30 The Plants of our Woods and Fields. 



With the brief notice of a few other and very beautiful native plants, we 

 we brins this article to a close. We refer to the Trilliums, which we will 

 principally enumerate, as they occur in New England, and therefore are 

 more readily obtained by any one disposed to cultivate them. The nodding 

 Trillium, or wake-robin, though the least conspicuous, is by no rrieans 

 uninteresting. It may be found in rich woods, especially if they are moist ; 

 and we have seen it growing quite near the margin of brooks in such 

 places. Its leaves are large and broad, while beneath them the pure white 

 flower hangs suspended on a short and declined stalk. It grows readily in 

 the garden, and increases. In the cool, damp woods near Burlington, Vt., 

 we have found the painted Trillium, — a beautiful species, and so called • 

 from a few faint crimson stripes upon the upper surface of the petals : it 

 deserves cultivation. The purple Trillium, or birth-root, grows, usually, 

 between the crevices of rocks, in mountain glens : we have noticed it at 

 the base of Mine Mountain, at Chesterfield, N.H.; and since, in quite a 

 different locality, — a wet, rich maple-swamp in this State. Its flowers are 

 conspicuous, and of a deep, dull purple color, and emitting a ver)' dis- 

 agreeable perfume : its admirer must be content with its color, and not 

 venture beyond. A young friend who discovered it in this situation has 

 since found the curious greenish-yellow-flowered variety growing there 

 also. Plants removed thence to my garden, yearly produce an abundance 

 of showy and early blossoms ; and, under the culture of a gardener in this 

 city, even the yellow variety, which is quite attractive, flourishes equally 

 well ; , it being brought several years since from the woods of Temple, 

 N.H. We have seen also dried specimens of the dwarf white Trillium, 

 from the rich woods of Ohio, appearing in April, with its pretty white blos- 

 soms, of snowy purity. Another small and dwarf species is known as 

 the Trillium sessile, with dark-purple flowers, and varying, likewise, to . 

 greenish flowers ; rhomboidal, sessile leaves, elegantly motded and 

 blotched, and found in the woods of the West. Still another, of a similar 

 character, points to the Western and Southern States for its occurrence, 

 and known as the recurved Trillium, with rich, dark-purple flowers. The 

 South is represented in this beautiful native plant still further in two 

 or three other species, of which I know nothing but the enumeration in 

 descriptions. The finest by far, however, and the gem of the garden, is 



