CHAPTER XLIX. 



FORMATION OF EARLY SPRING FLOWERS. 



631. Trillium. — As this white flower with its setting of green 

 sepals is glinting to us out of copses and woodland like so many- 

 new fairies, few of us realize the long task which it has already 

 begun in the silent depths of the soil in order that it may suddenly 

 blossom again in season, when springtime returns. If we re- 

 move the old scales where the flowering stem joins the root-stock, 

 we will see a pointed, conical, white bud, which is to develop 

 into the next season's leafy plant and blossom. From June to 

 August the new leaves and flower are slowly forming, protected 

 by several overlapping, thick, whitish, soft scales, which form a 

 conical roof to keep out water, and to protect against too sudden 

 changes in cold during the autumn and winter season. In Sep- 

 tember we find that leaves and sepals are well formed and green, 

 the petals are already white, and within are the six stamens and 

 the angular pistil, all well formed. Where the sun reaches these 

 copses and warms the soil well in autumn, sometimes the stamens 

 are yellowish as early as September or October from the already 

 formed pollen. In the cooler shades the pollen is not yet formed 

 and the stamens remain whitish in color. But with the first onset 

 of warm weather in the spring, or on warm days in the winter, 

 before the flower bud lifts its head from its long winter sleep, 

 snugly ensconced among the fallen leaves or spongy humus, the 

 pollen quickly forms. Now all the plant has to do is to erect 

 its standard, bearing aloft the opening blossom. 



632. The ovules, begun in the autumn, are now being com- 

 pleted, pollenation takes place, and later fertilization, and the 

 embryo begins to form in June. The pure white flowers soon 



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