ADDERS-TONGUE.
(DOG-TOOTHED VIOLET.)
_Erythronium Americanum._
“And spotted Adders-tongue with drooping bell,
Greeting the new-born spring.”
IN rich black mould, on the low banks of creeks and open woodlands,
large beds of these elegant lilies may be seen piercing the softened
ground in the month of April; the broad lanceolate leaves are
beautifully clouded with purple or reddish brown, or sometimes with
milky white. Each bulb of the _second_ year’s growth produces two
leaves, and between these rises a round naked scape, (or flower stem),
terminated by a drooping yellow bell. The unfolded bud is striped with
lines of dark purple. A few hours of sunshine and warm wind soon expands
the flower, which is composed of six coloured sepals, recurved, which
form a lily-like turbaned flower; each segment grooved, and spotted at
the base, with oblong purplish brown dots. The outer surface of the
sepals is marked with dark lines. The stamens are six; anthers, oblong;
pollen of a brick-red, or dull orange colour, varying to yellow. The
style is club-shaped; stigmas three, united.
This elegant yellow lily bends downward when expanded, as if to hide its
glories from the full glare of the sun-light. The clouded leaves are of
an oily smoothness, resisting the moisture of rain and dew.
The name Dogs-tooth Violet seems very inappropriate. The pointed
segments of the bell may have suggested the resemblance to the tooth of
a dog, but it is difficult to trace any analogy between this flower and
the violet, no two plants presenting greater dissimilarity of form or
habit than the lily and the violet, though often blended in the verse of
the poet. The American name of the Adders-tongue is more significant.[3]
The White Flowered Adders-tongue grows, it has been said, in the more
western portion of Canada, on the shores of Lake Huron, probably the
_Erythronium albidum_ of Gray.
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[3] The name Dogs-tooth refers to the shape of the small pointed white
bulbs of the common European species, so well known in English
gardens.—PROF. LAWSON.
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