Flowers of Mystery 457 



own responsive thrill, just as we do in a good ghost 

 story. 



Many wild flowers which we have transplanted to 

 our gardens are full of magic and charm. In some, 

 such as Thyme and Elder, these elements come 

 from English tradition. In other flowers the quality 

 of mystery is inherent. In childhood I absolutely 

 abhorred Bloodroot ; it seemed to me a fearsome 

 thing when first I picked it. I remember well my 

 dismay, it was so pure, so sleek, so innocent of 

 face, yet bleeding at a touch, like a murdered man 

 in the Blood Ordeal. 



The Trillium, Wake-robin, is a wonderful flower. 

 I have seen it growing in a luxuriance almost beyond 

 belief in lonely Canadian forests on the Laurentian 

 Mountains. At this mining settlement, so remote 

 that it was unvisited even by the omnipresent and 

 faithful Canadian priest, was a wealth of plant growth 

 which seemed fairly tropical. The starrv flowers of 

 the Trillium hung on long peduncles, and the two- 

 inch diameter of the ordinary blossom was doubled. 

 The Painted Trillium bore rich flowers of pink and 

 wine color, and stood four or five feet from the 

 ground. I think no one had ever gathered their 

 blooms, for there were no women in this mining 

 camp save a few French-Indian servants and one 

 Irish cook, and no educated white woman had ever 

 been within fifty, perhaps a hundred, miles of the 

 place. Every variety of bloom seemed of exagger- 

 ated growth, but the Trillium exceeded all. An 

 element of mystery surrounds this plant, a quality 

 which appertains to all " three-cornered " flowers ; 



