NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
vermilion, rivalling in brilliancy of hue the Scarlet 
Geranium of our gardens. 
The Painted Cup owes its gay appearance not to its 
flowers, which are not very conspicuous at a distance, but 
to the deeply-cut leafy bracts that enclose them and clothe 
the stalks, forming at the ends of the flower-branches 
clustered rosettes. 
The flower is a flattened tube bordered with bright red 
and edged with golden yellow. Stamens four; pistil one, 
projecting beyond the tube of the calyx; the capsule is 
many-seeded. The radical or root-leaves are of a dull 
hoary green, tinged with reddish purple, as also is the 
stem, which is rough, hairy, and angled. The bracts, or 
leafy appendages which appear on the lower part of the 
stalk, are but slightly tinged with scarlet, but the color 
deepens and brightens towards the middle and summit of 
the branched stem. 
The Scarlet Cup appears in May, along with the White 
and Red Trilliums, but these early plants are small; the 
stem is simple, rarely branched, and the color of a deeper 
red. As the summer advances our gallant soldier-like 
plant puts on all its bravery of attire. All through the 
glowing harvest months the open grassy plains and the 
borders of the cultivated fields are enriched by its glorious 
colors. In favorable soil the plant attains a height of from 
two to three feet, throwing out many side branches, ter- 
minated by the clustered brilliantly-tinted bracts; some 
heads are as large as a medium-sized rose. They have been 
gathered in the corners of the stubble fields on the culti- 
vated plains as late as October; specimens from the 
prairies are of a deep purplish red.* A not uncommon 
*This is Castilleia miniata, Doug]. 
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