Part 4

Our Artist has availed herself of the Canadian Harebell to give airy lightness to her group of natives flowers.

[5] Professor Hincks.

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NAT. ORD. ORCHIDACEÆ.

SHOWY LADY’S SLIPPER. (MOCCASIN FLOWER.) _Cypripedium spectabile._

But ye have lovely leaves, where we May see how soon things have Their end, tho’ n’er so brave; And after they have bloomed awhile, Like us, they sink Into the grave. HERRICK.

AMONG the many rare and beautiful flowers that adorn our native woods and wilds, few, if any, can compare with the lovely plants belonging to the family to which the central flower of our Artist’s group belongs. Where all are so worthy of notice it was difficult to make a choice; happily there is no rivalry to contend with in the case of our Artist’s preferences.

There are two beautiful varieties of the species, the pink and white, and purple and white Lady’s Slipper (_Cypripedium Spectabile_), better known by the familiar local name of Moccasin-Flower, a name common in this country to all the plants of this family.

Whether we regard these charming flowers for the singularity of their form, the exquisite texture of their tissues, or the delicate blending of their colours, we must acknowledge them to be altogether lovely and worthy of our admiration.

The subject of the figure in our plate is the Pink-flowered Moccasin; it is chiefly to be found in damp ground, in tamarack swamps, and near forest creeks, where, in groups of several stems, it appears, showing its pure blossoms among the rank and coarser herbage. The stem rises to the height of from 18 inches to 2 feet high. The leaves, which are large, ovate, many nerved and plaited, sheathing at the base, clothe the fleshy stem, which terminates in a single sharp pointed bract above the flower. The flowers are terminal, from one to three, rarely more; though in the large purple and white Lady’s Slipper, the older and stronger plants will occasionally throw out three or four blossoms. This variety is found on the dry plain-lands, in grassy thickets, among the oak openings above Rice Lake, and eastward on the hills above the River Trent. This is most likely the plant described by Gray; the soil alone being different. The unfolded buds of this species are most beautiful, having the appearance of slightly flattened globes of delicately-tinted primrose coloured rice paper.

The large sac-like inflated lip of our Moccasin flower is slightly depressed in front, tinged with rosy pink and striped. The pale thin petals and sepals, two of each, are whitish at first, but turn brown when the flower is more advanced toward maturity. The sepals may be distinguished from the petals; the former being longer than the latter, and by being united at the back of the flower. The column on which the stamens are placed is three-lobed; the two anthers are placed one on either side, under the two lobes; the central lobe is sterile, thick, fleshy, and bent down—in our species it is somewhat blunt and heart-shaped. The stigma is obscurely three-lobed. The root of the Lady’s Slipper is a bundle of white fleshy fibres.

One of the remarkable characteristics of the flowers of this genus, and of many of the natural order to which it belongs, is the singular resemblance of the organs of the blossom to the face of some animal or insect. Thus the face of an Indian hound may be seen in the Golden-flowered _Cypripedium pubescens_; that of a sheep or ram, with the horns and ears, in _C. arietinum_; while our “Showy Lady’s Slipper,” (_C. spectabile_), displays the curious face and peering black eyes of the ape.

One of the rarest and, at the same time, the most beautiful of these flowers, is the “STEMLESS LADY’S SLIPPER,” (_C. acaule_), a figure of which will appear in our second volume.

It is a matter of wonder and also of regret, that so few persons have taken the trouble to seek out and cultivate the beautiful native plants with which our country abounds, and which would fully reward them for their pains, as ornaments to the garden border, the shrubbery, the rookery, or the green-house. Our orchidaceous plants alone would be regarded by the foreign florist with great interest.

A time will come when these rare productions of our soil will disappear from among us, and can be found only on those waste and desolate places where the foot of civilized man can hardly penetrate; where the flowers of the wilderness flourish, bloom and decay unseen but by the all-seeing eye of Him who adorns the lonely places of the earth, filling them with beauty and fragrance.

