Part 6

THIS graceful plant belongs to the fumitory family, of which we have many cultivated varieties in Britain and elsewhere. Here our lovely flower grows wild in rich black mould in the forest, and in recently cleared spots within its protecting shadow, where its drooping bells and rich scent have gained for it the not very inappropriate name of “Wild Hyacinth.” The common name of “Squirrel-Corn” is derived from the round orange tubers at the roots, resembling in size and colour grains of Indian-Corn, and from their being a favourite food with the ground squirrel.

The blossoms are of a pellucid whiteness, sometimes tinged with reddish lilac; they form a drooping raceme on a round smooth scape, springing from a scaly bud; the corolla is heart-shaped, composed of four petals, in two pairs, flattened and sac-like, the tips united over the stigma, and slightly projecting; in D. cucullaria assuming the likeness of the head of a fly, the cream-coloured diverging petals presenting a strong resemblance to the deer-fly of our lakes. This very charming species is known by the somewhat vulgar name of “BREECHES FLOWER” and “DUTCHMAN’S BREECHES.” A more descriptive name would be “FLY-FLOWER.”

All the species flourish under cultivation, and become very ornamental early border flowers; but care should be taken to plant them in rich black vegetable mould, the native soil of their forest haunts.

Our artist has chosen the delicate rosy-tinted variety as the subject of the right hand flower of the plate.

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PURPLE TRILLIUM. (DEATH-FLOWER.—BIRTH-ROOT.) Trillium erectum.

“Bring flowers, bring flowers o’er the bier to shed A crown for the brow of the early dead. Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, They are love’s last gift, bring flowers, bring flowers.” HEMANS.

GRAY and other botanical writers call this striking flower (T. erectum) the “Purple Trillium;” it should rather be called RED, its hue being decidedly more red than purple, and in the New England States it is called by the country folks, “The Red Death-Flower,” in contrast to the larger White Trillium, or “WHITE DEATH-FLOWER.” For further remarks on this singular name we refer the reader to the description of that flower where all the native varieties of the genus are dwelt upon, including the one now before us, which forms the central flower in the present group, and shall merely add that like the rest of this remarkable family, T. erectum is widely spread over the whole of Canada. It appears in the middle of May and continues blooming till June, preferring the soil of rich shady woods.

“Few of our indigenous plants surpass the Trillium in elegance and beauty, and they are all endowed with valuable 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 ingredients.” So says that intelligent writer on the medicinal plants of North America, Dr. Charles Lee. There are three of the dark flowered Trillium enumerated by Gray, two of which appear to be common to our Canadian soil, T. erectum and T. sessile. The latter is smaller, and often the dull chocolate colour of the pointed petals assumes a livid greenish hue. It is earlier in flowering, appearing at the beginning of May, at the same time with T. nivale, the “Dwarf White” or “SNOWY TRILLIUM.”

Under cultivation the flowers of all the species become very ornamental; they require black leaf mould and moderate shade, and, if left to grow undisturbed, increase and continue to flower year after year, in the borders or shrubbery.

The seeds when ripe are easily obtained; they are hard and bony, several in each division of the three celled capsule. The roots of these plants are thick, wrinkled, fleshy, and contain the medicinal principle described by Dr. Lee.

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NAT. ORD. GERANIACEÆ.

WOOD GERANIUM. (CRANES-BILL.) Geranium maculatum.

THERE are but few flowers of the Cranes-bill family in Canada. The one most worthy of notice is the Wood Geranium (Geranium maculatum). This is a very ornamental plant: its favourite locality is open grassy thickets among low bushes, especially those tracts of country known as Oak-openings, where it often reaches to the height of from 2° to 3°, throwing out many branches adorned with deep lilac flowers; the half-opened buds are very lovely. The blossom consists of five petals, obtuse and slightly indented on their upper margins, and are lined and delicately veined with purple. The calyx consists of five pointed sepals; stamens ten; the anthers are of a reddish brown; styles five, cohering at the top. When the seed is mature these curl up, bearing the ripe brown seed adhering to the base of each one. The common name Cranes-bill has been derived from the long grooved and stork-like beak which supports the stigma. The Greek name of the plant means a Crane. The whole plant is more or less beset with silvery hairs. The leaves are divided into about five principal segments; these again are lobed and cut into sharply pointed irregularly sized teeth. The larger hairy root leaves are often discoloured with red and purplish blotches, from whence the specific name (maculatum) spotted, has been given by botanists to this species.

The flower stem is much branched and furnished with leafy bracts; the principal flowers are on long stalks, usually three springing from a central branch and again subdividing into smaller branchlets terminating in buds mostly in threes, on drooping slender pedicels; as the older and larger blossoms fall off a fresh succession appears on the side branches, furnishing rather smaller but equally beautiful flowers during many weeks. Gray gives the blooming season of the Cranes-bill from April to July, but with us it rarely appears before June, and may be seen all through July and August.

This Wood Geranium is a beautiful species, and would no doubt repay the trouble of cultivation. Besides being very ornamental our plant possesses virtues which are well known to the herbalist as powerful astringents, which quality has obtained for it the name of ‘Alum root’ among the country people, who apply a decoction of the root as a styptic for wounds; and sweetened, as a gargle for sore throats and ulcerated mouth: it is also given to young children to correct a lax state of the system.

Thus our plant is remarkable for its usefulness as well as for its beauty.

A showy species, with large rose-coloured flowers and much dissected leaves, may be found on some of the rocky islets in Stoney Lake, Ont. The slender flower stem is about six inches in height, springing from a leafy involucre which is cut and divided into many long and narrow segments; flowers generally from one to three, terminal on the little bracted-foot-stalks. The seed vessels not so long as in the Wood Geranium.

Besides the above named we have two smaller species. The well known HERB ROBERT—G. Robertianum or fœtid geranium—which is said to have been introduced from Britain, but is by no means uncommon in Canada, in half cleared woodlands and by waysides attracting the eye by its bright pink flowers, and elegantly cut leaves, which becomes bright red in the fall of the year. This pretty species is renowned for its rank and disagreeable odour when handled.

Another small flowered species, with pale insignificant blossoms is also common as a weed by road sides and in open woods, probably this is G. pusilum, smaller Cranes-bill; it also resembles the British plant, but is of too frequent occurrence in remote localities to lead us to suppose it to be otherwise than a native production of the soil.

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NAT. ORD. PRIMULACEÆ.

CHICKWEED WINTERGREEN. Trientalis Americana.

THIS pretty starry-flowered little plant is remarkable for the occurrence of the number seven in its several parts, and was for some time regarded by botanists of the old school as the representative of the Class Heptandria.

The calyx is seven parted; the divisions of the delicate white corolla also seven; and the stamens seven. The leaves form a whorl at the upper part of the stem, mostly from five to seven, or eight; the leaves are narrow, tapering at both ends, of a delicate light-green, thin in texture, and of a pleasant sub-acid flavour. The star-shaped flowers, few in number, on thread-like stalks, rise from the centre of the whorl of leaves, which thus form an involucre to the pretty delicate starry flowers. This little plant is frequently found at the roots of beech-trees; it is fond of shade, and in light vegetable mould forms considerable beds; the roots are white, slender, and fibrous; it is one of our early May flowers, though, unless the month be warm and genial, will delay its opening somewhat later. In old times, when the herbalists gave all kinds of fanciful names to the wild plants, they would have bestowed such a name as “HERBE INNOCENCE” upon our modest little forest flower.

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4 VERONICA AMERICANA (American Brooklime)