^6 IVILD, OK NATIVE FLOWERS. 



There is also a much handsomer species with larger flowers and 

 simpler stem — the Common Skull-cap (S. galeriadata. ) 



Marsh Vetchling— Marsh Pea — Lathyrus pah(stris, (L.) 



The Marsh-Vetchling or Marsh-Pea is a graceful climbing plant 

 Avith purple flowers, and long slender leaflets arranged in pairs from two 

 to four, or six, along the leaf-stalk which terminates in a cluster 

 of clasping thread-like tendrils. The flowers are placed on long, 

 slender, arching peduncles springing from the base of the leaf-sta!k, 

 which is furnished at the joint with a pair of sharply pointed stipules. 



The Marsh-Pea is found chiefly in damp ground among herbs and 

 dwarf bushes along the margins of low-lying lakes and creeks, and sandy 

 grassy flats. Its pretty purple pea-shaped blossoms and pale-green 

 leaves attract the eye, as it twines among the herbage and forms graceful 

 garlands amidst the ranker and coarser plants to which it clings. A 

 taller species with slender stalks, two to four feet high with ovate- 

 elliptical leaves, much larger stipules, and an abundance of small, pale 

 blue- purple flowers is also found on marshy shores. This is the variety 

 viyrtifoliiis of Gray. 



There are many other graceful twining plants of this order. The 

 most remarkable is the 



Indian-bean — Apios titberosa, (Mcench.) 



known also as Indian-potato and Sweet-bean. A tall climber with 

 compound leaves of five to seven ovate leaflets, and sweet-scented 

 clustered flovvers of a brownish-purple colour, and pear-shaped tubers, 

 of the size of a hen's egg, which are used as an article of food by the 

 Indians, who roast them in the embers, and eat them as we do baked 

 potatoes. A fine white starchy substance can be obtained by grating 

 the tubers — tasteless and not unwholesome. 



Butterfly Weed — Asclepias tiiberosa, (L. ) 



Of this remarkable family Canada possesses many handsome species. 

 The most showy is a large bushy plant, with gorgeous orange, almost 

 scarlet flowers. Every branch is terminated by a wide-spreading head, 

 composed of small umbels of brilliant flowers. This plant is known by 

 the name of Butterfly Flower from its singularly gay appearance, which 

 's very attractive when seen on dry hills on sunny days. The root is 

 used in medicine as a powerful vermifuge by the old settlers, who say they 

 learned its medicinal virtue from the Indian herb doctors. 



