WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



there, just where he must rub against it. Ignorant 

 or careless of this dust on his coat, he dives into 

 another flower and wipes it off on the brush he finds 

 there. Thus from flower to flower he carries an 

 exchange of pollen and gives us an object lesson 

 in cross-fertilization. 



In the early morning the jewel-weed is not only 

 studded with these pendants of gold, but incrusted 

 with diamonds, for its leaves and stems gather a 

 film of dew which clothes them in a lace-work of 

 light. Put the leaves under water and they gleam 

 as if coated with mercury, because the light is re- 

 flected from thousands of minute bubbles of air 

 caught among the invisible hairs of the surface. 

 The country people hereabout call the plant poor- 

 man 's-silver, on account of this frosted appearance 

 when wet; and, remembering its golden blossoms, 

 it might well be adopted as the badge of bimetal- 

 lism. Another curious property of these blossoms 

 appears when you lay them away in the herbari- 

 um; for, according to Dr. John Torrey, as related 

 in his Flora of New York State, the dried plant 

 gives to the paper in which it is kept an orange- 

 colored stain which sometimes strikes through 

 several sheets, and is of the exact color of the speci- 

 men. This is true, however, only of the jewel- 



336 



