60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The thick, tuberlike, white rootstock is brittle with numerous slender 

 fibrous roots and has the odor and taste of cucumbers. 



Red Trillium; Wake-robin or Birthroot 

 Trillium erectum Linnaeus 



Plate 23a 



Stem rather stout, 8 to 16 inches high, from a thick, short rootstock. 

 Leaves rather dark green, very broadly rhombic, 3 to 7 inches long, often 

 as wide or wider, sessile or nearly so, acuminate at the apex, narrowed 

 at the base, peduncle 1 to 4 inches long, erect or nearly so, bearing a single, 

 unpleasantly scented, large flower; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, spreading, 

 one-half to 1^ inches long; petals lanceolate to ovate, acute, spreading, 

 equalling the sepals or a little longer, dark purplish-red, varying to pink; 

 greenish, white, or reddish yellow in certain aberrant forms; anthers longer 

 than the filaments and exceeding the stigmas; ovary purple with short- 

 spreading or recurved styles; fruit an ovoid, somewhat six-lobed, reddish 

 berry, 1 inch thick or less. 



In woods and thickets, Nova Scotia to Ontario, south to North 

 Carolina and Tennessee. 



White Trillium; Large-flowered Wake-robin 



Trillium grandiflorum (Michaux) Salisbury 



Plate 23 b 



A glabrous, erect, unbranched herb from a stout, perennial, short, 

 scarred rootstock, 8 to 18 inches high; bearing at the top of the stem three 

 light-green, broadly rhombic-ovate or rhombic-oval leaves, 2 to 6 inches 

 long, acuminate at the apex, narrowed and sessile at the base, peduncle 

 erect or nearly so, 1 to 3 inches long, bearing a single flower 2 to 3 inches 

 broad. The three sepals lanceolate, pointed and spreading. Petals three, 

 erect-spreading, oblanceolate, obovate, or rarely ovate-oblong, obtuse or 

 cuspidate, thin, strongly veined, white, usually turning pink with age, 

 much longer than the sepals. Stamens six, with yellow anthers which are 



