Magenta to Pink 



heads are well adapted to their requirements. That exquisite 

 little feathered jewel, the ruby-throated humming-bird, flashes 

 about the bright patches an instant, and is gone ; but he too has 

 paid for his Ifeast in transferring pollen. Insects which land 

 anywhere they please on the flowers, receive pollen on various 

 places, just as in the case of the scarlet Oswego tea, of similar 

 formation. Small bees, which if unable to drain the brimming 

 tubes of nectar, at least sip from them and help themselves to 

 pollen also, without paying the flower's price ; and certain mis- 

 chievous wasps, forever bent on nipping holes in tubes they can- 

 not honestly drain, give a score of other pilferers an opportunity 

 to steal sweets. 



Snake-head; Turtle-head; Balmony; Shell- 

 flower; Cod-head /p 



{Chelone glabra) Figwort family 



Flowers — White tinged with pink, or all white, about i in. long, 

 growing in a dense terminal cluster. Calyx ^-parted, bracted 

 at base ; corolla irregular, broadly tubular, 2-lipped ; upper 

 lip arched, swollen, slightly notched ; lower lip 3-lobed, 

 spreading, woolly within ; 5 stamens, i sterile, 4 in pairs, 

 anther-bearing, woolly ; i pistil. Stem: i to 3 ft. high, 

 erect, smooth, simple, leafy. Leaves: Opposite, lance- 

 shaped, saw-edged. 



Preferred Habitat— \^\\.c\\t'?., beside streams, swamps. 



Flowering Season — ^july — September. 



Distribution — Newfoundland to Florida, and half way across the 

 continent. 



It requires something of a struggle for even so strong and 

 vigorous an insect as the bumblebee to gain admission to this 

 inhospitable-looking flower before maturity ; and even he aban- 

 dons the attempt over and over again in its earliest stage before 

 the little heart-shaped anthers are prepared to dust him over. As 

 they mature, it opens slightly, but his weight alone is insufficient 

 to bend down the stiff, yet elastic, lower lip. Energetic prying 

 admits first his head, then he squeezes his body through, brush- 

 ing past the stamens as he finally disappears inside. At the 

 moment when he is forcing his way in, causing the lower lip to 

 spring up and down, the eyeless turtle seems to chew and chew 

 until the most sedate beholder must smile at the paradoxical ' 

 show. Of course it is the bee that is feeding, though the flower 

 would seem to be masticating the bee with the keenest relish ! 

 The counterfeit tortoise soon disgorges its lively mouthful, how- 

 ever, and away flies the bee, carrying pollen on his velvety back 



10 145 



t/ 



