NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



on Alpine heights, or in Canadian wilds; on banks of 

 lonely lakes and forest streams, or in the garden parterre, 

 where it is rivalled by few other flowers in grace of form 

 or splendor of color. 



We cannot boast, in this part of the Dominion, any of 

 the more brilliant and beautiful flowers of this ornamental 

 family, though that interesting, lovely species known as 

 Pasque-flower Anemone patens (L.), var. Nuttalliana 

 (Gray) is largely distributed over the prairie lands of 

 the W r estern States and in our North-western Provinces, 

 where it is one of the earliest of the spring flowers to 

 gladden the heart with its large lavender blossoms, than 

 which none are more beautiful. The bud appears on a 

 thick leafless scape, about four to six inches high, enclosed 

 in a cut and sharply pointed involucre of grey bracts of 

 silvery hue and shining brightness. The scape is clothed 

 with hairy scales; from within this silky covering peeps 

 out the fair bud, which shortly expands into a large open 

 cup-like very beautiful blossom, with a shade of white at 

 the base, of each large pointed sepal. As the flower 

 advances a change takes place in the whole aspect of the 

 plant; the root-leaves begin to appear, which are com- 

 poundly cut and divided, and the head of plumy fruit is 

 raised on a high scape above the silken involucre and now 

 ripens in the breezy air and sunshine.* 



I have a fine dried specimen before me, perfect under all 

 its several aspects, and I wish that it could be oftener seen as 

 a cultivated border ornament in our Canadian gardens. The 

 name " Pasque-flower " is hardly known among the inhabi- 

 tants of our North-western prairies, and the Indian name 

 would, I am sure, be descriptive of some natural quality of 

 the plant, its growth or habits. 



*This is the Crocus Anemone of the West and has been chosen as the floral emblem 

 of Manitoba. 



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