Wild Flowers Part 34

Distribution - Throughout the United States and Canada; not so common in the South and West.

Myriads and myriads of daisies, whitening our fields as if a belated blizzard had covered them with a snowy mantle in June, fill the farmer with dismay, the flower-lover with rapture. When vacation days have come; when chains and white-capped old women are to be made of daisies by happy children turned out of schoolrooms into meadows; when pretty maids, like Goethe's Marguerite, tell their fortunes by the daisy "petals;" when music bubbles up in a cascade of ecstasy from the throats of bobolinks nesting among the daisies, timothy, and clover; when the blue sky arches over the fairest scenes the year can show, and all the world is full of suns.h.i.+ne and happy promises of fruition, must we Americans always go to English literature for a song to fit our joyous mood?

"When daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, Do paint the meadows with delight-"

sang Shakespeare. His lovely suggestion of an English spring recalls no familiar picture to American minds. No more does Burns's

"Wee, modest crimson-tippit flower."

Shakespeare, Burns, Chaucer, Wordsworth, and all the British poets who have written familiar lines about the daisy, extolled a quite different flower from ours - Bellis perennis, the little pink and white blossom that hugs English turf as if it loved it - the true day's-eye, for it closes at nightfall and opens with the dawn.

Now, what is the secret of the large, white daisy's triumphal conquest of our territory? A naturalized immigrant from Europe and Asia, how could it so quickly take possession? In the over-cultivated Old World no weed can have half the chance for unrestricted colonizing that it has in our vast unoccupied area.

Most of our weeds are naturalized foreigners, not natives. Once released from the harder conditions of struggle at home (the seeds being safely smuggled in among the ballast of freight s.h.i.+ps, or hay used in packing), they find life here easy, pleasant; as if to make up for lost time, they increase a thousandfold. If we look closely at a daisy - and a lens is necessary for any but the most superficial acquaintance - we shall see that, far from being a single flower, it is literally a host in itself. Each of the so-called white "petals" is a female floret, whose open corolla has grown large, white, and showy, to aid its sisters in advertising for insect visitors - a prominence gained only by the loss of its stamens. The yellow center is composed of hundreds of minute tubular florets huddled together in a green cup as closely as they can be packed. Inside each of these tiny yellow tubes stand the stamens, literally putting their heads together. As the pistil within the ring of stamens develops and rises through their midst, two little hair brushes on its tip sweep the pollen from their anthers as a rounded brush would remove the soot from a lamp chimney. Now the pollen is elevated to a point where any insect crawling over the floret must remove it. The pollen gone, the pistil now spreads its two arms, that were kept tightly closed together while any danger of self-fertilization lasted. Their surfaces become sticky, that pollen brought from another flower may adhere to them. Notice that the pistils in the white ray florets have no hairbrushes on their tips, because, no stamens being there, there is no pollen to be swept out. Because daisies are among the most conspicuous of flowers, and have facilitated dining for their visitors by offering them countless cups of refreshment that may be drained with a minimum loss of time, almost every insect on wings alights on them sooner or later. In short, they run their business on the principle of a cooperative department store. Immense quant.i.ties of the most vigorous, because cross-fertilized, seed being set in every patch, small wonder that our fields are white with daisies - a long and a merry life to them!

Since all flowers must once have pa.s.sed through a white stage before attaining gay colors, so evolution teaches, it is not surprising that occasional reversions to the white type should be found even among the brightest-hued species. Again, some white flowers which are in a transition state show aspirations after color, often so marked in individuals as to mislead one into believing them products of a far advanced colored type. Also, pale colors blanch under a summer sun. These facts must be borne in mind, and the blue, pink, and yellow blossoms should be investigated before the reader despairs of identifying a flower not found in the white group.

YELLOW AND ORANGE FLOWERS

"All variations which render the blossoms more attractive, either by scent, color, size of corolla, or quant.i.ty of nectar, make the insect visit more sure, and therefore the production of seed more likely. Thus, the conspicuous blossoms secure descendants which inherit the special variations of their parents, and so, generation after generation, we have selections in favor of conspicuous flowers, where insects are at work. Their appreciation of color, because it has brought the blossom possessing it more immediately into their view, and more surely under their attention, has enabled them, through the ages, to be preparing the specimens upon which man now operates, he taking up the work where they have left it, selecting, inoculating, and hybridizing, according to his own rules of taste, and developing a beauty which insects alone could never have evolved. His are the finis.h.i.+ng touches, his the apparent effects, yet no less is it true, that the results of his floriculture would never have been attainable without insect helpers. It is equally certain, that the beautiful perfume, and the nectar also, are, in their present development, the outcome of repeated insect selection, and here, it seems to me, we get an inkling of a deep mystery: Why is life, in all its forms, so dependent upon the fusion of two individual elements? Is it not, that thus the door of progress has been opened? If each alone had reproduced, itself all-in-all, advance would have been impossible, the insect and human florists and pomologists, like the improvers of animal races, would have had no platform for their operation, and not only the forms of life, but life itself would have been stereotyped unalterably, ever mechanically giving repet.i.tion to identical phenomena." - Frank R. Ches.h.i.+re in "Bees and Bee-keeping."

