Few wayside weeds have been accredited with greater virtue than the ancient betony, which a celebrated Roman physician claimed could cure forty-seven different disorders. The Roman proverb, “Sell your coat and buy betony,” seems to imply that the plant did not flourish so abundantly along the Appian Way as it does by our American roadsides. Unfortunately we are reluctantly forced to believe once more that our native flower is not identical with the classic one, but that it has received its common name through some superficial resemblance to the original betony or Betonica.
Painted Cup.
Castilleia coccinea. Figwort Family.
Stem.—Hairy, six inches to a foot high. Root-leaves.—Clustered, oblong. Stem-leaves.—Incised, those among the flowers three to five-cleft, bright scarlet toward the summit, showy. Flowers.—Pale yellow, spiked. Calyx.—Tubular, flattened. Corolla.—Two-lipped, its upper lip long and narrow, its lower short and three-lobed. Stamens.—Four, unequal. Pistil.—One.
——Scarlet tufts
Are glowing in the green like flakes of fire;
The wanderers of the prairie know them well,
And call that brilliant flower the painted cup.[[9]]
But we need not go to the prairie in order to see this plant, for it is equally abundant in certain low sandy New England meadows as well as in the near vicinity of New York City. Under date of June 3d, Thoreau graphically describes its appearance near Concord, Mass.: “The painted cup is in its prime. It reddens the meadow, painted-cup meadow. It is a splendid show of brilliant scarlet, the color of the cardinal-flower, and surpassing it in mass and profusion.... I do not like the name. It does not remind me of a cup, rather of a flame when it first appears. It might be called flame flower, or scarlet tip. Here is a large meadow full of it, and yet very few in the town have ever seen it. It is startling to see a leaf thus brilliantly painted, as if its tip were dipped into some scarlet tincture, surpassing most flowers in intensity of color.”
Wood Lily. Wild Red Lily.
Lilium Philadelphicum. Lily Family.
Stem.—Two to three feet high. Leaves.—Whorled or scattered, narrowly lance-shaped. Flower.—Erect, orange-red or scarlet, spotted with purple. Perianth.—Of six erect narrowly clawed sepals, with nectar-bearing furrows at their base. Stamens.—Six. Pistil.—One, with three-lobed stigma.