For whom are these solitary objects of beauty reserved? Shall we say with Milton:—

“Thousands of unseen beings walk this earth, Both while we wake and while we sleep:— And think though man were none,— That earth would want spectators—God want praise.”

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1 ROSA BLANDA (Early wild Rose)

2 PENTSTEMON PUBESCENS (Pentstemon Beard-Tongue)

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NAT. ORD. ROSACEÆ.

EARLY WILD ROSE. _Rosa Blanda._

“Nor did I wonder at the lilies white, Nor praise the deep vermillion of the rose.” SHAKESPEARE.

“The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, For that sweet odour which in it doth live.” SHAKESPEARE.

OUR Artist has given us in the present plate a charming specimen of one of our native roses. The early flowering Rose (_Rosa blanda_) is hardly so deeply tinted as our dwarf wild rose, _rosa lucida_, but both possess attractions of colour and fragrance; qualities that have made the rose to be the theme, of many a poet’s song. In the flowery language of the East, beauty and the rose seem almost to be synonymous. The Italian poets are full of allusions to the rose, especially to the red damask rose, which they call “purpurea rosa.”

A popular song in the days of Charles the 1st was that beginning with the lines—

“Gather your roses while you may, For time is still a flying, And that same flower that blooms to-day, To-morrow may be dying.”

The leaves of _rosa blanda_ are pale underneath; leaflets five to seven; flowers blush-pink; stem not very prickly; fruit red and round; the bush from one to three feet in height.

Another of our dwarf wild roses, _R. lucida_, is widely diffused over Canada; it is found on all open plain-lands, but shuns the deep shade of the forest.

The bark of this wild rose is of a bright red, and the young wood is armed with bristly prickles of a greyish colour. When growing in shade, the half opened flowers and buds are of a deep pink or carmine, but where more exposed in sunny spots, the petals fade to a pale blush-colour. This shrub becomes somewhat troublesome if encouraged in the garden, from the running roots which send up many shoots. In its wild state the dwarf rose seldom exceeds three feet in height; it is the second and older wood that bears the flowers: the flower bearing branches become almost smooth or only remotely thorny. The leaflets vary in number from five to nine; they are sharply serrated at the edges, and smooth on the surface; the globular scarlet fruit is flattened at the eye; of a pleasant sub-acid taste.

This beautiful red-barked rose grows in great profusion on the huckleberry plains above Rice Lake, clothing large tracts of hill and dale, and scenting the evening air at dew-fall with its delicate fragrance.

There is, or used to be, a delicate pale flowered briar rose, having small foliage and numerous blossoms of a low branching habit growing in the high oak-hills in the township of Rawdon. I have never seen the flowers myself, but have heard the plant described as a rare species. The SWAMP ROSE, _Rosa Carolina_, is not uncommon; it is often seen growing at the margin of lakes and rivers, and at the edges of stony islands; it will climb, by aid of supporting trees, to the height of eight and ten feet. The flowers are of a somewhat purplish tinge of pink. The leaves are whitish underneath; this rose is armed with rather stout prickles below on the old woody stem but smoother above; the flowers are more clustered than in either of the other species.

The sweet briar is often found growing in waste places, and in thickets near clearings—no doubt the seed has been carried thither by birds.

It is very possible that other varieties of the rose tribe may yet be found native to Canadian soil, but the above named are our only known species at present.

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NAT. ORD. SCROPHULARIACEÆ.

PENTSTEMON BEARD-TONGUE. _Pentstemon pubescens._

“Flowers spring up and die ungathered.”

