16 
PAINTED CUP, SCARLET CUP. 
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angled. The bracts, or leafy appendages, which appear on the 
lower part of the stalk, are but slightly tinged with scarlet, but 
the colour deepens and brightens towards the middle and summit 
of the branched stem. 
The Scarlet Cup appears in May, along with the smaller white 
and red trilliums; but these early plants are small; the stem simple, 
rarely branched, and the colour 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 colours. In favourable soils the plant rises, enclosed 
in a tubular slightly twice-cleft calyx, of a pale green colour, attains 
a height of from 2ft. 4in., throwing out many side branches, ter¬ 
minated by the clustered, brilliantly-tinted bracts ; some heads being 
as large as a medium-sized rose. They have been gathered in 
the corners of the stubble fields on the cultivated plains, as late 
as October. A not uncommon slender variety occurs of a pale buff, 
and also of a bright lemon colour. The American botanists speak of 
Castilleia coccinea , as being addicted to a Iotv, wettish soil, but it 
is not so with our Canadian plant; if you would find it in its 
greatest perfection, you must seek it on the high, dry, rolling plains 
of Rice-lake, Brantford, to the north of Toronto, Stoney lake, the 
neighbourhood of Peterboro, and similar localities ; it is neither 
to be found in swamps nor in the shade of the uncleared forest. 
For soil, the Scarlet Cup seems to prefer light loam, and 
evidently courts the sunshine rather than the shade. If it could 
be prevailed upon to flourish in our garden borders, it would be 
a great acquisition, from its long flowering time and its brilliant 
colouring. 
