IVILD, OA' NATIVE FLOWERS. 



13 



than their useful qualities, though doubtless even the lowliest among 

 them has a part to perform, though not apparently for man's sole benefit 

 but also for the support or shelter of some of God's creation among the 

 insect tribes or smaller animals or birds which find nourishment in their 

 seeds, leaves or roots. It is a remarkable fact but it is rarely, if ever 

 the case, that the flower is selected of any plant for food by bird 

 or beast. 



There are many native plants of the order Ranunculacese, 

 too many to be here described. Gray describes nineteen species of 

 Ranunculus proper, only a part of the plants described being found with 

 us, and there are doubtless many others found in our extensive 

 Dominion not at present named. The large, deep golden, abundant 

 flowers of the 



Marsh Marigold — Caltha palustris, (L.) 



are too well known to need any minute description. It is, indeed, a 

 splendid flower, and can hardly fail of being admired, when seen, like a 

 " field of cloth of gold," covering the low, wet ground with its large leaves 

 of a deep refreshing green, and its rich golden cups : a pleasant sight to 

 the eye in May. The leaves were used as a pot-herb by the early 

 backwoods settlers, before gardens were planted, but through carelessness 

 or ignorance, accidents of a fatal nature are known to have occurred 

 by gathering the leaves of the Ariscema triphyllum with those of the 

 more innocent herb the Marsh Marigold, or Water Cowslip, as this 

 plant is often called. 



MiTREwoRT, Bishop's Cap. — Mitella diphylla, (L ) 



This elegant forest flower is found in moist rich soil among beech, 

 maple, and other hardwood trees. 



We have two species of these plants : one Mitella Jiiida, Z., rather 

 creeping, with green blossoms, only a few inches in height, and the 

 flowers larger and fewer on the slender scape, the bright green lobed 

 leaves spreading on the ground. The taller Mitrewort has elegant 

 fringed cups, greenish white, many flowers arranged in a long slender 

 spike. The term diphylla distinguishes it from the low dwarf species, 

 there being two opposite pointed leafy bracts about the middle of the 

 long slender scape. Not only are the fringed cap-like flowers worthy ot 

 minute attention, but the boat-shaped two-valved capsules of the seed 

 vessels form a pretty feature in the plant. At an early stage of ripeness 

 the shining jet black seeds appear and are scarcely less attractive than 



