BORAGINACEAE BORAGE FAMILY 
VIRGINIAN COWSLIP. BLUEBELLS 
Mertensia virginica (L.) Link 
The early spring flowers of this plant are visited by various 
kinds of insects. Among these are the female bumblebees, the 
only bumblebees to fly at this time of year. They have mouth 
parts long enough 
to reach the bottom 
of the corollas but 
for some _ reason 
they frequently 
pierce the corolla 
tube at its side in- 
stead of obtaining 
the nectar in the 
usual way. 
The Virginian 
Cowslip grows in low 
meadows, moist 
woods and along 
streams from New 
York and southern 
Ontario to Minnesota, 
south to South Caro- 
lina and Kansas. It is 
perennial and when once started often spreads and forms beauti- 
ful large patches unless destroyed by flower pickers. The rather 
stout and usually much branched stems grow 1-2 feet high and 
like the leaves are entirely without hairs. The oblong, oval or 
obovate leaves are 2-5 inches long, obtuse at apex, pinnately 
veined, the uppermost sessile and the lower narrowed into 
margined petioles. 
The plants bloom during April and May. The buds are pink 
but the open flowers are light blue or purplish and rarely white. 
The calyx persists and is slightly enlarged in fruit. The corolla 
is so nearly bell shaped that the plant is sometiines called Blue- 
bells. On its slightly 5-lobed but plaited tube are inserted the 5 
stamens, whose slender filaments are much longer than the 
anthers but not long enough to project beyond the corolla. The 
ovary is 4-divided and the style is very slender. The fruit consists 
of 4 single-seeded nutlets which are rounded and somewhat 
roughened on the surface. 
263 
