STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



s cast their fleeting shadows over the tender springing grass 

 and grain ; we have no mossy lanes odorous with blue violets, 

 and our April flowers are, comparatively speaking, few, and 

 so we prize our early violets, hepaticas and spring beauties. 

 We miss the turfy banks studded with starry daisies, pale 

 primroses and azure bluebells. 



In the warmth and shelter of the forest vegetation appears. 

 The black leaf -mould, BO light and rich, quickens the seedlings 

 into rapid growth, and green leaves and opening buds follow 

 soon after the melting of the snows of winter. The starry 

 blossoms of the spring plants come forth and are followed 

 by many a lovely flower, increasing with the more genial 

 seasons of May and June. 



Our May is bright and sunny, more like to the English 

 March; it is, indeed, a month of promise a month of many 

 flowers. But too often its fair buds and blossoms are nipped 

 by frost, and " winter, lingering, chills the lap of May." 



INDIAN TURNIP Ariscema tripliyllum (Torr.). 



(PLATE VII.) 

 " Or peers the arum from its spotted veil." Bryant. 



There are two species of Arum found in Canada, the 

 larger of which is known as Green-dragon (A. Dracon- 

 tium) ; the other is known by the familiar name of Indian 

 Turnip (A. triphyllum or A. purpureum). 



These moisture-loving plants are chiefly to be found in 

 rich black swampy mould, beneath the shade of trees and 

 rank herbage, near creeks and damp places in or about the 

 forest. 



The sheath that envelopes and protects the spadix, or 

 central column which supports the clustered flowers and 

 fruit, is an incurved membranaceous hood of a pale green 

 color, beautifully striped with dark purple or brownish- 



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