78 FAINTED CUP, SCARLET CUP. 



anjilod. The bracts or leafy appendages, which appear on the 

 lower part of the stalk, are but slightly tinged with scarlet, but 

 the colour deepens and brightens towards the middle and summit 

 of the branched stem. 



The Scarlet Cup appears in May, along with the smaller white 

 and red trilliums : but these early plants are small ; the stem simple, 

 rarely branched, and the colour 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 mouths, the open 

 grasgy plains and the borders of the cultivated fields are enriched 

 by its glorious colours. In ftivourable soils the plant rises, enclosed 

 in a tubular slightly twice-cleft calyx, of a pale green colour, attains 

 a height of from 2ft. 4in., throwing out many side branches, ter- 

 minated by the clustered, brilliantly-tinted bracts ; some heads being 

 as large as a medium-sized rose. They have been gathered in 

 the corners of the stubble fields on the cultivated plains, as late 

 as October. A not uncommon slender variety occurs, of a pale bufif, 

 and also of a bright lemon color. The xVmerican botanists speak of 

 Castilkia coccinea^ as being addicted to a low, wettish soil, but it 

 is not so with our Canadian plant ; if you would find it in its, 

 greatest perfection, you must seek it on the high, dry, rolling plains 

 of Rice-lake, Brantford. to the north of Toronto, Stoney lake, the 

 neighbourhood of Peterboro, and similar localities; it is neither 

 to be found in swamps nor in the shade of the uncleared forest. 



For soil, the Scarlet Cup seems to prefer light loam, and 

 evidently courts the sunshine rather than the shade. If it could 

 be prevailed upon to flourish in our garden borders, it would be 

 a great acquisition, from its long flowering time and its brilliant 

 colouring. 



