[ 40 ]
Trillium sessile. Sessile Trillium.
*******************
Class and Order
Hexandria Trigynia.
Generic Character.
Cal. 3-phyllus. Cor. 3-petala Bacca 3-locularis
Specific Character and Synonyms.
TRILLIUM flore sessile credo. Lin.. Syst. Vegetable. p.349.
PARIS foliis ternatis, flore sessili erecto. Gron. virg. 44.
SOLANUM triphyllum. Pluk. alm. 352. t. 111. f.6.Catese.car.t.50.
Of this genus there are three species, all of which are natives of North-America, and described by Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, where the genus is called American Herb Paris; but as the Paris and Trillium, though somewhat similar in the style of their foliage, are very different in their parts of fructification, we have thought it most expedient to alglicise Trillium, it being to the full as easily pronounced as Geranium, and many other Latin names now familiar to the English ear.
This species takes it trivial name of sessile, from the flowers having no footstalk, but sitting as it were immediately on the end of the stalk.
The figure here exhibited was taken from a plant which flowered in my garden last spring, from roots sent me the preceding autumn, by Mr. Robert Squibb, Gardener, of Charleston, South-Carolina, who is not only well versed in plants, but indefatigable in discovering and collecting the more rare species of that country, and with which the gardens of this are likely soon to be enriched.
It grows in shady situations, in a light soil, and required the same treatment as the Dodecatheon and round-leaved Cyclamen. We have not yet had a fair opportunity of observing whether this species ripens its seeds with usː though of as long standing in this country as the Dodecatheon, it is far less common; hence one is led to conclude that it is either not so readily propagated, or more easily destroyed.