YELLOW AND ORANGE FLOWERS

GOLDEN CLUB (Orontium aquatic.u.m) Arum family

Flowers - Bright yellow, minute, perfect, crowded on a spadix (club) 1 to 2 in. long; the scape, 6 in. to 2 ft. tall, flattened just below it; the club much thickened in fruit. Leaves: All from root, petioled, oblong-elliptic, dull green above, pale underneath, 5 to 12 in. long, floating or erect.

Preferred Habitat - Shallow ponds, standing water, swamps.

Flowering Season - April-May.

Distribution - New England to the Gulf States, mostly near the coast.

A first cousin of cruel Jack-in-the-pulpit, the skunk cabbage, and the water-arum (q.v.), a poor relation also of the calla lily, the golden club seems to be denied part of its tribal inheritance - the spathe, corresponding to the pulpit in which Jack preaches, or to the lily's showy white skirt. In the tropics, where the lily grows, where insect life teems in myriads and myriads, and compet.i.tion among the flowers for their visits is infinitely more keen than here, she has greater need to flaunt showy clothes to attract benefactors than her northern relatives.

But the golden club, which looks something like a calla stripped of her lovely white robe, has not lacked protection for its little buds from the cold spring winds while any was needed. By the time we notice the plant in bloom, however, its bract-like spathe has usually fallen away, as if conscious that the pretty mosaic club of golden florets, so attractive in itself, was quite able to draw all the visitors needed without further help. Merely by crawling over the clubs, flies and midges cross-fertilize them.

PERFOLIATE BELLWORT; STRAW BELL (Uvularia perfoliala) Bunch-flower family

Flowers - Fragrant, pale yellow, about 1 in. long, drooping singly (rarely 2) from tips of branches; perianth narrow, bell-shaped, of 6 petal-like segments, rough within, spreading at the tip; 6 stamens; 3 styles united to the middle. Stem: 6 to 20 in. high, smooth, s.h.i.+ning, forking about half way. Leaves: Apparently strung on the slender stem, oval, tapering at tip.

Preferred Habitat - Moist, rich woods; thickets.

Flowering Season - May-June.

Distribution - Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, west to Mississippi.

Hanging like a palate (uvula) from the roof of a mouth, according to imaginative Linnaeus, the little bellwort droops, and so modestly hides behind the leaf its footstalk pierces that the eye often fails to find it when so many more showy blossoms arrest attention in the May woods. Slight fragrance helps to guide the keen b.u.mblebee to the pale yellow bell. The tips spreading apart very little and the flower being pendent, how is she to reach the nectar secreted at the base of each of its six divisions? Is it not more than probable that the inner surface is rough, as if dusted with yellow meal, to provide a foothold for her as she clings? Now securely hanging from within the inhospitable flower, her long tongue can easily drain the sweets, and in doing so she will receive pollen, to be deposited, in all probability, on the stigmatic style branches of the next bellwort entered.

With a more westerly range than the perfoliate species, the similar LARGE-FLOWERED BELLWORT (U. grandiflora) grows in like situations. Its greenish lemon-yellow flowers, an inch to an inch and a half long, appear from April to May, or when the female b.u.mblebees, that fly before their lords, are the only insects large and strong enough to force an entrance. Mr. Trelease, who noted them on the flowers near Madison, Wisconsin, saw that one laden with pollen from another blossom came in contact with the three sticky branches of the style, protruding between the anthers, when she crawled between the anthers and sepals, as she must, to reach the nectar secreted at the base. But the linear anthers shedding their pollen longitudinally, there is a chance that the flower may fertilize itself should no bee arrive before a certain point is reached.

The SESSILE-LEAVED BELLWORT, or WILD OAT (U. sessifolia), as its name implies, has its thin, pale green leaves tapering at either end, seated on the stem, not surrounding it, or apparently strung on it. The smaller flower is cream colored. A sharply three-angled capsule about an inch long follows. Range from Minnesota and Arkansas to the Atlantic.