THE wild Pentstemon is a slender, elegant branching plant, not unlike in outline to the fox-glove. The flowers are delicately shaded from white to pale azure-blue, sometimes varying to deeper blue. The corolla is an inflated slender tube, somewhat flattened on the upper side, with a rigid line passing from the base of the tube to the upper lip. There are also two bearded lines within. The lower lip is three-cleft and slightly projecting beyond the two-lobed upper lip; the stamens are five, but one is sterile and thickly beset with fine white hairs (or bearded). The name is derived from a Greek word signifying _five_. The root leaves are broadly lanceolate and coarsely toothed; the upper or stem-leaves narrower, and nearly clasping the stem. The flowers grow on long branching stalks in a loose panicle.

The plant is perennial, from one to two feet in height; it seems addicted to dry gravelly soil on river banks and dry pastures. The Beard-tongue would be well worthy of cultivation; though less showy than the garden varieties, it is not less beautiful and keeps in bloom a long time, from July to September; it might be mixed with the red flowering plants of the garden to great advantage.

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1 NYMPHÆA ODORATA (Sweet scented Water Lily)

2 NUPHAR ADVENA (Yellow Pond-Lily) (Spatter dock)

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NAT. ORD. NYMPHÆACEÆ.—(GRAY.)

SWEET SCENTED WATER LILY. _Nymphæa Odorata._

“Rocked gently there the beautiful Nymphæa Pillows her bright head.” CALENDER OF FLOWERS.

POND-LILY is the popular name by which this beautiful aquatic plant is known, nor can we find it in our hearts to reject, the name of LILY for this ornament of our lakes. The White Nymphæa might indeed be termed “Queen of the Lakes,” for truly she sits in regal pride upon her watery throne, a very queen among flowers.

Very lovely are the Water Lilies of England, but their fair sisters of the New World excel them in size and fragrance.

Many of the tribe to which these plants belong are natives of the torrid zone, but our White Pond-Lily (_Nymphæa odorata_), and the Yellow (_Nuphar advena_), and _Nuphar Kalmiana_ only, are able to support the cold winter of Canada. The depth of the water in which they grow enables them to withstand the cold, the frost rarely penetrating to their roots, which are rough and knotted, and often as thick as a man’s wrist; white and fleshy. The root-stock is horizontal, sending down fibrous slender rootlets into the soft mud; the stocks that support the leaves and blossoms are round of an olive-green, containing open pores filled with air, which cause them to be buoyed up in the water. These air-cells may be distinctly seen by cutting the stems across.

The leaves of the Pond-Lily are of a full-green colour, deeply tinged with red toward the fall of the year, so as to give a blood red tinge to the water; they are of a large size, round kidney shape, of leathery texture, and highly polished surface; resisting the action of the water as if coated with oil or varnish. Over these beds of water-lilies, hundreds of dragon flies of every colour, blue, green, scarlet, and bronze, may be seen like living gems flirting their pearly tinted wings in all the enjoyment of their newly found existence; possibly enjoying the delicious aroma from the odorous lemon scented flowers over which they sport so gaily.

The flowers of the Pond-Lily grow singly at the summit of the round, smooth, fleshy scape. Who that has ever floated upon one of our calm inland lakes, on a warm July or August day, but has been tempted, at the risk of upsetting the frail birch-bark canoe or shallow skiff, to put forth a hand to snatch one of those matchless ivory cups that rest in spotless purity upon the tranquil water, just rising and falling with the movement of the stream; or have gazed with wishful and admiring eyes into the still clear water, at the exquisite buds and half unfolded blossoms that are springing upwards to the air and sun-light.

The hollow boat-shaped sepals of the calyx are four in number, of a bright olive green, smooth and oily in texture. The flowers do not expand fully until they reach the surface. The petals are numerous, hollow (or concave), blunt, of a pure ivory white; very fragrant, having the rich odour of freshly cut lemons; they are set round the surface of the ovary (or seed-vessel) in regular rows, one above the other, gradually lessening in size, till they change by imperceptible gradation into the narrow fleshy petal-like lemon tinted anthers. The pistil is without style, the stigma forming a flat rayed top to the ovary, as in the poppy and many other plants.

