White and Greenish 



transfer it to older and now expanded flowers, in which the low 

 stigmas appear between the tall separated stamens. Nectar stored 

 in septal glands at the b^se invites the visitor laden with pollen 

 from young flowers to come in contact with the three late matur- 

 ing stigmas. The berry is black. From Quebec to Florida and 

 far westward we find this tardy wake-robin in May or June. 



Certainly the commonest trillium in the Bast, although it 

 thrives as far westward as Ontario and Missouri, and south to 

 Georgia, is the Nodding Wake-Robin ( T. cernuutn), whose white 

 or pinkish flower droops from its peduncle until it is all but hid- 

 den under the whorl of broadly rhombic, tapering leaves. The 

 wavy margined petals, about as long as the sepals— that is to say, 

 half an inch long or over — curve backward at maturity. Accord- 

 ing to Miss Carter, who studied the flower in the Botanical Gar- 

 den at South Hadley, Mass., it is slightly proterandrous, maturing 

 its anthers first, but with a chance of spontaneous self-pollination 

 by the stigmas recurving to meet the shorter stamens. She saw 

 bumblebees visiting it for nectar. In late summer an egg-shaped, 

 pendulous red-purple berry swings from the summit. One finds 

 the plant in bloom from April to June, according to the climate of 

 its long range. 



Perhaps the most strikingly beautiful member of the tribe is 

 the Painted Trillium {T. undulatum) — 7". erythrocarpum of Gray. 

 At the summit of the slender stem, rising perhaps only eight inches, 

 or maybe twice as high, this charming flower spreads its long, 

 wavy-edged, waxy-white petals veined and striped with deep 

 pink or wine color. The large ovate leaves, long-tapering to a 

 point, are rounded at the base into short petioles. The rounded, 

 three-angled, bright red, shining berry is seated in the persistent 

 calyx. With the same range as the nodding trillium's, the painted 

 wake-robin comes into bloom nearly a month later — in May and 

 June — when all the birds are not only wide awake, but have 

 finished courting, and are busily engaged in the most serious 

 business of life. 



Showy Lady's Slipper 



(Cypripedium reginae) Orchid family 

 (C spectabile of Gray) 



t lowers — Usually solitary, at summit of stem, white, or the inflated 

 white lip painted with purplish pink and white stripes; sepals 

 rounded oval, spreading, white, not longer than the lip; 

 ijKtals narrower, white; the broad sac-shaped pouch open in 



163 



