42 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



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Bird 

 Flowers 



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OW many times in 

 passing through 

 the I o w, wet 

 meadows in May 

 and June, have 

 we stopped to 



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j view the beautiful, painted 

 cup flowers! But few of us 



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have pondered over the sig- 

 nificance of their brilliant scar- 

 let coloring. The fiowers will 

 be recalled as having the corolla 

 somewhat hidden by the long, two- 

 lobed calyx, which is the part tipped 

 with brilliant color. Then, too, the green 

 I leaves are variously stained in the same 



vermilion or .scarlet, or, they may rarely be colored 

 yellow. One day I was fortimate in coming on the .scene at 

 the proper moment, to view the pretty little ruby-throated 

 humming-bird, thirsting after his long flight, dart down to 

 sip the nectar from .some of these blossoms. Only a short 

 time previously I had .seen him poised in mid-air before the 

 blossoms of the columbine, which grew in the opening near 

 the woods. The preference this bird shows for these flowers 

 has a far deeper meaning than appears on the surface. On 

 a previous page, attention was called to the pollination of 