On the approach of night our lovely water-nymph gradually closes her petals, and slowly retires to rest within her watery bed, to rise on the following day, to court the warmth and light so necessary for the perfection of the embryo seed; and this continues till the fertilization of the germ has been completed, when the petals shrink and wither, and the seed-vessel sinks down to ripen the fruit in its secret chambers. Thus silently and mysteriously does nature perform her wonderful work, “sought out only by those who have pleasure therein.”[6]

The roots of the Pond Lily contain a large quantity of fecula (flour), which, after repeated washings, may be used for food; they are also made use of in medicine, being cooling and softening; the fresh leaves are used as good dressing for blisters.

The Lotus of Egypt belongs to this family, and not only furnishes magnificent ornaments with which to crown the heads of their gods and kings, but the seeds also served as food to the people in times of scarcity. The Sacred Lotus (_Nelumbium speciosum_) was an object itself of religious veneration to the ancient Egyptians.

The Chinese, in some places of that over-populated country, grow the Water Lilies upon their lakes for the sake of the nourishment yielded by the roots and seeds.

“Lotus-eaters,” says that valuable writer on the Medical Botany of America, Dr. Charles Lee, “not only abound in Egypt, but all over the East.” “The large fleshy roots of the _Nelumbium luteum_, or great Yellow Water Lily, found in our North American lakes, resembles the Sweet Potato (_Batatas edulis_), and by some of the natives are esteemed equally agreeable and wholesome,” observes the same author, “being used as food by the Indians, as well as some of the Tartar tribes.”

As yet little value has been attached to this charming plant, the White Pond Lily, because its uses have been unknown. It is one of the privileges of the botanist and naturalist to lay open the vegetable treasures that are so lavishly bestowed upon us by the bountiful hand of the Great Creator.

[6] In that singular plant, the Eel or Tapegrass, a plant indigenous to our slow flowing waters, the elastic flower-bearing stem uncoils to reach the surface of the water, drawn thither by some mysterious hidden attraction towards the pollen-bearing flowers, which are produced at the bottom of the water on very short scapes, and which, united by the same vegetable instinct, break away from the confining bonds that hold them and rise to the surface, where they expand and scatter their fertilizing dust upon the fruit-bearing flowers which float around them; these, after a while, coil up again and draw the pod-like ovary down to the bottom of the water, there to ripen and perfect the fruit; a curious fact vouched for by Gray and many other creditable botanists.

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YELLOW POND LILY. (SPATTER DOCK.) _Nuphar advena._

And there the bright Nymphæa loves to lave, And spreads her golden orbs along the dimpling wave.

THE Yellow Pond Lily is often found growing in extensive beds, mingled with the White, and though it is less graceful in form, there is yet much to admire in its rich orange-coloured flowers, which appear at a little distance like balls of gold floating on the still waters. The large hollow petal-like sepals that surround the flower are finely clouded with dark red on the outer side, but of a deep yellow orange within, as also are the strap-like petals and stamens: the stigma, or summit of the pistil, is flat, and 12-24 rayed. The leaves are dark-green, scarcely so large as those of the White Lily, floating on long thick fleshy stalks, flattened on the inner side, and rounded without. The botanical name Nuphar is derived, says Gray, from the Arabic word _Neufar_, signifying Pond Lily.

Our Artist has closely followed nature’s own arrangements by grouping these beautiful water plants together.

Where there is a deep deposit of mud in the shallows of still waters we frequently find many different species of aquatics growing promiscuously. The tall lance-like leaf and blue-spiked heads of the stately _Pontederia_, keeping guard as it were above the graceful _Nymphæa_, like a gallant knight with lance in rest, ready to defend his queen, and around these the fair and delicate white flowers of the small arrow-head rest their frail heads upon the water, looking as if the slightest breeze that ruffled its surface would send them from their place of rest.

