Wild-Flower Study 



523 



Bluets. 



Photo by Cyrus Crosby. 



THE BLUETS 



TeacJicr's Story 



During April, great patches of blue appear in certain meadows, seem- 

 ing almost like reflections from the sky; and yet when we look closely at 

 the flowers which give this azure hue to the fields, we find that they are 

 more lavender than blue. The corolla of the bluet is a tube, spreading 

 out into four long, lavender, petal-like lobes ; each lobe is paler toward its 

 base and the opening of the tube has a ring of vivid yellow about it, the 

 tube itself being yellow even to its very base, where the four delicate 

 sepals clasp it fast to the ovary until the flower has done its work; and 



after the corolla has fallen the sepals remain; 

 standing guard over the growing seed. 



If we look carefully at the bluets we find two 

 forms of flowers: (a) Those with a two-lobed 

 stigma protruding from the opening of the flower 

 tube, (b) Those where the throat of the tube seems 

 closed by four antheps which join like four finger- 

 tips pressed together. In opening the flower, 

 1 3, we observe that those which have the stigmas 



i. Section of a bluet bios- protruding from the tube, have four anthers 

 som that has the anthers f as t e ned to the sides of the tube about half- 



yay down; while those that have the tour 

 7, anthers near the opening of the tube, have a 

 )istil with a short style which brings the stigmas 

 'and'tiie'antlierT below, about half-way up the tube. Thus an insect 



2. 



