AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 23 



shaped flower-heads as June approached. I looked 

 for the males; to the east, south, west, none could 

 be found for hundreds of yards. On the north, 

 about two hundred feet away, I found a small colony 

 of meek and lowly males. I wondered by what 

 agency fertilization would take place, by insects, 

 or by the wind ? I suspected it would not take place. 

 No insects seemed to visit the flowers, and the wind 

 surely could not be relied upon to hit the mark so 

 far off, and from such an unlikely corner, too. But 

 by some means the vitalizing dust seemed to have 

 been conveyed. Early in June, the plants began 

 to shed their down, or seed-bearing pappus, still 

 carrying their heads at the top of the grass, so that 

 the breezes could have free access to them, and sow 

 the seeds far and wide. 



As the seeds are sown broadcast by the wind, I 

 was at first puzzled to know how the two sexes were 

 kept separate, and always in little communities, till 

 I perceived, what I might have read in the botany, 

 that the plant is perennial and spreads by offsets and 

 runners, like the strawberry. This would of course 

 keep the two kinds in groups by themselves. 



Another plant which has interesting ways and is 

 beautiful besides is the adder's-tongue, or yellow 

 erythronium, the earliest of the lilies, and one of 

 the most pleasing. The April sunshine is fairly 

 reflected in its revolute flowers. The lilies have 

 bulbs that sit on or near the top of the ground. The 

 onion is a fair type of the lily in this respect. But 

 here is a lily with the bulb deep in the ground. 



