Red and Indefinites 



{PIiaseG/iis polystachyus) — P. perennis of Gray. The latter has 

 loose racemes of smaller purple flowers and leaflets in threes ; 

 nevertheless it is often confounded with the ground-nut vine by 

 older naturalists whose knowledge was "learned of schools." 



Usually a bee, simply by alighting on the wings of a blossom 

 belonging to the pea family, releases the stamens and pistil from 

 the keel ; not so here. The sickle-shaped keel of the ground-nut's 

 flower rests its tip firmly in a notch of the standard petal, nor will 

 any jar or pressure from outside release it. A bee, guided to the 

 nectary by the darker color of the under side of the curved keel 

 which spans the open cavity of the flower, enters, at least partially, 

 and so releases bv his pressure, applied from underneath, the tip of 

 the sickle from its notch in the standard. Now the released keel 

 curves all the more, and splits open to release the stigmatic tip of 

 the style that touches any pollen the bee may have brought from 

 another blossom. Continuing to curve and coil while the bee 

 sucks, it presently dusts him afresh with pollen from the now re- 

 leased anthers. A mass of pulp between anthers and stigma 

 prevents any of the flower's own pollen from self-fertilizing it. 

 These little blossoms, barely half an inch long, with their ingenious 

 mechanism to compel cross-fertilization, repay the closest study. 



At midnight the leaves of the ground-nut and wild bean "are 

 hardly to be recognized in their queer antics," says William Hamil- 

 ton Gibson. " The garden beans too play similar pranks. Those 

 lima bean poles of the garden hold a sleepy crowd." 



Pine Sap; False Beech-drops; Yellow Bird's- 



nest 



{Hvpopitis Hypopitis) Indian-pipe family 



{Monotropa Hypopitis of Gray) 



Flowers — Tawny, yellow, ecru, brownish pink, reddish, or bright 

 crimson, fragrant, about Y^ in. long ; oblong bell-shaped ; 

 borne in a one-sided, terminal, slightly drooping raceme, be- 

 coming erect after maturity. Scapes : Clustered from a dense 

 mass of fleshy, fibrous roots ; 4 to 12 in. tall, scaly bracted, 

 the bractlets resembling the sepals. Leaves: None. 



Preferred Habitat— \)\y woods, especially under llr, beech, and 

 oak trees. 



Flowering Season — ^J une — October. 



Distribution — Florida and Arizona, far northward into British Pos- 

 sessions. Europe and Asia. 



Branded a sinner, through its loss of leaves and honest green 

 coloring matter (chlorophyll), the pine sap stands among the dis- 



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