Yellow and Orange 



marsh-marigolds may reflect their color in his clear skin too, but 

 the buttercup is every child's favorite. When 



" Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue 

 Do paint the meadows with delight," 



daisies, pink clover, and waving timothy bear them company 

 here; not the "daisies pied," violets, and lady-smocks of Shake- 

 speare's England. How incomparably beautiful are our own 

 meadows in June ! But the glitter of the buttercup, which is as 

 nothing to the glitter of a gold dollar in the eyes of a practical 

 farmer, fills him with wrath when this immigrant takes posses- 

 sion of his pastures. Cattle will not eat the acrid, caustic plant 

 — a sufficient reason for most members of the Ranunculaceae to 

 stoop to the low trick of secreting poisonous or bitter juices. 

 Self-preservation leads a cousin, the garden monk's hood, even to 

 murderous practices. Since children will put everything within 

 reach into their mouths, they should be warned against biting the 

 buttercup's stem and leaves, that are capable of raising blisters. 

 "Beggars use the juice to produce sores upon their skin," says 

 Mrs. Creevy. A designer might employ these exquisitely formed 

 leaves far more profitably. 



This and the bulbous buttercup, having so much else in com- 

 mon, have also the same visitors. " It is a remarkable fact," says 

 Sirjohn Lubbock, " as Aristotle long ago mentioned, that in most 

 cases bees confine themselves in each journey to a single species 

 of plant ; though in the case of some very nearly allied forms this 

 is not so ; for instance, it is stated on good authority (Miiller) 

 that Ranunculus acris, R. repens, and R. hulbosus are not distin- 

 guished by the bees, or at least are visited indifferently by them, 

 as is also the case with two of the species of clover." From 

 what we already know of the brilliant Syrphidae flies' fondness 

 for equallv brilliant colors, it is not surprising to find great num- 

 bers of them about the buttercups, with bees, wasps, and beetles 

 — upwards of sixty species. Modern scientists believe that the 

 habit of feeding on flowers has called out the color-sense of in- 

 sects and the taste for bright colors, and that sexual selection has 

 been guided by this taste. The most unscientific among us soon 

 finds evidence on every hand that flowers and insects have devel- 

 oped together through mutual dependence. 



By having its nourishment thriftily stored up underground 

 all winter, the Bulbous Buttercup {R. bulbosus) is able to steal a 

 march on its fibrous-rooted sister that must accumulate hers all 

 spring; consequently it is first to flower, coming in early May, 

 and lasting through June. It is a low and generally more hairy 

 plant, but closely resembling the tall buttercup in most respects, 

 and, like it, a naturalized European immigrant now thoroughly at 



293 



