174 UVULARIA SESSILIFOLIA. SESSILE-LEAVED BELL-WORT. 



leaves, with the addition of four abortive leaves or shcathins: 

 scales not noted by Dr. Darlington ; and there are also the bifid 

 stem, the barren branch, and the opposite leaves with the soli- 

 tary flower. So far one might expect of the artist that he would 

 not go wrong, if he were at all a fair copyist from nature. But 

 the drawing also plainly shows the peduncle appearing just 

 under one leaf and opposite the other, and this is so slight a 

 characteristic that it would probably escape the notice of most 

 observers. 



One of the interesting little stories which our plant tells us 

 relates to its flower. While many of its allies have numerous 

 flowers on their stems, our Uvularia scssilifolia has only one, 

 but in spite of this apparent poverty it thrives as well as any 

 of its neighbors. With its single seed-vessel, filled with com- 

 jsarativcly few seeds, the species is distributed over as wide 

 an extent of country, and is just as abundant in most of the 

 localities in which it grows, as those species which enjoy what 

 we should suppose to be the greater advantage of innumerable 

 seeds. The rapidity with which it does its work is also worth 

 noting. Very shortly after the flower opens, its pistil is fertil- 

 ized, and the perianth falls. Our plant, moreover, seems to get 

 none of the benefits that are suj^posed to follow an occasional 

 cross with pollen from a distant individual ; for at the early 

 season of the year when it flowers, there are but few winged 

 insects in the cool, damp woods, and even these few are not 

 likely to be allured to the blossoms, as they are hidden by the 

 plant's own foliage, and have neither lively color nor sweet ^q.x- 

 fume to make them attractive. The wind, also, can scarcely 

 help them to foreign pollen ; for Zephyr dreads to walk in the 

 still recesses in which the Uvularia scssilifolia grows. Still, the 

 greater number of the flowers seem to bear seed, and it is quite 

 probable, therefore, that the plant is a self -fertilizer. In view of 

 the fact that this little flower can do so well with so small an 

 amount of material, it becomes an interesting c[ucstion to ask 

 why such an immense amount of effort is spent on the numcr 



