PINK 



to pick even a single blossom until we had feasted our eyes, for 

 a time at least, upon their unruffled grace. 



After all, how much better than to bear away a burden of 

 blossoms, which nearly always seem to leave half their beauty 

 behind them, is it to retain a memory of some enchanted spot 

 unrifled of its charm. 



Then, too, the prevalent lack of sense of self-restraint in the 

 picking and uprooting of flowers and ferns is resulting in the ex- 

 termination of many valuable species. This is especially true in 

 the case of the orchids. It is devoutly to be wished that every 

 true lover of our woods and fields would set his face sternly 

 against the ruthless habit, regardless of the pleas that may be 

 offered in excuse. 



This picking and uprooting tendency does not begin to 

 threaten as seriously the future of our really common flowers 

 (some of which, by the way, are so unprincipled themselves as 

 almost to deserve extermination) as it does that of our rarer and 

 more beautiful species. Many of these will disappear from the 

 country, it is to be feared, if some counter-influence is not ex- 

 erted, and if it is not remembered that in the case of annuals and 

 biennials as much injury may be done to a species by the picking 

 of the seed-yielding flower as by the uprooting of the plant itself. 



SPREADING DOGBANE. 



[PI. xcix 

 Apocymim androscumifoliiun. Dogbane Family. 



Stems. — Erect ; branching ; two or three feet high. Leaves. — Opposite ; 

 oval. Fl(nvers. — Rose-color, veined with deep pink; loosely clustered. 

 Calyx. — Five-parted. Corolla. — Small; bell-shaped; five-cleft. Stamens. 

 — Five, slightly adherent to the pistil. Pistil. — Two ovaries surmounted by 

 a large, two-lobed stigma. Fruit. — Two long and slender pods. 



The flowers of the dogbane, though small and inconspicuous, 

 are very beautiful if closely examined. The deep pink veining 

 of the corolla suggests nectar, and the insect-visitor is not mis- 

 led, for at its base are five nectar-bearing glands. The two long, 

 slender seed-pods which result from a single blossom seem inap- 



220 



