STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



with three large sad green leaves, two or three inches 

 below the flower, which is composed of a calyx of three 

 sepals, a corolla of three large snow-white or else chocolate 

 red petals, the styles or stigmas three, ovary three-celled, 

 and the stamens six (which is a multiple of three). The 

 white fleshy tuberous root is much used by the American 

 schools of medicine in various diseases, also by the Indian 

 herb doctors. 



'Trillium grandiflorum is the largest and most showy 

 of the white species. Trillium nivale, or Lesser Snowy 

 Trillium, is the smallest; this last blooms early in May. 

 May and June are the months in which these flowers 

 appear. The whiterflowered Trilliums are subject to many 

 variations and accidental alterations. The green of the 

 sepals is often transferred to the white petals in T. nivale; 

 some are found handsomely striped with red and green, and 

 in others the very footstalks of the almost sessile leaves are 

 lengthened into long petioles. The large White Trillium is 

 changed, previous to its fading, to a dull reddish lilac. 



PURPLE TRILLIUM BIRTHROOT Trillium erectum (Lin.). 



(PLATE VI.) 



" Bring flowers, bring flowers, o'er the bier to shed, 

 A crown for the brow of the early dead. 

 Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, 

 They are love's last gift bring flowers, bring flowers." 



Hemans. 



Gray and other botanical writers call this striking flower 

 " Purple Trillium " ; it should rather be called red, its hue 

 being decidedly more red than purple; and in the New 

 England States it is called by the country folks the Ked 

 Deatji-flower, in contrast to the larger White Trillium or 

 White Death-flower. T. erectum is widely spread over the 



