54 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



"rattlesnake-root" applied to Trilliimt ceriiuuni. The last two 

 . names may perhaps refer to the shape of the rootstock which 

 terminates suddenly as if bitten off. This is another plant 

 called "white benjamins." The drooping habit of the plant 

 makes "nodding wake-robin" appropriate, and "ground lily" 

 is of obvious application, but why it should have been called 

 "Jew's-harp plant" is hard to imagine. Trillium iindidatum, 

 with pencilled lines of purple deep in the corolla, is the 

 "painted wake-robin." This is also another of the "benja- 

 mins." "Wild pepper" is a name given to the plant in allu- 

 sion to the hot biting sensation experienced when the root 

 stock is chewed. The lurid flowers of Trillium sessile bear 

 the names of "nose-bleed," "bloody noses" and "bloody 

 butcher." The plant is also known as "three-leaved night- 

 shade." Trillium nivale is the "snowy trillium" as its specific 

 name indicates. It is the smallest, earliest, and one of tlie 

 most interesting of its tribe, coming at the time of the hepa- 

 tica and bloodroot. It is also known as the "snowy" or "dwarf 

 trillium." The snowy part of its name probably refers to the 

 snow-white blossoms but the precocious flowers are often 

 snowv for other causes. The onlv other American genus 

 included with Trillium when these plants are separated as a 

 distinct family, is Medeola, whose one species is known as 

 "cucumber-root." If one digs down at the base of this plant 

 lie will come to a short, crisp, conical white rootstock which 

 is edible and whose flavor at once suggests the common name. 

 Few of the Alliums are valued for their flowers and but 

 for more plebeian uses these plants would be little known. 

 They arc. however, close kin to the regal lily and are properly 

 included here. The word "onion," by whi(-h most of the 

 species arc known, is an old term derived from the French 

 oigiioii wliich is in turn derived from the Latin unio signi- 



