WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Wild flowers of the north-eastern states cover

Wild flowers of the north-eastern states

Chapter 58: LILY FAMILY. LILIACEÆ.
By Ellen Miller
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

This illustrated manual gathers 308 common wildflowers of the northeastern United States, each drawn life-size and accompanied by plain-language descriptions emphasizing habit, color, and growth rather than technical dissection. Organized by floral families in the sequence of Gray's Manual and arranged for seasonal bloom, entries include leaves, stems, and often whole growth, with occasional shrubs, vines, and fruit shown where notable. Aimed at amateur naturalists, it favors recognizable traits and folk names to ease identification, offers practical notes on variations and habitat, and pairs accurate botanical classification with accessible, pictorial presentation.

LILY FAMILY.
LILIACEÆ.

Adder’s-tongue.Erythronium Americanum.
Dog-tooth Violet.
Trout Lily.

Found in early May on springy slopes or in moist meadow-lands.

Two leaves and the single flower-stem, which is about 6 or 8 inches in height, rise from the root.

The leaves are long and oval, tapering at the tip, with an entire margin, of a thick and juicy texture, and a smooth surface that is cool to the touch. The color is green with a bloom upon it, and mottled and streaked with dull red, which appears very strongly in the midrib and near the base of the leaf.

The flower is nodding and lily like in its general character; formed of 6 long taper-pointed petal-like calyx-parts. A ridge runs down the middle of each of the 3 inner parts. The flower is yellow; dark reddish on the outside of the outer divisions, and spotted with minute reddish dots on the inside of the inner divisions. The 6 stamens are large and yellow, and the pale greenish-yellow pistil is club-shaped, with 3 grooves. The flower-stem is round, smooth, and pale; it grows from between the two leaves.

In the sun the flower opens wide, its three outer divisions rolling back, and exhales a fragrant smell like that of new lilac shoots; the markings on the leaves are richer in color when the plant grows in more shaded places. It is a communistic plant, and exceeding capricious in withholding its bloom when transplanted.