22 WHITE TRILLIUM. 



the breast of the early dead. The darker and more sanguine hue 

 of the red species, T. sessile, and T. recurvatnm, might have been 

 selected for such as fell by violence, but these are but conjecture. 

 A prettier name has been given to the Nodding Trillium : that of 

 "Smiling Wake-robin," which seems to be associated with the coming 

 of the cheerful chorister of early spring, " The household bird with the 

 red stomacher, ' as Bishop Carey calls the rol)in red-breast. The bota- 

 nical name of the Trillium is derived from trilex, triple, all the parts 

 of the plant being in threes. Thus we see the round fleshy scape 

 furnished with three large sad green leaves, closely set round the 

 stem, two or three inches below the flower ; which is composed of 

 a calyx of three sepals, a corolla of three large snow-white, or, else, 

 chocolate red petals : the styles or stigmas three: ovary three celled ; 

 stamens six, which is a duplicate of three. The white fleshy tuberous 

 root is much used by the American School of Medicine invarious 

 diseases, also by the Indian herb doctors. 



Trillium gandijlorum is the largest and most showy of the white 

 species. Ti'illium nivale or " lesser snowy Trillium," is the smallest ; 

 the last blooms early in May. May and June are the months in 

 which these flowers appear. The white flowered Trilliums are subject 

 to many varieties and accidental alterations. The green of the 

 sepals is often transferred to the white petals in T. nivale; some 

 are found handsomely striped with red and green, and in others the 

 very short foot-stalk of the almost sessile leaves are lengthened into 

 long petioles. The large White Trillium is changed previous to its 

 fading to a dull reddish lilac. 



The Red Trilliums are rich but sombre in colour, the petals are 

 longish-ovate, regular, not waved, and the pollen is of a greyish dusty 



