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Edited by Dr. H. A. Gleason, Urbana, 111. 



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One of the most attractive of our spring flowers in the 

 Middle West is the blue-eyed Alary, or Colliusia vcnia. It 

 does not seem to be a very common plant, but is usually quite 

 abundant wherever found. It is a small plant, rarely exceed- 

 ing a foot in height, and produces at the top of the stem a 

 cluster of delicate flowers, which are half blue and half 

 w^hite. The plants usually grow in compact colonies, and in 

 this way can display a wealth of color which is rivalled only 

 by the wild sweet-williams. The flowers are visited by large 

 numbers of insects, and one can easily observe the interesting 

 mechanism by which the insects are dusted with pollen. At 

 first sight the flower apparently consists of four petals, but 

 when the insect alights on the flower the lower two petals give 

 way, and the stamens loaded with yellow pollen come up mys- 

 teriously from below. They have been hidden within the fifth 

 petal, which is at other times out of sight. It is located just 

 between the two lower blue petals, but is folded down the 

 middle into a pocket containing the stamens. The weight of 

 the insect visitor causes the blue half of the flower to bend 

 down, the fifth petal partially unfolds, and the stamens pro- 

 trude, ready to dust the insect with the pollen, which can then 

 be carried to another flower. 



Blue-eyed Mary is an annual plant, that is, it comes up 

 each spring from seeds produced during the preceding summer. 

 Evidently if no flowers are allowed to go to seed there will be 

 no flowers during the following year. Therefore if you want 

 blue-eyed Marys next year, you must spare some of them 

 now. I know of localities where the whole supply might easily 



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