STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



We have in Ontario several distinct species of Anemone, 

 though none so finely colored as the prairie flower; nor can 

 we boast of the splendid Anemones that gem the wilderness 

 tracts of Palestine. Some travellers have suggested that it 

 was to the brilliant blossoms of the scarlet, blue and white 

 Anemones that the Saviour drew the attention of his dis- 

 ciples, while Sir James Smith has supposed and with more 

 probability it was to the glowing colors of the golden 

 flowered Amaryllis lutea, which abounds on the fields of 

 Palestine, that He alluded in His words, " Behold the lilies 

 of the field," etc.f 



SPRING BEAUTY Claytonia Virginica (L.) and C. Caro- 

 liniana (Michx.). 



(PLATE II.) 



" Where the fire had smoked and smouldered, 

 Saw the earliest flower of Springtime, 

 Saw the Beauty of the Springtime, 

 Saw the Miskodeed* in blossom." Longfellow. 



This simple, delicate little plant is one of our earliest 

 April flowers. In warm springs it is almost exclusively an 

 April flower, but in cold and backward seasons it often delays 

 its blossoming time till May. 



Partially hidden beneath the shelter of old decaying tim- 

 bers and fallen boughs, its pretty pink buds peep shyly forth. 

 It is often found in partially cleared beech-woods and in rich 

 moist meadows. 



In Canada there are two species: C. Caroliniana, with 

 few flowers, white, veined with red, and both leaves and 

 flowers larger than the more common western form; C. Vir- 

 ginica, the blossoms of which are more numerous, smaller 

 and pink, veined with lines of a deeper rose color, forming 



fA literal translation of the words is " the bright and shining ones." 

 * Miskodeed Indian name for Spring Beauty. 



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