NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
whole of old Canada. It appears in the middle of May and 
continues blooming till June, preferring the soil of damp, 
shady woods and thickets; but it takes very kindly to a 
shaded border in the garden, where it increases in size and 
becomes an ornamental spring flower. 
“Few of our indigenous plants surpass the Trillium in 
elegance and beauty, and they are all endowed with valu- 
able medicinal properties. The root of the Purple Trillium 
is generally believed to be the most active. Tannin and 
Bitter Extract form two of its most remarkable ingred- 
ients.” So says that intelligent writer on the medicinal 
plants of North America, Dr. Charles Lee. 
The Red Trilliums are rich but sombre in color, the 
petals are longish-ovate, regular, not waved, and the pollen 
is of a greyish dusty hue, while that of the white species 
is bright orange yellow. The leaves are of a dark lurid 
green, the coloring matter of the petals seeming to pervade 
the leaves. And here let me observe that the same remark 
may be made of many other plants. In purple flowers we 
often perceive the violet hue to be perceptible in the stalk 
and under part of the leaves, and sometimes in the veins 
and roots. Red flowers, again, show the same tendency in 
stalk and veins. Where the flower is white the leaves and 
veinings, with the stem and branches, are for the most part 
of a lighter green, more inclining to the yellow or else 
bluish tinge of green. 
The Blood-root in its early stage of growth shews the 
orange juice in the stem and leaves, as also does the 
Canadian Balsam and many others that a little observation 
will point out. The coloring matter of flowers has always 
been more or less of a mystery to us; that light is one of 
the great agents can hardly for a moment be doubted, but 
something also may depend upon the peculiar quality of the 
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