WILD, OR lYATIVE FLOWERS. 55 



The tall stately blossom of the Pitcher Plant is not less worthy of 

 our attention than the curiously formed leaves. The smooth, round, 

 simple scape rises from the centre of the plant to the height of eighteen 

 inches or two feet. The flower is single and terminal, composed of five 

 sepals, with three little bracts ; five blunt, broad petals of a dull purplish 

 red colour, but sometimes red and light-yellowish green ; and in one 

 variety the petals are mostly of a pale-green hue, and there is an 

 absence of the crimson veins in the leafage. The petals are incurved 

 or bent downwards towards the centre. The stamens are numerous. 

 The ovary is five-celled, and the style is expanded at the summit into a 

 five-angled, five-rayed, umbrella-like scalloped mantle, which conceals 

 beneath it five delicate rays, each terminating in a little hooked stigma. 

 The capsule or seed-vessel is five celled and five-valved ; seeds 

 numerous. 



I have been more minute in the description of this interesting plant, 

 because much of its peculiar organization is hidden from the eye, and 

 cannot even be recognized in a drawing, unless it be a strictly botanical one, 

 with all its interior parts dissected ; and also because the Pitcher Plant 

 has lately attracted much attention by its reputed medicinal qualities in 

 cases of Small-pox, that loathsome scourge of the human race. A 

 decoction from the root of this plant has been said to lessen all the 

 more violent symptoms of the disorder. If this be really so, its use and 

 application should be widely known ; fortunately the remedy would be 

 within the reach of everyone ; like many of our sanative herbs it is to be 

 found without difficulty, and being so remarkable in its appearance, can 

 never be mistaken by the most ignorant of our country herbalists for 

 any injurious substitute.* 



Wild Orange Lily — LUiuiii Philadelphicum (Lin.) 



" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they 

 spin ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 

 of these." 



The word Lily is said to be derived from a Celtic word, Z/, which 



signifies whiteness ; also from the Greek, Lirion. Probably the stately 



Lily of the garden, Lilium candidiiiii, was the flower to which the name 



was first given, from its ivory whiteness and the exquisite polish of its 



petals. However that may be, the name Lily is ever associated in our 



minds with grace and purity, and reminds us of the Saviour of men, 



who spake of the Lilies of the field, how they grew and flourished 



beneath the care of Him who clothed them in robes of beauty more 



gorgeous than the kingly garments of Royal Solomon 



* Note.— I regret to be coiniielled to say that later experience has dispelled belief in the virtue 

 of the Pitcher Plant, no such good results having been obtaiTied from repeated trials in cases of that 

 direful disease, small-pox. 



