The SESSILE-FLOWERED WAKE-ROBIN (T. sessile), whose dark purple,
purplish-red, or greenish blossom, narrower of sepal and petals
than the preceding, is seated in a whorl of three egg-shaped,
sometimes blotched, leaves, possesses a rather pleasant odor;
nevertheless it seems. to have no great attraction for insects.
The stigmas, which are very large, almost touch the anthers
surrounding them; therefore the beetles which one frequently sees
crawling over them to feed on the pollen so jar them, no doubt,
as to self-fertilize the flower; but it is scarcely probable
these slow crawlers often transfer the grains from one blossom to
another. A degraded flower like this has little need of color and
perfume, one would suppose; yet it may be even now slowly
perfecting its way toward an ideal of which we see a part only
complete. In deep, rich, moist woods and thickets the. sessile
trillium blooms in April or May, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Minnesota southward nearly to the Gulf.


LARGER BLUE FLAG; BLUE IRIS; FLEUR-DE-LIS; FLOWER-DE-LUCE
(Iris versicolor) Iris family

Flowers - Several, 2 to 3 in. long, violet-blue variegated with
yellow, green, or white, and purple veined. Six divisions of the
perianth: 3 outer ones spreading, recurved; 1 of them bearded,
much longer and wider than the 3 erect inner divisions; all
united into a short tube. Three stamens under 3 overhanging
petal-like divisions of the style, notched at end; under each
notch is a thin plate, smooth on one side, rough and moist
(stigma) on side turned away from anther. Stem: 2 to 3 ft. high,