STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
We have in Ontario several distinct species of Anemone, 
though none so finely colored as the prairie flower; nor can 
we boast of the splendid Anemones that gem the wilderness 
tracts of Palestine. Some travellers have suggested that it 
was to the brilliant blossoms of the scarlet, blue and white 
Anemones that the Saviour drew the attention of his dis- 
ciples, while Sir James Smith has supposed—and with more 
probability—it was to the glowing colors of the golden 
flowered Amaryllis lutea, which abounds on the fields of 
Palestine, that He alluded in His words, “ Behold the lilies 
of the field,” etc. 
Spring Beauty—Claytonia Virginica (L.) and C. Caro- 
liniana (Michx.). 
(PLATE IL) 
‘* Where the fire had smoked and smouldered, 
Saw the earliest flower of Springtime, 
Saw the Beauty of the Springtime, 
Saw the Miskodeed* in blossom.”— Longfellow. 
This simple, delicate little plant is one of our earliest 
April flowers. In warm springs it is almost exclusively an 
April flower, but in cold and backward seasons it often delays 
its blossoming time till May. 
Partially hidden beneath the shelter of old decaying tim- 
bers and fallen boughs, its pretty pink buds peep shyly forth. 
It is often found in partially cleared beech-woods and in rich 
» moist meadows. 
In Canada there are two species: C. Caroliniana, with 
few flowers, white, veined with red, and both leaves and 
flowers larger than the more common western form; C. Vir- 
ginica, the blossoms of which are more numerous, smaller 
and pink, veined with lines of a deeper rose color, forming 
+A literal translation of the words is ‘‘the bright and shining ones.” 
* Miskodeed—Indian name for Spring Beauty. 
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