NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
on Alpine heights, or in Canadian wilds; on banks of 
lonely lakes and forest streams, or in the garden parterre, 
where it is rivalled by few other flowers in grace of form 
or splendor of color. 
We cannot boast, in this part of the Dominion, any of 
the more brilliant and beautiful flowers of this ornamental 
family, though that interesting, lovely species known as 
Pasque-flower—Anemone patens (L.), var. Nuttalliana 
(Gray)— is largely distributed over the prairie lands of 
the Western States and in our North-western Provinces, 
where it is one of the earliest of the spring flowers to 
gladden the heart with its large lavender blossoms, than 
which none are more beautiful. The bud appears on a 
thick leafless scape, about four to six inches high, enclosed 
in a cut and sharply pointed involucre of grey bracts of 
silvery hue and shining brightness. The scape is clothed 
with hairy scales; from within this silky covering peeps 
out the fair bud, which shortly expands into a large open 
cup-like very beautiful blossom, with a shade of white at 
the base of each large pointed sepal. As the flower 
advances a change takes place in the whole aspect of the 
plant; the root-leaves begin .to appear, which are com- 
poundly cut and divided, and the head of plumy fruit is 
raised on a high scape above the silken involucre and now 
ripens in the breezy air and sunshine.* 
I have a fine dried specimen before me, perfect under all 
its several aspects, and I wish that it could be oftener seen as 
a cultivated border ornament in our Canadian gardens. The 
name “ Pasque-flower ” is hardly known among the inhabi- 
tants of our North-western prairies, and the Indian name 
would, I am sure, be descriptive of some natural quality of 
the plant, its growth or habits. 
*This is the Crocus Anemone of the West and has been chosen as the floral emblem 
of Manitoba. 
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