WILD YELLOW, MEADOW or FIELD LILY; CANADA LILY (Lilium Canadense) Lily family

Flowers - Yellow to orange-red, of a deeper shade within, and speckled with dark reddish-brown dots. One or several (rarely many) nodding on long peduncles from the summit. Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 spreading segments 2 to 3 in. long, their tips curved backward to the middle; 6 stamens, with reddish-brown linear anthers; 1 pistil, club-shaped; the stigma 3-lobed. Stem: 2 to 5 ft. tall, leafy, from a bulbous rootstock composed of numerous fleshy white scales. Leaves: Lance-shaped, to oblong; usually in whorls of fours to tens, or some alternate. Fruit: An erect, oblong, 3-celled capsule, the flat, horizontal seeds packed in 2 rows in each cavity.

Preferred Habitat - Swamps, low meadows; moist fields. Flowering Season - June-July.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward beyond the Mississippi.

Not our gorgeous lilies that brighten the low-lying meadows in early summer with pendent, swaying bells; possibly not a true lily at all was chosen to ill.u.s.trate the truth which those who listened to the Sermon on the Mount, and we, equally anxious, foolishly overburdened folk of to-day, so little comprehend.

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Opinions differ as to the lily of Scripture. Eastern peoples use the same word interchangeably for the tulip, anemone, ranunculus, iris, the water-lilies, and those of the field. The superb Scarlet Martagon Lily (L. chalcedonic.u.m), grown in gardens here, is not uncommon wild in Palestine; but whoever has seen the large anemones there "carpeting every plain and luxuriantly pervading the land" is inclined to believe that Jesus, who always chose the most familiar objects in the daily life of His simple listeners to ill.u.s.trate His teachings, rested His eyes on the slopes about Him glowing with anemones in all their matchless loveliness. What flower served Him then matters not at all. It is enough that scientists - now more plainly than ever before - see the universal application of the ill.u.s.tration the more deeply they study nature, and can include their "little brothers of the air"

and the humblest flower at their feet when they say with Paul, "In G.o.d we live and move and have our being."

Tallest and most prolific of bloom among our native lilies, as it is the most variable in color, size, and form, the TURK'S CAP, or TURBAN LILY (L. superburn), sometimes nearly merges its ident.i.ty into its Canadian sister's. Travelers by rail between New York and Boston know how gorgeous are the low meadows and marshes in July or August, when its cl.u.s.ters of deep yellow, orange, or flame-colored lilies tower above the surrounding vegetation. Like the color of most flowers, theirs intensifies in salt air.

Commonly from three to seven lilies appear in a terminal group; but under skilful cultivation even forty will crown the stalk that reaches a height of nine feet where its home suits it perfectly; or maybe only a poor array of dingy yellowish caps top a shriveled stem when unfavorable conditions prevail. There certainly are times when its specific name seems extravagant.

Its range is from Maine to the Carolinas, westward to Minnesota and Tennessee. A well-conducted Turk's cap is not bell-shaped at maturity, like the Canada lily: it should open much farther, until the six points of its perianth curve so far backward beyond the middle as to expose the stamens for nearly their entire length. One of the purple-dotted divisions of the flower when spread out flat may measure anywhere from two and a half to four inches in length. Smooth, lance-shaped leaves, tapering at both ends, occur in whorls of threes to eights up the stem, or the upper ones may be alternate. Abundant food, hidden in a round, white-s.h.i.+ngled storehouse under ground, nourishes the plant, and similarly its bulb-bearing kin, when emergency may require - a thrifty arrangement that serves them in good stead during prolonged drought and severe winters.

Why, one may ask, are some lilies radiantly colored and speckled; others, like the Easter lily, deep chaliced, white, spotless?

Now, in all our lily kin nectar is secreted in a groove at the base of each of the six divisions of the flower, and upon its removal by that insect best adapted to come in contact with anthers and stigma as it flies from lily to lily depends all hope of perpetuating the lovely race. For countless ages it has been the flower's business to find what best pleased the visitors on whom so much depended. Some lilies decided to woo one cla.s.s of insects; some, another. Those which literally set their caps for color-loving bees and b.u.t.terflies whose long tongues could easily drain nectar deeply hidden from the mob for their special benefit, a.s.sumed gay hues, speckling the inner side of their spreading divisions, even providing lines as pathfinders to their nectaries in some cases, lest a visitor try to thrust in his tongue between the petal-like parts while standing on the outside, and so defeat their well-laid plan. It is almost pathetic to see how bright and spotted they are inside, that the visitor may not go astray. Thus we find the chief pollenizers of the Canada and the Turk's cap lilies to be specialized bees, the interesting upholsterers, or 1eaf-cutters, conspicuous among the throng. Nectar they want, of course; but the dark, rich pollen is needed also to mix with it for the food supply of a generation still unborn. Anyone who has smelled a lily knows how his nose looks afterward. The bees have no difficulty whatever in removing lily pollen and transferring it. So much for the colored lilies.

