NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



Painted Trillium may be found as far northward as Lake 

 Superior; it also occurs in New England, and southward in 

 the Alleghanies and Virginia. 



ROCK COLUMBINE Aquilegia Canadensis (Lin.). 



(PLATE III.) 



" The graceful columbine, all blushing red, 

 Bends to the earth her crown 

 Of honey-laden bells." 



This graceful flower enlivens us all through the months 

 of May and June by its brilliant blossoms of deep red and 

 golden yellow. 



In general outline the Wild Columbine resembles its 

 cultivated sisters of the garden, but is more light and airy 

 in habit. The plant throws up many tall slender stalks, 

 furnished with leafy bracts, from which spring other light 

 stems terminated by little pedicels, each bearing a large 

 drooping flower and bud, which open in succession. 



The flower consists of five red sepals and five red petals; 

 the latter are hollowed, trumpet-like at the mouth; ascend- 

 ing they form narrow tubes, which are terminated by little 

 round knobs filled with honey. The delicate thready pedicel 

 on which the blossom hangs causes it to droop down and 

 thus throw up the honey -bearing tubes of the petals, the 

 little balls forming a pretty sort of floral coronet at the 

 junction with the stalk. 



The unequal and clustered stamens and the five thready 

 styles of the pistil project beyond the hollow mouths of the 

 petals like an elegant golden-fringed tassel; the edges and 

 interior of the petals are also of a bright golden yellow. 

 These gay colors are well contrasted with the deep green of 

 the root-leaves and bracts of the flower-stalks. The bracts 

 are lobed in two or three divisions. The larger leaves are 



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