Part 14

4 RUDBECKIA FULGIDA (Cone Flower)

* * * * *

NAT. ORD. SCROPHULARIACEÆ.—(GRAY.)

PAINTED CUP, SCARLET CUP. Castilleia coccinea.

Scarlet tufts Are glowing in the green like flakes of fire; The wanderers of the prairie know them well, And call that brilliant flower the Painted Cup. BRYANT.

THIS splendidly-coloured plant is the glory and ornament of the plain-lands of Canada. The whole plant is a glow of scarlet, varying from pale flame-colour to the most vivid vermillion, rivalling in brilliancy of hues the scarlet geranium of the greenhouse.

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 tracts that enclose them and clothe the stalks, forming at the ends of the flower branches clustered rosettes. (See our artist’s plate.)

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 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, terminated 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 color. The American botanists speak of Castilleia coccinea, as being addicted to a low, 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.

These lovely plants, like many others that adorn our Canadian woods and wilds, yearly disappear from our midst, and soon we shall seek them, but not find them.

We might say with the poet:

“’Twas pity nature brought ye forth, Merely to show your worth, And lose ye quite! But ye have lovely leaves, where we May read how soon things have Their end, though ne’er so brave; And after they have shewn their pride, Like you awhile they glide Into the grave.” HERRICK.

* * * * *

NAT. ORD. ORCHIDACEÆ.

SHOWY ORCHIS. Orchis spectabilis.

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” GRAY.

DEEP hidden in the damp recesses of the leafy woods, many a rare and precious flower of the Orchis family blooms, flourishes, and decays, unseen by human eye, unsought by human hand, until some curious, flower-loving botanist plunges amid the rank, tangled vegetation, and brings beauties to the light.

One of these beautiful Orchids, the Orchis spectabilis or Showy Orchis, is here presented in our group.

This pretty plant is not, indeed, of very rare occurrence; its locality is rich maple and beechen woods all through Canada. The colour of the flower is white, shaded, and spotted with pink or purplish lilac; the corolla is what is termed ringent or throated, the upper petals and sepals arching over the hollow lower-lipped petal. The scape is smooth and fleshy, terminating in a loosely-flowered and many-bracted spike; the bracts are dark-green, sharp-pointed, and leafy; the root a bundle of round white fibres; the leaves, two in number, are large, blunt, oblong, shining, smooth, and oily, from three to five inches long, one larger than the other. The flowering time of the species is May and June.

Our forest glades and boggy swamps hide many a rare and precious flower known but to few; among some of the most beautiful of this interesting group of plants, we might direct attention to the elegant and rare Calypso borealis, Pogonia triphoria, and Pogonia pendula. The beautiful Grass Pink, Calopogon pulchellus, with many others of the Orchidaceæ tribe, may be regarded as flower gems to be prized alike for their exquisite forms and colouring as for their scarcity.

These lovely Orchids, transplanted to the greenhouse or conservatory, would be regarded as objects of great interest, but are rarely seen and little valued by the careless passer-by, if he chances upon them in their forest haunts.

* * * * *

INDIAN TURNIP. (Arum family.) Arum triphyllum

“Or peers the Arum from its spotted veil.” BRYANT.

THERE are two species of Arums common to Canada, the larger of which is known as Green-dragon (Arum Dracontium); the other, which forms the central figure in the plate, is the most common to our soil, and is known by the familiar name of INDIAN TURNIP (Arum triphyllum or A. purpureum).

These moisture-loving plants are chiefly to be found in rich black, swampy mould, beneath the shade of trees and rank herbage, near creeks and damp places, in or about the forest.

The sheath that envelops and protects the spadix, or central portion of the plant, is an incurved membraneous hood of a pale green colour, beautifully striped with dark purple or brownish-purple.