Wild Flowers Part 10

ROBIN'S, or POOR ROBIN'S, or ROBERT'S PLANTAIN; BLUE SPRING DAISY; DAISY-LEAVED FLEABANE (Erigeron pulch.e.l.lus; E. bellifolium of Gray) Thistle family

Flower-heads - Composite, daisy-like, 1 to 1/2 in. across; the outer circle of about 50 pale bluish-violet ray florets; the disk florets greenish yellow. Stem: Simple, erect, hairy, juicy, flexible, from 10 in. to 2 ft. high, producing runners and offsets from base. Leaves: Spatulate, in a flat tuft about the root; stem leaves narrow, more acute, seated, or partly clasping.

Preferred Habitat - Moist ground, hills, banks, gra.s.sy fields.

Flowering Season - April-June.

Distribution - United States and Canada, east of the Mississippi.

Like an aster blooming long before its season, Robin's plantain wears a finely cut lavender fringe around a yellow disk of minute florets; but one of the first, not the last, in the long procession of composites has appeared when we see gay companies of these flowers nodding their heads above the gra.s.s in the spring breezes as if they were village gossips.

Doubtless it was the necessity for attracting insects which led the Robin's plantain and other composites to group a quant.i.ty of minute florets, each one of which was once an independent, detached blossom, into a common head. In union there is strength.

Each floret still contains, however, its own tiny drop of nectar, its own stamens, its own pistil connected with embryonic seed below; therefore, when an insect alights where he can get the greatest amount of nectar for the least effort, and turns round and round to exhaust each nectary, he is sure to dust the pistils with pollen, and so fertilize an entire flower-head in a trice.

The lavender fringe and the hairy involucre and stem serve the end of discouraging crawling insects, which cannot transfer pollen from plant to plant, from pilfering sweets that cannot be properly paid for. Small wonder that, although the composites have attained to their socialistic practices at a comparatively recent day as evolutionists count time, they have become as individuals and as species the most numerous in the world; the thistle family, dominant everywhere, containing not less than ten thousand members.

COMMON or PHILADELPHIA FLEABANE, or SKEVISH (E. Philadelphicus), a smaller edition of Robin's plantain, with a more findely cut fringe, its reddish-purple ray florets often numbering one hundred and fifty, may be found in low fields and woods throughout North America, except in the circ.u.mpolar regions.

THISTLES (Carduus) Thistle family

Is land fulfilling the primal curse because it brings forth thistles? So thinks the farmer, no doubt, but not the goldfinches which daintily feed among the fluffy seeds, nor the bees, nor the "painted lady," which may be seen in all parts of the world where thistles grow, hovering about the beautiful rose-purple flowers.

In the p.r.i.c.kly cradle of leaves, the caterpillar of this thistle b.u.t.terfly weaves a web around its main food store.

When the Danes invaded Scotland, they stole a silent night march upon the Scottish camp by marching barefoot; but a Dane inadvertently stepped on a thistle, and his sudden, sharp cry, arousing the sleeping Scots, saved them and their country: hence the Scotch emblem.

>From July to November blooms the COMMON, BURR, SPEAR, PLUME, BANK, HORSE, BULL, BLUE, b.u.t.tON, BELL, or ROADSIDE THISTLE (C. lanceolatus or Circium lanceolatum of Gray), a native of Europe and Asia, now a most thoroughly naturalized American from Newfoundland to Georgia, westward to Nebraska. Its violet flower-heads, about an inch and a half across, and as high as wide, are mostly solitary at the ends of formidable branches, up which few crawling creatures venture. But in the deep tube of each floret there is nectar secreted for the flying visitor who can properly transfer pollen from flower to flower. Such a one suffers no inconvenience from the p.r.i.c.kles, but, on the contrary, finds a larger feast saved for him because of them. Dense, matted, wool-like hairs, that cover the bristling stems of most thistles, make climbing mighty unpleasant for ants, which ever delight in pilfering sweets. Perhaps one has the temerity to start upward.

"Fain would I climb, yet fear to fall."