Beyond this aquatic garden lie beds of wild rice _Zizania aquatica_, with its floating leaves of emerald green, and waving grassy flowers of straw colour and purple—while nearer to the shore the bright rosy tufts of the Water Persicaria, with its dark-green leaves and crimson stalks, delight the eyes of the passer-by.

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SARRACENIA PURPUREA (Side-saddle Flower) (Pitcher Plant) (Huntsman’s Cup)

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NAT. ORD. SARRACENIACEÆ.

PITCHER PLANT. (SOLDIER’S DRINKING CUP.) _Sarracenia purpurea._

EVEN the most casual observer can hardly pass a bed of these most remarkable plants without being struck by their appearance, indeed, from root to flower, it is every way worthy of our notice and admiration.

The Pitcher Plant is by no means one of those flowers found singly and in inaccessible bogs and dense cedar-swamps, as are some of our rare and lovely Orchids. In almost any grassy swamp, at the borders of low lying lakes, and beaver-meadows, often in wet spongy meadows, it may be found forming large beds of luxuriant growth.

When wet with recent showers or glistening with dew-drops, the rich crimson veinings of the broadly scalloped lip of the tubular leaf (which is thickly beset with fine stiff silvery hairs), retaining the moisture, shine and glisten in the sun-light.

The root is thick, solid, and fibrous. The tubular leaves are of a reddish tinge on the outer and convex side, but of a delicate light green within. The texture is soft, smooth, and leathery; the base of the leaf, at the root, is narrow and pipe-stem like, expanding into a large hollow receptacle, capable of containing a wine-glass full of liquid; even in dry seasons this cup is rarely found empty. The hollow form of the leaves, and the broad ewer-like lips, have obtained for the plant its local and wide-spread name of “Pitcher Plant,” and “Soldier’s Drinking Cup.” The last name I had from a poor old emigrant pensioner, when he brought me a specimen of the plant from the banks of a half dried up lake, near which he was located: “Many a draft of blessed water have we poor soldiers had when in Egypt out of the leaves of a plant like this, and we used to call them the ‘Soldier’s Drinking Cup.’”

Most probably the plant that afforded the _blessed water_ to the poor thirsty soldiers was the _Nepenthe distillaria_, which plant is found in Egypt and other parts of Africa. Perhaps there are but few among the inhabitants of this well-watered country that have as fully appreciated the value of the PITCHER PLANT as did our poor uneducated Irish pensioner, who said that he always thought that God in His goodness had created the plant to give drink to such as were athirst on a hot and toilsome march; and so he looked with gratitude and admiration on its representative in Canada. Many a lesson may we learn from the lips of the poor and the lowly.

Along the inner portion of the leaf there is a wing or flap which adds to its curious appearance: from the section of the leaf has arisen the somewhat inappropriate name of “_Side-Saddle Flower_.” The evident use of this appendage is to contract the inner side of the leaf, and to produce a corresponding rounding of the outer portion, which is thus thrown back, and enables the moisture more readily to fill the cup. Quantities of small flies, beetles, and other insects, enter the pitcher, possibly for shelter, but are unable to effect a return, owing to the reflexed bristly hairs that line the upper part of the tube and lip, and thus find a watery grave in the moisture that fills the hollow below.

The tall stately flower of the Pitcher Plant is not less worthy of our attention than the curiously formed leaves. The smooth round simple scape rises from the centre of the plant to the height of 18 inches to 2 feet. The flower is single and terminal, composed of 5 sepals, with three little bracts; 5 blunt broad petals of a dull purplish-red colour, sometimes red and light-yellowish green; and in one variety the petals are mostly of a pale-green hue, and there is an absence of the crimson veins in the leafage. The petals are incurved or bent downwards towards the centre. The stamens are numerous. The ovary is 5-celled, and the style is expanded at the summit into a 5 angled, 5 rayed umbrella-like hood, which conceals beneath it 5 delicate rays, each terminating in a little hooked stigma. The capsule or seed vessel is 5-celled and 5-valved; seeds numerous.