NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



table. I was assured that death would be the result of my 

 experiment; but I was confident in the innocent qualities of 

 my fruit-bearing Spinach, and laughed at the prediction that 

 I should find death in the pot. 



Nor is the Indian Strawberry the only member of the 

 Spinach tribe that is found growing in Canada. We possess 

 several others, among these the herbs commonly known by 

 the country people as Good King Henry (B. Bonus Henri- 

 cus), which has been introduced from Europe, and Lamb's 

 Quarters (Chenopodium album), which plants are still made 

 use of as spring vegetables, though not now in such repute 

 as formerly. Happily few houses, or even shanties, cannot 

 boast of a garden around the dAvelling, but many years ago 

 it was a rare thing to see even a cabbage-plot fenced in about 

 the homestead, and the cultivation of flowers was regarded 

 as a piece of useless extravagance, a mark of pride and idle 

 vanity. We do not wish those good old times back again ! 



The leaves of the Indian Strawberry are thin, long-pointed, 

 somewhat halbert-shaped, with shallow indentations at the 

 edges. They are of a bright lively green color. In the earlier 

 stages of growth, the flowering spikes stand upright, but as 

 the fruit ripens they decline, and are bending or entirely 

 prostrate, much resembling the drooping Amaranth (called 

 Love Lies Bleeding) of our gardens, but more brilliant in 

 hue. The berries of the Indian Strawberry are wrinkled on 

 the surface and dotted over with purplish-black seeds, which 

 lie embedded in the soft fruity pulp of the altered calyx in a 

 manner similar to the Strawberry. The fruit begins to ripen 

 in July, and continues by a succession of lateral branches to 

 bear its red clusters all through August, after which the 

 frosts of September cut it off and destroy the beauty of the 

 plant. 



137 