"If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all,"

might be the ant's pa.s.sionate outburst to the thistle, and the thistle's reply, instead of a Sir Walter and Queen Elizabeth couplet. Long, lance-shaped, deeply cleft, sharply pointed, and p.r.i.c.kly dark green leaves make the ascent almost unendurable; nevertheless the ant bravely mounts to where the bristle-pointed, overlapping scales of the deep green cup hold the luscious flowers. Now his feet becoming entangled in the cottony fibers wound about the scaly armor, and a bristling bodyguard thrusting spears at him in his struggles to escape, death happily releases him. All this tragedy to insure the thistle's cross-fertilized seed that, seated on the autumn winds, shall be blown far and wide in quest of happy conditions for the offspring!

Sometimes the PASTURE or FRAGRANT THISTLE (C. odoratus or C.

pumilum of Gray) still further protects its beautiful, odorous purple or whitish flower-head, that often measures three inches across, with a formidable array of p.r.i.c.kly small leaves just below it. In case a would-be pilferer breaks through these lines, however, there is a slight glutinous strip on the outside of the bracts that compose the cup wherein the nectar-filled florets are packed; and here, in sight of Mecca, he meets his death, just as a bird is caught on limed twigs. The pasture thistle, whose range is only from Maine to Delaware, blooms from July to September.

Even gentle Professor Gray hurls anathema at the CANADA THISTLE; "a vile pest" he calls it. As CURSED, CORN, HARD, and CREEPING THISTLE it is variously known here and in Europe, whence it came to overrun our land from Newfoundland to Virginia, westward to Nebraska. By horizontal rootstocks it creeps and forms patches almost impossible to eradicate. The small reddish-purple flower-heads, barely an inch across, usually contain about a hundred florets each. In their tubes the abundant nectar rises high, so that numerous insects, even with the shortest tongues, are able to enjoy it. Not only bees and b.u.t.terflies, but wasps, flies, and beetles feast diligently. When a floret opens, a quant.i.ty of pollen emerges at the upper end of the anther cylinder, pressed up by the growing style. Owing to their slight stickiness and the sharp processes over their entire surface, the pollen grains, which readily cling to the hairs of insects, are transported to the two-branched, hairy stigma of an older floret.

But even should insects not visit the flower (and in fine weather they swarm about it), it is marvelously adapted to fertilize itself. Farmers may well despair of exterminating a plant so perfectly equipped in every part; to win life's battles.

"The colour of purple...was, amongst the ancients, typical of royalty. It was a kind of red richly shot with blue, and the dye producing it was attained from a sh.e.l.l found in considerable numbers off the coast of Tyre, and on the sh.o.r.e near the site of that ancient city, great heaps of such sh.e.l.ls are still to be found. The production of the true royal purple dye was a very costly affair, and therefore it was often imitated with a mixture of cochineal and indigo..." - J. JAMES TISSOT.

As many so-called purple flowers are more strictly magenta, the reader is referred to the next group if he has not found the flower for which he is in search here. Also to the "White and Greenish" section since many colored flowers show a tendency to revert to the white type from which, doubtless, all were evolved.

He should remember that all flowers are more or less variable in shade, according to varying conditions.

MAGENTA TO PINK FLOWERS

"Botany is a sequel of murder and a chronicle of the dead." - JULIAN HAWTHORNE.

"A plant is not to be studied as an absolutely dead thing, but rather as a sentient being.... To measure petals, to count stamens, to describe pistils without reference to their functions, or the why and wherefore of their existence, is to content one's self with husks in the presence of a feast of fatness - to listen to the rattle of dry bones rather than the heavenly harmonies of life. We have reason to be profoundly thankful for the signs to be seen on every side, that the dreary stuff which was called botany in the teaching of the past will soon cease to masquerade in its stolen costume, and that our children and our children's children will study not dried specimens or drier books, but the living things which Nature furnishes in such profusion....

