NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



WOOD BETONY Pedicularis Canadensis (L.).* 



This plant is commonly found in open grassy thickets 

 and plainlands. Of the two common species, we have one 

 with dark dull red flowers and another with yellow. It 

 is a rather coarse flower; the spike leafy, hairy and rough; 

 the leaves are divided into many rounded lobes, toothed at 

 the margins and deeply cleft, nearly to the mid-rib, turning 

 black in drying. The yellow flowered is a smaller plant 

 than the red; the foliage is much more hairy, and the 

 lipped blossoms are also hairy, the upper lip arched over 

 the lower lobes of the corolla. I think it must be a distinct 

 variety, or even species. Lindley remarks, in his " Natural 

 System," that the Betony is acrid in quality, but that it is 

 eaten by goats unluckily we have few goats in Canada to 

 benefit by the herbage of this homely plant, t 



FLOWERING WINTERGREEN Poly gala paucifolia (Willd.). 



(PLATE IX.) 



This is one of our early flowering plants distinguished 

 by the common name of " Wintergreen." It belongs to a 

 family of well-known plants called Milkworts^-low bitter 

 herbs some of which are remarkable for tonic properties, 

 of which the Senega, or Snakeroot, is an example. 



Some of the species are remarkable as bearing fertile 

 flowers under ground. The flowers of some are white, 

 others red, and others again purple or reddish lilac. The 

 name Milkwort appears to have been adopted without any 

 foundation, from an imaginary idea that the herbage of 

 some of the species promoted the secretion of milk in cows. 

 Several of the milkworts are indigenous to Canada. 



* The name given to this lovely plant in English has a low, vulgar sound "Louse- 

 wort " that in the native Cree language is Moostoos Ootasee." 

 t The Betony referred to by Lindley belongs to the Sage family. 



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