28 WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS 



this last blooms early in May. May and June are the months in which 

 these flowers appear. The white flowered Trilliums are subject to many 

 varieties, and accidental alterations. The green of the sepals is often 

 transferred to the white petals in T. nivale; some are found handsomely 

 striped with red and green, and in others the very foot-stalks of the 

 almost sessile leaves are lengthened into long petioles. The large 

 White Trillium is changed, previous to its fading, to a dull reddish lilac. 



Purple Trillium — Birth-Root — Trilliian erect luii. (Lin.) 



" JJring flowers, bring flowers oer the bier to shed 

 A crown for the brow of the early dead. 

 Thoug'h. they smile in vain for what once was ours, 

 Tl)ey are love's- last gift, bring flowers, bring flowers." — Ileinans. 



Gray and other botanical writers call this striking flower "Purple 

 Trillium;" it should rather be called red, its hue being decidedly more 

 red than purple ; and in the New England States it is called by the 

 country folks, The Red Death-flower, in contrast to the larger White 

 Trillium or White Death-flower. T. erecium is widely spread over 

 the whole of Canada. It appears in the middle of May, and continues 

 blooming till June, preferring the soil of damp, shady woods and ^Tickets; 

 but it takes very kindly to a shaded border in the garden, where it 

 increases in size, and becomes an ornamental spring flower. 



" Few of our indigenous plants surpass the Trillium in elegance 

 and beauty, and they are all endowed with valuable medicinal properties. 

 The root of the Purple Trillium is generally believed to be the most 

 active. Tannin and Bitter Extract form two of its most remarkable 

 ingredients." So says that intelligent writer on the medicinal plants of 

 North America, Dr. Charles Lee. 



The Red Trilliums are rich but sombre in colour, the i)etals are 

 longish-ovate, regular, not waved, and the pollen is of a greyish dusty 

 hue, while that of the White species is bright orange-yellow. The leaves 

 are of a dark lurid green, the colouring matter of the petals seems to 

 pervade the leaves ; and here, let me observe that the same remark may 

 be made of many other plants. \x\ purple flowers we often perceive the 

 violet hue to be perceptible in the stalk and under part of the leaves? 

 and sometimes in the veins and roots. Red flowers, again, show the 

 same tendency in stalk and veins. Where the flower is white the leaves 

 and veinings, with the stem and branches, are for the most part of a 

 lighter green, more inclining to the yellow or else bluish tinge of green. 



The Blood-root in its early stage of growth shews the Orange juice 

 in the stem and leaves, as also does the Canadian Balsam, and many others 

 that a little observation will point out. The colouring matter of flowers 

 has always been, more or less, a mystery to us : that light is one of the 



