96 WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 



{Peiitstemoii)^ Monkey-flower {Mininliis), Snap-drag in {A/itirfhinum), 

 Scarlet-cup {Casti/leia), and Gerardia, with many other plants more 

 remarkable for beauty than for any useful or healing qualities, but very 

 showy in the garden, and not difficult of cultivation. 



Cardinal Flower — Lobelia cardinalis^ (L.) 



One of the most striking of our native flowers is the Red Lobelia 

 or Cardinal-flower. The plant had found its way into English gardens 

 as a rarity before I saw it growing in all its wild bj.iuty on the shores ot 

 the Otonabee, on my first journey, or rather voyage, up the country. 

 There, growing at the edge of the low, grassy flat, beside the water — its 

 tall, loose, spike of deep red flowers fluttering in the breeze and 

 reddening the surface of the bright river with the reflection of its 

 glorious colour — this splendid flower first met my admiring eyes. 



It was but a short time before that I had seen it cultivated as a new 

 and rare border flower, and here it was in all its loveliness on the banks 

 of a lonely forest stream which then flowed through an almost unbroken 

 wilderness, growing uncared for, unsought for and unvalued. The 

 people — they were a rude set of Irish settlers — were amused at the 

 delight with which I plucked the flowers. They cared for none of 

 these things : they were, to them, only useless weeds. 



There are several varieties of the Cardinal-floA-er, occasionally found 

 among the wild plants near the inland lakes and creeks of the back- 

 woods : some with flesh-coloured corollas, or white striped with red ; but 

 these variations are not very common. The prettiest of the blue- 

 flowered plants of the Lobelia family is a small, delicate, branching one 

 with azure-blue and white petals, which is cultivated in hanging baskets 

 as its bright blue flowers and slender leaves droop gracefully over the 

 pot or basket, and contrast charmingly with larger flowers of deeper 

 colour and more vivid foliage. 



The largest and most showy, but not often cultivated, of the 

 Lobelias, is L. sypliilitica, a stout-stemmed, many-flowered species, which 

 is chiefly found near springs ; the flowers are full blue and the spike 

 much crowded ; the height about eighteen or twenty inches ; leaves light 

 green. The plant seems to flourish in clayey soil near water. Another 

 blue-flowered Lobelia of slenderer habit is L. spicafa, the leaves growing 

 up the wand-like stem in threes, with intervals between ; and it has a 

 one-sided look. The spike of flowers is loose and scattered, leaves 

 very thin, long and narrow, light-green and smooth. 



Though by no means so shovvy — for indeed it is a very simple 

 looking flower but more remarkable for its uses and medirinal (]ualities 

 is the celebrated 



