WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 27 



verse of the poet. The American name, Adder's-tongue is more sig- 

 nificant.* This name must refer to the red pointed anthers rather than 

 the foHage, as some have suggested. 



The White Flowered Adder's-tongue, Erythronium olbidiim (Nutt)>- 

 grows in the more western portions of Canada, as on the shores of Lake 

 Huron. 



White Trillium— Easter Flower — Trilliuin grandiflorum (Sahsb). 



" And spotless lilies bend the head 

 Low to the passing gale." 



Nature has scattered with no niggardly hand, these remarkable 

 flowers, over hill and dale, wide shrubby plain and shady forest glen. 

 In deep ravines, on rocky islets, the bright snow white blossoms of the 

 Trilliums greet the eye and court the hand to pluck them. The old 

 people in this part of the Province call them by the familiar name of 

 Lily. Thus we have Asphodel Lilies, Douro Lilies, &c. In Nova 

 Scoiia they are called Moose-flowers, probably from being abundant in 

 the haunts of Moose-deer. In some of the New England States the 

 Trilliums, white and red, are known as the " Ueath-flower," but of the 

 origin of so ominous a name we have no record. We might imagine it 

 to have originated in the use of the flower to deck the coffin or graves- 

 of the dead. The pure white blossoms might serve not inappropriately 

 for emblems of innocence and purity, when laid upon the breast of the 

 early dead. The darker and more sanguine hue of the red species^ 

 might have been selected for such as fell by violence ; but these 

 are but conjecture. A prettier name has been given to the Nodding 

 Trillium {T. cei-nuum) : that of ''Smiling Wake-robin," which seems to- 

 be associated with the coming of the cheerful chorister of early spring,. 

 "The household bird with the red stomacher," as Bishop Carey f 

 calls the Robin Red-breast. The botanical name of the Trillium 

 is derived from trilex, triple, all the parts of the plant being in 

 threes. Thus we see the round fleshy scape furnished with three 

 large sad green leaves, two or three inches below the flower, which is 

 composed of a calyx of three sepals, a corolla of three large snow white, 

 or, else, chocolate red petals : the styles or stigmas, three ; ovary three 

 celled ; and the stamens six, (which is a multiple of three.) The white 

 fleshy tuberous root is much used by the American Schools of Medicine ia 

 various diseases, also by the Indian herb doctors. 



Trillium grandiflorum is the largest and most showy of the white 

 species. Trillium nivale or Lesser Snowy Trillium is the smallest ; 



* The name Dog's-tooth refers to tlie sliape of the small pointed white bulbs of the com- 

 mon European species, so well known in English gardens. -Prof. Lawson. 



t An old writer in the time of James I., and tutor to one of the daughters of Cliarles I. 



