on a stem. A further 

 acquaintance with these species would seem desirable on. 

 this side of the world. 



WiLDFLOWERS FROM Seeds. — Without doubt, desir- 

 able wildflowers are most easily transferred from their 

 haunts in wood and field to our own grounds hy means of 

 seeds. They do not bloom so soon, it is true, but balanced 

 against this is the great difficulty of digging up and trans- 

 porting mature plants, not to speak of the care necessary 

 to make them live. Where the walker may bring home 

 one or two dozen living plants from a trip, he may trans- 

 port unnumbered thousands by means of seeds.. In plant- 

 ing the seeds, one should follow nature closely. Select a 

 half shady spot not too dry, plant the seeds and keep out 

 the weeds. The plants from such a seed bed will be better 

 than any you can dig afield. 



Trillium erectum, — Botanical works speak of this; 

 common trillium as having dark red or occasionally white 

 petals and the inference is usually made that the white 

 flowers spoken of are of the nature of albinas and to be 

 found scattered among the common red-flowered plants„ 

 This, however, is not the case. In the vicinity of Joliet, 

 111., all the flowers of the species are white — not the dingy 

 yellownsh white of the albino eastern plants, but the pure 

 white of the wake robin (T. grandWorum). So far as the 

 editor has observed in the hundreds he has seen, there is 

 not a single red flower among them. They are really 

 handsome flowers and easily to be mistaken for the wake 

 robin though not when the two are growing in company. 

 That the fairer hue can scarcely be due to any lack in soil, 

 water or locality is shown by the fact that two other spe- 

 cies with dark red flowers (T, sessile and T. recurvatum) 

 are very common in the same plant societies. Some day 

 this white-flowered form will be dubbed a species with a 

 long Latin name — probabh^ Trillium album since Wood 

 characterizes a variety with white flowers bj^ this title. 



