From Blue to Purple 



Calyx of 3 spreading sepals, i to i>^ in. long, or about length 

 of 3 pointed, oval petals ; stamens 6 ; anthers longer than 

 filaments ; pistil spreading into 3 short, recurved stigmas. 

 Stem: Stout, 8 to 16 in. high, from tuber-like rootstock. 

 Leaves : In a whorl of 3 ; broadly ovate, abruptly pointed, 

 netted-veined. Fruit : A 6-angled, ovate, reddish berry. 



Preferred Habitat — Rich, moist woods. 



Flo7vering Season — April — June. 



Distribution — Nova Scotia westward to Manitoba, southward to 

 North Carolina and Missouri. 



Some weeks after the jubilant, alert robins have returned 

 from the South, the purple trillium unfurls its unattractive, car- 

 rion-scented flower. In the variable colors found in different 

 regions, one can almost trace its evolution from green, white, and 

 red to purple, which, we are told, is the course all flowers must 

 follow to attain to blue. The white and pink forms, however 

 attractive to the eye, are never more agreeable to the nose than 

 the reddish-purple ones. Bees and butterflies, with delicate ap- 

 preciation of color and fragrance, let the blossom alone, since it 

 secretes no nectar; and one would naturally infer either that it 

 can fertilize itself without insect aid — a theory which closer study 

 of its organs goes far to disprove — or that the carrion-scent, so 

 repellent to us, is in itself an attraction to certain insects need- 

 ful for cross-pollination. Which are they ? Beetles have been 

 observed crawling over the flower, but without effecting any 

 methodical result. One inclines to accept Mr. Clarence M. 

 Weed's theory of special adaptation to the common green flesh- 

 flies {Lucilia carnicina), which would naturally be attracted to a 

 flower resembling in color and odor a raw beefsteak of uncertain 

 age. These little creatures, seen in every butcher shop through- 

 out the summer, the flower furnishes with a free lunch of pollen 

 in consideration of the transportation of a few grains to another 

 blossom. Absence of the usual floral attractions gives the carrion 

 flies a practical monopoly of the pollen food, which no doubt 

 tastes as it smells. 



The Sessile-flowered Wake-Robin {T. sessile), whose dark 

 purple, purplish-red, or greenish blossom, narrower of sepal and ■ 

 petals than the preceding, is seated in a whorl of three egg- 

 shaped, sometimes blotched, leaves, possesses a rather pleasant 

 odor ; nevertheless it seems to have no great attraction for 

 insects. The stigmas, which are very large, almost touch the 

 anthers surrounding them ; therefore the beetles which one fre- 

 quently sees crawling over them to feed on the pollen so jar 

 them, no doubt, as to self-fertilize the flower ; but it is scarcely 

 probable these slow crawlers often transfer the grains from one 

 blossom to another. A degraded flower like this has little need of 



