9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the student. To these two species add the wind-flower (Anemone 

 nemorosa, L.), all of which appear at about the same time and in simi- 

 lar situations, and the student has three forms over which he may 

 work for some hours before the representations of the three genera 

 are satisfactorily determined. It is, however, just such work that 

 opens the eyes of the young naturalist and makes him mindful of 

 little things. The shepherd's-purse ( Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Moench) 

 is an intruder from Europe that has found its way into our cultivated 

 ground, and become most ugly because so much in the way of other 

 and better plants. This weed seems to be running a race to the seed- 

 goal with some other of our plant-pests. During the present season 

 strings were tied upon certain flower-stalks when their flowers were in 

 bloom, and a record was kept of the time required for the maturing of 

 the seed. The number of days varied from fourteen to seventeen. 

 This is in striking contrast with the two long years of maturation re- 

 quired for the acorns of many species of oaks. The ubiquitous dande- 

 lion can, however, win the pennant for quick-seeding from the shepherd's- 

 purse. It can reach the home-line when capsulla is only half-way round 

 the track. But while a dandelion-plant, on an average, produces 1,720 

 seeds, the shepherd's-purse ripens 17,600, or more than ten to one ! The 

 same student has determined this year that these figures are low in- 

 deed when compared with those for the offspring of the purslane speed- 

 well ( Veronica peregrina, L.). This small plant began flowering on 

 May 3d, and before six weeks were past it had produced 186,292 seeds. 

 What some plants may lack in size and durability they make more 

 than whole by wonderful powers of reproduction. The Dicentra cu- 

 cullaria (DC.) is the interesting " Dutchman's breeches," with the 

 heart-shaped corolla, much like its cultivated favorite sister, the Di- 

 centra spectabilis (DC), better known as "bleeding-heart," with its 

 long, gracefully bending stems, each bearing a dozen or more of rosy 

 " hearts." Our early wild dicentra exceeds its cultured relative in deli- 

 cacy and beauty of foliage and its strange-shaped flowers, which are, 

 although smaller and less highly colored, not less interesting struct- 

 urally. The visiting insect, intent upon securing the honey secreted 

 at the base of the petals, must brush aside a close-fitting cap or hood 

 before the pollen and the stigma may be touched. The two canals 

 leading to the nectar are so constructed that the insect, usually a bee, 

 in thrusting his proboscis into either, brings his body against the hood 

 and, pushing it aside, dusts fresh pollen from some other flower upon 

 the stigma. Before he leaves, new pollen is unintentionally secured by 

 the insect for the fertilization of the next flower visited. The hood of 

 the pendent blossom falls back to its accustomed place as soon as the 

 bee retires, and again incloses the pistil and the six stamens situated 

 close around it. When we remember that the stamens of a particular 

 flower may mature before its stigma, it is easy to understand that the 

 pollen of that flower, although placed close by the side of the stigma, 



