NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



vermilion, rivalling in brilliancy of hue the Scarlet 

 Geranium of our gardens. 



The Painted Cup owes its gay appearance not to its 

 flowers, which are not very conspicuous at a distance, but 

 to the deeply-cut leafy bracts that enclose them and clothe 

 the stalks, forming at the ends of the flower-branches 

 clustered rosettes. 



The flower is a flattened tube bordered with bright red 

 and edged with golden yellow. Stamens four; pistil one, 

 projecting beyond the tube of the calyx; the capsule is 

 many-seeded. The radical or root-leaves are of a dull 

 hoary green, tinged with reddish purple, as also is the 

 stem, which is rough, hairy, and angled. The bracts, or 

 leafy appendages which appear on the lower part of the 

 stalk, are but slightly tinged with scarlet, but the color 

 deepens and brightens towards the middle and summit of 

 the branched stem. 



The Scarlet Cup appears in May, along with the White 

 and Ked Trilliums, but these early plants are small; the 

 stem is simple, rarely branched, and the color of a deeper 

 red. As the summer advances our gallant soldier-like 

 plant puts on all its bravery of attire. All through the 

 glowing harvest months the open grassy plains and the 

 borders of the cultivated fields are enriched by its glorious 

 colors. In favorable soil the plant attains a height of from 

 two to three feet, throwing out many side branches, ter- 

 minated by the clustered brilliantly-tinted bracts; some 

 heads are as large as a medium-sized rose. They have been 

 gathered in the corners of the stubble fields on the culti- 

 vated plains as late as October; specimens from the 

 prairies are of a deep purplish red.* A not uncommon 



*This is Castilleia miniata, Dougl. 



41 