"The reason of this radical change is not far to seek. Since man has learned that the universal brotherhood of life includes himself as the highest link in the chain of organic creation, his interest in all things that live and move and have a being has greatly increased. The movements of the monad now appeal to him in a way that was impossible under the old conceptions. He sees in each of the millions of living forms with which the earth is teeming, the action of many of the laws which are operating in himself; and has learned that to a great extent his welfare is dependent on these seemingly insignificant relations; that in ways undreamed of a century ago they affect human progress." - CLARENCE MOORES WEED.

MAGENTA TO PINK FLOWERS

SESSILE-LEAVED TWISTED-STALK (Streptopus roseus) Lily-of-the-Valley family

Flowers - Dull, purplish pink, 1/2 in. long or less, solitary, on threadlike, curved footstalks longer than the small flower itself, nodding from leaf-axils. Perianth bill-shaped, of 6 spreading segments; stamens 6, 2-horned; style spreading into 3 branches, stigmatic on inner side. Stem: 1 to 2 1/2 ft. high, simple or forked. Leaves: Thin, alternate, green on both sides, many nerved, tapering at end, rounded at base, where they are seated on stem. Fruit: A round, red, many-seeded berry.

Preferred Habitat - Moist woods.

Flowering Season - May-July.

Distribution - North America east and west, southward to Georgia and Oregon.

As we look down on this graceful plant, no blossoms are visible; but if we bend the zig-zagged stem backward, we shall discover the little rosy bells swaying from the base of the leaves on curved footstalks (streptos = twisted, pous = a foot or stalk) very much as the plant's relatives the Solomon's seals grow. In the confident expectation of having its seeds dropped far and wide, it bears showy red berries in August for the birds now wandering through the woods with increased, hungry families.

The CLASPING-LEAVED TWISTED-STALK (S. amplexifolius), which has one or two greenish-white bells nodding from its axils, may be distinguished when not in flower by its leaves, which are h.o.a.ry - not green - on the under side, or by its oval berry. Indeed most plants living in wet soil have a coating of down on the under sides of their leaves to prevent the pores from clogging with rising vapors.

MOCCASIN FLOWER; PINK, VENUS', or STEMLESS LADY'S SLIPPER (Cypripedium acaule) Orchid family

Flowers - Fragrant, solitary, large, showy, drooping from end of scape, 6 to 12 in. high. Sepals lance-shaped, spreading, greenish purple, 2 in. long or less; petals narrower and longer than sepals. Lip an inflated sac, often over 2 in. long, slit down the middle, and folded inwardly above, pale magenta, veined with darker pink upper part of interior crested with long white hairs.

Stamens united with style into unsymmetrical declined column, bearing an anther on either side, and a dilated triangular petal-like sterile stamen above, arching over the broad concave stigma. Leaves: 2, from the base; elliptic, thick, 6 to 8 in.

long.

Preferred Habitat - Deep, rocky, or sandy woods.

Flowering Season - May-June.

Distribution - Canada southward to North Carolina, westward to Minnesota and Kentucky.

Because most people cannot forbear picking this exquisite flower that seems too beautiful to be found outside a millionaire's hothouse, it is becoming rarer every year, until the finding of one in the deep forest, where it must now hide, has become the event of a day's walk. Once it was the commonest of the orchids.

"Cross-fertilization," says Darwin, "results in offspring which vanquish the offspring of self-fertilization in the struggle for existence." This has been the motto of the orchid family for ages. No group of plants has taken more elaborate precautions against self-pollination or developed more elaborate and ingenious mechanism to compel insects to transfer their pollen than this.

The fissure down the front of the pink lady's slipper is not so wide but that a bee must use some force to push against its elastic sloping sides and enter the large banquet chamber where he finds generous entertainment secreted among the fine white hairs in the upper part. Presently he has feasted enough. Now one can hear him buzzing about inside, trying to find a way out of the trap. Toward the two little gleams of light through apertures at the end of a pa.s.sage beyond the nectary hairs, he at length finds his way. Narrower and narrower grows the pa.s.sage until it would seem as if he could never struggle through; nor can he until his back has rubbed along the sticky, overhanging stigma, which is furnished with minute, rigid, sharply pointed papillae, all directed forward, and placed there for the express purpose of combing out the pollen he has brought from another flower on his back or head. The imported pollen having been safely removed, he still has to struggle on toward freedom through one of the narrow openings, where an anther almost blocks his way.

