WILD OR NATIVE FLOWERS. ig 



I have a fine, perfect, dried specimen before me, under all its 

 •several aspects., and wish that it could be oftener seen as a cultivated 

 border ornament in our Canadian gardens. The name "Pasque-flower' 

 is hardly known among the inhabitants of our North-Western prairies, 

 .and the Indian name I have not yet obtained ; it would, I am sure, be 

 ■descriptive of some natural (juality of the plant — its growth or habits. 



We have in Ontario several distinct species of Anemone, though 

 none so finely coloured as the Prairie flower : nor can we boast of the 

 splendid Anemones that gem the wilderness tracts of Palestine. Some 

 travellers have suggested that it was to the brilliant blossoms of the 

 scarlet, blue, and white Anemones that the Saviour drew the attention 

 of his disciples, while Sir James Smith has supposed — and with more 

 probability — it was to the glowing colours of the golden flowered 

 Amaryllis liitea, which abounds on the fields of Palestine, that He 

 alluded in His words — " Behold the Lilies of the field," etc. 



Spring Beautv — Claytonia F/r^'-/;//r« (Lin.) and C. Carolinia?ia {Michx ) 



Where the fire had smoked and smouldered, 



Saw the earliest flower of Spring-time, 



Saw the Beauty of the Spring-time, 



Saw the Miskodeed (*) in l)lossom. — Hiaiml/ui. 



This simple, delicate little plant is one of our earliest April flowers. 

 In warm springs it is almost exclusively an April flower, but in cold and 

 backward seasons, it often delays its blossoming time till May. 



Partially hidden beneath the shelter of old decaying timbers and 

 fallen boughs, its pretty pink buds peep shyly forth. It is often found 

 in partially cleared beech-woods, and in rich moist meadows. 



In Canada, there are two species ; C. Caroliniana^ with few flowers, 

 white, veined with red, and both leaves and flowers larger than the more 

 common western form, C. Virginica, the blossoms of which are more 

 numerous, smaller, and pink, veined with lines of a deeper rose colour, 

 forming a slender raceme ; sometimes the little pedicels or flower stalks 

 are bent or twisted to one side, so as to throw the flowers all in one 

 direction. 



The scape sprmgs from a small deep tuber, bearing a single pair 

 of soft, oily, succulent leaves. In the white flowered species, C 

 Caroliniana, these leaves are placed about midway up the stem, but in 

 the pink ( C. Virginica) the leaves lie closer to the ground, and are smaller 

 and narrower, of a dark bluish green hue. Our Spring Beauties well 

 deserve their pretty poetical name. They corne in with the Robin and 

 the Song Sparrow, the Hepatica, and the first white Violet ; they 

 linger in shady spots, as if unwilling to desert us till more sunny days 



(♦) Miskoileed — Indian name for Siiriii<,' Beauty. 



