NATIVE WILD FLOWEKS 



too many to be here described. Gray describes nineteen 

 species of Ranunculi proper, only a part of the plants 

 described being found with us, and there are doubtless 

 many others found in our extensive Dominion not at pre- 

 sent named. 



The large deep golden, abundant flowers of the 



MARSH MARIGOLD Caltha palustris (L.), 



(PLATE V.) 



are too well known to need any minute description. It is, 

 indeed, a splendid flower, and can hardly fail of being 

 admired when seen, like a " field of cloth of gold," covering 

 the low, wet ground with its large leaves of a deep refresh- 

 ing green and its rich golden cups a pleasant sight to 

 the eye in May. The leaves were used as a pot-herb by the 

 early backwoods settlers, before gardens were planted; but, 

 through carelessness or ignorance, accidents of a fatal 

 nature are known to have occurred through mistaking the 

 leaves of the Ariscema tripkyllum for those of the more inno- 

 cent herb, the Marsh Marigold, or Water Cowslip, as this 

 plant is often called. 



MITREWORT, BISHOP'S CAP Mitella diphylla (L.). 



This elegant forest flower is found in moist, rich soil, 

 among beech, maple, and other hardwood trees. 



We have two species of these plants: one, Mitella nuda 

 (L.), rather creeping, with green blossoms, only a few inches 

 in height, and the flowers larger and fewer on the slender 

 scape, the bright green lobed leaves spreading on the 

 ground. The taller Mitrewort has elegant fringed cups, 

 greenish white, many flowers arranged in a long slender 

 spike. The term " diphylla " distinguishes it from the low 



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