As he works outward, this anther, drawn downward on its hinge, plasters his back with yellow granular pollen as a parting gift, and away he flies to another lady's slipper to have it combed out by the sticky stigma as described above. The smallest bees can squeeze through the pa.s.sage without paying toll. To those of the Andrena and Halictus tribe the flower is evidently best adapted.

Sometimes the largest b.u.mblebees, either unable or unwilling to get out by the legitimate route, bite their way to liberty.

Mutilated sacs are not uncommon. But when unable to get out by fair means, and too bewildered to escape by foul, the large bee must sometimes perish miserably in his gorgeous prison.

SHOWY, GAY, or SPRING ORCHIS (Orchis spectabilis) Orchid family

Flowers - Purplish pink, of deeper and lighter shade, the lower lip white, and thick of texture; from 3 to 6 on a spike; fragrant. Sepals pointed, united, arching above the converging petals, and resembling a hood; lip large, spreading, prolonged into a spur, which is largest at the tip and as long as the twisted footstem. Sterm: 4 to 12 in. high, thick, fleshy, 5-sided. Leaves: 2 large, broadly ovate, glossy green, silvery on under side, rising from a few scales from root. Fruit: A sharply angled capsule, 1 in. long.

Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods, especially under hemlocks.

Flowering Season - April-June.

Distribution - From New Brunswick and Ontario southward to our Southern States, westward to Nebraska.

Of the six floral leaves which every orchid, terrestrial or aerial, possesses, one is always peculiar in form, pouch-shaped, or a cornucopia filled with nectar, or a flaunted, fringed banner, or a broad platform for the insect visitors to alight on.

Some orchids look to imaginative eyes as if they were masquerading in the disguise of bees, moths, frogs, birds, b.u.t.terflies. A number of these queer freaks are to be found in Europe. Spring traps, adhesive plasters, and hair-triggers attached to explosive sh.e.l.ls of pollen are among the many devices by which orchids compel insects to cross-fertilize them, these flowers as a family showing the most marvelous mechanism adapted to their requirements from insects in the whole floral kingdom.

No other blossoms can so well afford to wear magenta, the ugliest shade nature produces, the "lovely rosy purple" of Dutch bulb growers, a color that has an unpleasant effect on not a few American stomachs outside of Hoboken.

But an orchid, from the amazing cleverness of its operations, is attractive under any circ.u.mstances to whomever understands it. This earliest member of the family to appear charms the female b.u.mblebee, to whose anatomy it is especially adapted. The males, whose faces are hairy where the females' are bare, and therefore not calculated to retain the sticky pollen ma.s.ses, are not yet flying when the showy orchis blooms. Bombus Americanorum, which can drain the longest spurs, B. separatus, B. terricola, and, rarely, b.u.t.terflies as well, have been caught with its pollen ma.s.ses attached. The bee alights on the projecting lip, pushes her head into the mouth of the corolla, and, as she sips the nectar from the horn of plenty, ruptures by the slight pressure a membrane of the pouch where two sticky b.u.t.tons, to which two pollen ma.s.ses are attached, lie imbedded. Instantly after contact these adhere to the round bare spots on her face, the viscid cement hardening before her head is fairly withdrawn.

Now the diverging pollen ma.s.ses, that look like antennae, fall from the perpendicular, by remarkable power of contraction, to a horizontal att.i.tude, that they may be in the precise position to fertilize the stigma of the next flower visited - just as if they possessed a reasoning intelligence! Even after all the pollen has been deposited on the sticky stigmas of various blossoms, stump-like caudicles to which the two little sacs were attached have been found still plastered on a long-suffering bee. But so rich in nectar are the moisture-loving orchids that, to obtain a draught, the sticky plasters which she must carry do not seem too dear a price to pay. In this showy orchis the nectar often rises an eighth of an inch in the tube, and sufficient pressure to cause a rupture will eject it a foot.