NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
WHITE TRILLIUM—Easter FLrower—Trillium grandiflorum 
(Salisb.). 
(PLATE III.) 
« And spotless lilies bend the head 
Low to the passing gale.” 
Nature has scattered these remarkable flowers with no 
niggardly hand over hill and dale, wide shrubby plain and 
shady forest glen. In deep ravines and on rocky islets the 
bright snow-white blossoms of the Trilliums greet the eye 
and court the hand to pluck them. The old people in this 
part of the province call them by. the familiar name of 
lily. Thus we have Asphodel Lilies, Douro Lilies, etc. In 
Nova Scotia they are called Moose-flowers, probably from 
being abundant in the haunts of moose-deer. In some of 
the New England States the Trilliums, white and red, are 
known as the “ Death-flower,” but of the origin of so 
ominous a name we have no record. We might imagine it 
to have originated in the use of the flower to deck the coffins. 
or graves of the dead. The pure white blossoms might. 
serve not inappropriately for emblems of innocence and 
purity when laid upon the breast of the early dead. The 
darker and more sanguine hue of the red species might: 
have led to its selection for such as fell by violence; but: 
these are mere conjectures. A prettier name has been given 
to the Nodding Trillium (7. cernuwm), that of “ Smiling 
Wake-robin,” which seems to be associated with the coming 
of the cheerful chorister of early spring, “the household 
bird with the red stomacher,” as Bishop Carey* calls the 
robin redbreast. The botanical name of the Trillium is 
derived from triliz, triple, all the parts of the plant being 
in threes. Thus we see the round fleshy scape furnished 
* An old writer in the time of James I. and tutor to one of the daughters of Charles I. 
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