NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



into English gardens as a rarity before I saw it growing in 

 all its wild beauty on the margins of the Otonabee, on my 

 first journey, or rather voyage, up the country. There, grow- 

 ing at the edge of the low grassy flats beside the water, its 

 tall loose spike of deep red flowers fluttering in the breeze 

 and reddening the surface of the bright river with the reflec- 

 tion of its glorious color, this splendid flower first met my 

 admiring eyes. 



It was but a short time before that I had seen it cultivated 

 as a new and rare border flower, and here it was in all its 

 loveliness on the banks of a lonely forest stream which then 

 flowed through an almost unbroken wilderness, growing 

 uncared for, unsought for and unvalued. The people, a rude 

 set of Irish settlers, were amused at the delight with which 

 I plucked the flowers. They cared for none of these things; 

 they were to them only useless weeds. 



There are several varieties of the Cardinal Flower occa- 

 sionally found among the wild plants near the inland lakes 

 and creeks of the backwoods, some with flesh-colored corollas, 

 or white striped with red; but these variations are not very 

 common. The prettiest of the blue-flowered plants of the 

 Lobelia family is a small, delicate, branching one, with azure- 

 blue and white petals, which is cultivated in hanging baskets, 

 as its bright blue flowers and slender leaves droop gracefully 

 over the pot or basket and contrast charmingly with larger 

 flowers of deeper color and more vivid foliage. 



The largest of the North American Lobelias is L. sypU- 

 ilitica* a stout-stemmed, many-flowered species, which is 

 chiefly found near springs ; the flowers are full blue and the 

 spike much crowded; the height about eighteen or twenty 

 inches; leaves light green. The plant seems to flourish in 

 clayey soil near water, and is not often cultivated. Another 



* See Plate X. 



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