BOUNCING-BET 



Pistil. — Ovary slender, oblong; styles two, curved at 

 apex. 



Fruit. — Oblong capsule with many seeds. 



Curiously enough there is a small group of plants 

 that are united not by botanical affiliations but by 

 social status. Two well known members of this 

 outlawed group are Saponaria officinalis, Bouncing- 

 Bet, and Linaria vulgaris, Butter-and-Eggs. Both 

 originally of the garden are now outcasts, both in their 

 primitive forms bear flowers of great beauty. It is 

 clear that their vitality has wrought their social ruin. 

 No garden wall could restrain their activities, and 

 leaving the conventions of the garden w^alk they have 

 sought the unregenerate society of the pastures and 

 the roadsides. 



The flowers of Bouncing-Bet in shape are like single 

 Pinks and grow in loose bunches. The color varies 

 from palest pink to rose. The stamens are ten in 

 number. As the corolla opens, five of these thrust 

 their heads out of the tube, the anthers mature and 

 give up their pollen. When these five have shed 

 their pollen, the other five emerge, mature, open, and 

 scatter their pollen. All this time the pistil lies 

 concealed in the flower tube, but as the second set of 

 stamens mature it comes out of its seclusion and the 

 two stigmas separate and expand. Butterflies by day 

 and moths by night carry pollen from the younger 

 flowers to the pistils of the older ones. 

 ^ The leaves are opposite, dark and smooth; distinctly 

 three-veined and somewhat puckered at margin. 

 The stems contain a gummy juice which makes a 

 lather when it is mixed with water and this is the 

 reason for the name Soapwort. 



