SHOWY TICK-TREFOIL 



Stamens. — Ten, diadelphous; nine with filaments grown 

 together, one by itself; anthers all alike. . 



Pistil. — Ovary one; style one. 



Fruit. — Loment. that is, a jointed pod, one to four 

 inches long, dividing into three to five joints; each joint 

 triangular, straight, or convex on the 

 back, covered with small hooked hairs. 



Pollinated by bees. Nectar-bearing. 



The Tick-Trefoil may escape us 

 in the summer, but we assuredly 

 cannot escape it in the autumn. 

 In midsummer — its long, dense ra- 

 cemes of rose-purple Pea-like blos- 

 soms waving from the top and sides 

 of a stout, leafy stem — the plant at- 

 tracts attention as a bit of brilliant 

 color by the wayside. One plucks 

 a stem with a certain pleasure — it 

 is showy, strong, conspicuous, the 

 flowers in color beautiful. One won- 

 ders if it might not serve in some 

 landscape gardening to brighten a 

 dull place or comfort a desolation. 

 This in summer is the Tick-Trefoil, 

 but in autumn, when the last little 

 butterfly blossom has poised on the 

 tip of each stem and the trail of pods 

 has followed the bloom, when the 

 leaves have colored to red and yellow and deepened 

 to brown, then comes the time of retrospection and re- 

 gret that you did not choke the plant in its prime. 

 For that divided pod breaks up into thin segments so 

 covered with hooked prickles, so determined to seize 



95 



Tick-Trefoil. Desmo- 

 dium Canadensis 



