The Chalice Cup is one of the most beautiful of the early
spring mountain flowers. Its handsome white blossoms,
purple-shaded on the outside, may be found growing close
to the retreating line of snow during the months of May
and June, and later on in the season its big fluffy seed-heads
are eagerly gathered by those who delight in artistic things.
This plant, like many others of the Crowfoot Family, has
no petals, only a lovely calyx fashioned into about six sepals,
which do duty instead.
Anemone multifida, or Wind Flower, as this delicate little
Anemone is called, appears on the dry meadows in the
springtime in a vast variety of hues, with many blossoms
and much fruit. Its colours range from white to red, with
many intermediate shades of yellow, pink, and purple-blue.
It is to Pliny, the famous ancient philosopher, that it owes
Its name, for he declared that only the wind would cause
Anemones to open ; while a later poet has sung how Venus
in her grief over the death of Adonis " poured out tears



c



Wind Flowoi
(.Anemone multOda)



128 White to Green and Brown Flowers



amain," and how " gentle flowers " were bom to bloom at
every drop that fell from her lovely eyes :



** Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the rose,
And where a tear has dropped, a Wind Flower blows.
tt



They are short-lived flowers; the wind blows them open
and wafts them away. Rapidly the fruit is formed in a
thimble-like head, which presently bursts and is seen to con-
tain many white woolly seeds. The leaves are very deeply
cleft.
