WHITE TRILLIUM.
(DEATH FLOWER.)
_Trillium Grandiflorum._
“And spotless lilies bend the head
Low to the passing gale.”
NATURE has scattered with no niggardly hand these remarkable flowers
over hill and dale, wide shrubby plain and shady forest glen. In deep
ravines, or rocky islets, the bright snow-white blossoms of the
Trilliums greet the eye and court the hand to pluck them. The old people
in this part of the Province call them by the familiar name of Lily.
Thus we have _Asphodel Lilies_, _Douro Lilies_, _&c._ In Nova Scotia
they are called Moose-flowers, probably from being abundant in the
haunts of Moose-deer. In some of the New England States the Trilliums,
white and red, are known as the _Death-flower_, but of the origin of so
ominous a name we have no record. We might imagine it to have originated
in the use of the flower to deck the coffin or graves of the dead in the
olden times. The pure white blossoms of _T. nivale_, _T. cernum_
(nodding Trillium) and _T. grandiflorum_, might serve not
inappropriately for emblems of innocence and purity, when laid upon the
breast of the early dead. The darker and more sanguine hue of the red
species, _T. sessile_, and _T. recurvatum_, might have been selected for
such as fell by violence, but these are but conjecture. A prettier name
has been given to the Nodding Trillium: that of “Smiling Wake-robin,”
which seems to be associated with the coming of the cheerful chorister
of early spring, “The household bird with the red stomacher,” as Bishop
Carey calls the robin red-breast. The botanical name of the Trillium is
derived from trilex, triple, all the parts of the plant being in threes.
Thus we see the round fleshy scape furnished with three large sad green
leaves, closely set round the stem, two or three inches below the
flower; which is composed of a calyx of _three_ sepals, a corolla of
_three_ large snow-white, or, else, chocolate red petals: the styles or
stigmas _three_; ovary _three_ celled; stamens _six_, which is a
duplicate of three. The white fleshy tuberous root is much used by the
American School of Medicine in various diseases, also by the Indian herb
doctors.
_Trillium grandiflorum_ is the largest and most showy of the white
species. _Trillium nivale_ or “lesser snowy Trillium,” is the smallest;
the last blooms _early_ in May. May and June are the months in which
these flowers appear. The white flowered Trilliums are subject to many
varieties and accidental alterations. The green of the sepals is often
transferred to the white petals in _T. nivale_; some are found
handsomely striped with red and green, and in others the very short
foot-stalk of the almost sessile leaves are lengthened into long
petioles. The large White Trillium is changed previous to its fading to
a dull reddish lilac.
The Red Trilliums are rich but sombre in colour, the petals are
longish-ovate, regular, not waved, and the pollen is of a greyish dusty
hue while that of the White species is bright orange-yellow. The leaves
are of a dark lurid green, the colouring matter of the petals seems to
pervade the leaves; and here, let me observe, that the same remark may
be made of many other plants. In purple flowers we often perceive the
violet hue to be perceptible in the stalk and under part of the leaves,
and sometimes in the veins and roots. Red flowers again show the same
tendency in stalk and veins.
The Blood-root in its early stage of growth shews the Orange juice in
the stem and leaves, so does the Canadian Balsam and many others; that,
a little observation will point out. The colouring matter of flowers has
always been, more or less, a mystery to us: that light is one of the
great agents can hardly for a moment be doubted, but something also may
depend upon the peculiar quality of the juices that fill the tissues of
the flower, and on the cellular tissue itself. Flowers deprived of
light, we know, are pallid and often colourless, but how do we account
for the deep crimson of the beet-root, the rose-red of the radish, the
orange of the rhubarb, carrot, and turnip, which roots, being buried in
the earth, are not subject to the solar rays? The natural supposition
would be that all roots hidden from the light would be white, but this
is by no means the case. The question is one of much interest, and
deserves the attention of all naturalists, and especially of the
botanical student.
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