The long, white, trumpet-shape type of lily chooses for her lover the sphinx moth. For him she wears a spotless white robe - speckles would be superfluous - that he may see it s.h.i.+ne in the dusk, when colored flowers melt into the prevailing blackness; for him she breathes forth a fragrance almost overwhelming at evening, to guide him to her neighborhood from afar; in consideration of his very long, slender tongue she hides her sweets so deep that none may rob him of it, taking the additional precaution to weld her six once separate parts together into a solid tube lest any pilferer thrust in his tongue from the side.

The common orange-tan DAY LILY (Hemerocallis fulva) and the commoner speckled, orange-red TIGER LILY (L. tigrinum) are not slow in seizing opportunities to escape from gardens into roadsides and fence corners.

YELLOW ADDER'S TONGUE; TROUT LILY; DOG-TOOTH "VIOLET"

(Erythronium Americanum) Lily family

Flower - Solitary, pale russet yellow, rarely tinged with purple, slightly fragrant, 1 to 2 in. long, nodding from the summit of a footstalk 6 to 12 in. high, or about as tall as the leaves.

Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 petal-like, distinct segments, spreading at tips, dark spotted within; 6 stamens; the club-shaped style with 3 short, stigmatic ridges. Leaves: 2, unequal, grayish green, mottled and streaked with brown or all green, oblong, 3 to 8 in. long, narrowing into clasping petioles.

Preferred Habitat - Moist open woods and thickets, brooksides.

Flowering Season - March-May Distribution - Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to the Mississippi.

Colonies of these dainty little lilies, that so often grow beside leaping brooks where and when the trout hide, justify at least one of their names; but they have nothing in common with the violet or a dog's tooth. Their faint fragrance rather suggests a tulip; and as for the bulb, which in some of the lily-kin has tooth-like scales, it is in this case a smooth, egg-shaped corm, producing little round offsets from its base. Much fault is also found with another name on the plea that the curiously mottled and delicately pencilled leaves bring to mind, not a snake's tongue, but its skin, as they surely do. Whoever sees the sharp purplish point of a young plant darting above ground in earliest spring, however, at once sees the fitting application of adder's tongue. But how few recognize their plant friends at all seasons of the year!

Every one must have noticed the abundance of low-growing spring flowers in deciduous woodlands, where, later in the year, after the leaves overhead cast a heavy shade, so few blossoms are to be found, because their light is seriously diminished. The thrifty adder's tongue, by laying up nourishment in its storeroom underground through the winter, is ready to send its leaves and flower upward to take advantage of the sunlight the still naked trees do not intercept, just as soon as the ground thaws. But the spring beauty, the rue-anemone, bloodroot, toothwort, and the first blue violet (palmata) among other early spring flowers, have not been slow to take advantage of the light either. Fierce compet.i.tion, therefore, rages among them to secure visits from the comparatively few insects then flying - a compet.i.tion so severe that the adder's tongue often has to wait until afternoon for the spring beauty to close before receiving a single caller.

Hive-bees, and others only about half their size, of the Andrena and Halictus clans, the first to fly, the Bombylius frauds, and common yellow b.u.t.terflies, come in numbers then. Guided by the speckles to the nectaries at the base of the flower, they must either cling to the stamens and style while they suck, or fall out. Thus cross-fertilization is commonly effected; but in the absence of insects the lily can fertilize itself. Crawling pilferers rarely think it worthwhile to slip and slide up the smooth footstalk and risk a tumble where it curves to allow the flower to nod - the reason why this habit of growth is so popular. The adder's tongue, which is extremely sensitive to the sunlight, will turn on its stalk to follow it, and expand in its warmth. At night it nearly closes.

A similar adder's tongue, bearing a white flower, purplish tinged on the outside, yellow at the base within to guide insects to the nectaries, is the WHITE ADDER'S TONGUE (E. albidum), rare in the Eastern States, but quite common westward as far as Texas and Minnesota.

YELLOW CLINTONIA (Clintonia borealis) Lily-of-the-valley family

Flowers - Straw color or greenish yellow, less than 1 in. long, 3 to 6 nodding on slender pedicels from the summit of a leafless scape 6 to 15 in. tall. Perianth of 6 spreading divisions, the 6 stamens attached; style, 3-lobed. Leaves: Dark, glossy, large, oval to oblong, 2 to 5 (usually 3), sheathing at the base. Fruit.

Oval blue berries on upright pedicels.

Preferred Habitat - Moist, rich, cool woods and thickets.

Flowering Season - May-June.