NATIVE WILD FLOWEKS 



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WHITE TRILLIUM EASTER FLOWER Trillium grandiflorum 



(Salisb.). 



(PLATE III.) 



" And spotless lilies bend the head 

 Low to the passing gale." 



Nature has scattered these remarkable flowers with no 

 niggardly hand over hill and dale, wide shrubby plain and 

 shady forest glen. In deep ravines and on rocky islets ttie 

 bright snow-white blossoms of the Trilliums greet the eye 

 and court the hand to pluck them. The old people in this 

 part of the province call them by the familiar name of 

 lily. Thus we have Asphodel Lilies, Douro Lilies, etc. In 

 Nova Scotia they are called Moose-flowers, probably from 

 being abundant in the haunts of moose-deer. In some of 

 the New England States the Trilliums, white and red, are 

 known as the "Death-flower," but of the origin of so 

 ominous a name we have no record. We might imagine it 

 to have originated in the use of the flower to deck the coffins 

 or graves . of the dead. The pure white blossoms might 

 serve not inappropriately for emblems of innocence and 

 purity when laid upon the breast of the early dead. The 

 darker and more sanguine hue of the red species might 

 have led to its selection for such as fell by violence; but 

 these are mere conjectures. A prettier name has been given 

 to the Nodding Trillium (T. cernuum), that of "Smiling 

 Wake-robin," which seems to be associated with the coming 

 of the cheerful chorister of early spring, " the household 

 bird with the red stomacher," as Bishop Carey* calls the 

 robin redbreast. The botanical name of the Trillium is 

 derived from trilix, triple, all the parts of the plant being 

 in threes. Thus we see the round fleshy scape furnished 



* An old writer in the time of James I. and tutor to one of the daughters of Charles I. 



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