From Blue to Purple 



bryo for months. This is the bee which commonly cuts her 

 round plugs from rose leaves. 



The Smooth Ruellia {R. strepens), an earlier bloomer than the 

 preceding, and with a more southerly range, has a shorter, 

 thicker tube to its handsome blue flower, and lacks the hairs 

 which guard its relative from crawling pilferers. 



Bluets; Innocence; Houstonia; Quaker 

 Ladies; Quaker Bonnets; Venus' Pride 



l^ * {Houstonia ccrriilea) Madder family 



F/ozuns — Very small, light to purplish blue or white, with yellow 

 centre, and borne at end of each erect slender stem that rises 

 from 3 to 7 in. high. Corolla funnel-shaped, with 4 oval, 

 pointed, spreading lobes that equal the slender tube in 

 length; rarely the corolla has more divisions; 4 stamens in- 

 serted on tube of corolla ; 2 stigmas ; calyx 4-lobed. Leaves : 

 Opposite, seated on stem, oblong, tiny ; the lower ones spatu- 

 late. Fruit: A 2-lobed pod, broader than long, its upper 

 half free from calyx ; seeds deeply concave. RootstocJi : 

 Slender, spreading, forming dense tufts. 



Prcfe7-red Habitat — Moist meadows, wet rocks and banks. 



Floivcring Season — April — July, or sparsely through summer. 



Distribution — Eastern Canada and United States west to Michigan, 

 south to Georgia and Alabama. 



Millions of these dainty wee flowers, scattered through the 

 grass of moist meadows and by the wayside, reflect the blue 

 and the serenity of heaven in their pure, upturned faces. Where 

 the white variety grows, one might think a light snowfall had 

 powdered the grass, or a milky way of tiny floral stars had 

 streaked a terrestrial path. Linnaeus named the flower for Dr. 

 Houston, a young English physician, botanist, and collector, who 

 died in South America in 1733, 'ifter an exhausting tramp about 

 the Gulf of Mexico. 



To secure cross-fertilization, the object toward which so much 

 marvellous floral organism is directed, this little plant puts forth 

 two forms of blossoms — one with the stamens in the lower 

 portion of the corolla tube, and the stigmas exserted; the other 

 form with the stigmas below, and the stamens elevated to the 

 mouth of the corolla. But the two kinds do not grow in the 

 same patch, seed from either producing after its kind. Many 

 insects visit these blossoms, but chiefly small bees and butter- 

 flies. Conspicuous among the latter is the common little meadow 

 fritillary {Brenthis bellona), whose tawny, dark-speckled wings 



62 



