] The Fascination of Flowers 



TRILLIUM FOR THREEFOLD 



The season for trillium begins in April with the poetically 

 named wake-robin, a species that produces purple, red, and some- 

 times purplish flowers. There are other species, but it will be 

 June before you find the white large-flowering trillium. It is this 

 handsome kind that flower-fanciers often cultivate. 



The trilliums grow mostly in damp, rich wood soils. You can 

 help children in identifying these flowers if you explain the mean- 

 ing of "trillium," which comes from the word triplum, meaning 

 "threefold." These flowers always have three petals and the plants 

 have three leaves and three sepals. 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT MINIATURE PREACHER 



No plant is easier to remember and recognize than jack- 

 in-the-pulpit, for to an imaginative child the club-shaped flower 

 head does represent a miniature preacher, while the spathe (a 

 bract or modified leaf) forms his pulpit. 



Moist woods are the best place for locating this plant. When it 

 first pushes through the earth it looks like a pointed peg. Inside 

 the pointed and mottled sheath are the leaves, rolled lengthwise 

 and forming the point. The club-shaped spathe is at the center. 



As the leaves grow and open, flowers develop at the base of the 

 spathe. There are two different kinds; greenish, round pistillate 

 flowers, packed like berries on the stalk; and tiny, almost white 

 flowers, which bear the pollen. The two kinds grow on separate 

 plants. You may sometimes find both types on the same plant, 

 with the pollen-bearing kind set above the others. In such a case 

 only the pollen-bearers function. 



By the time summer comes around, the "pulpit" falls away from 

 Jack, revealing shining green berries formed from the pistillate 

 flowers. In August, when the leaves may have also disappeared, 

 you will find that the berries have turned a brilliant scarlet. 



