FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



mature seed at the base), too late to receive the pollen 

 from the earlier developed anther ! My drawing will 

 show the immature pistil with its " closed doors " at 

 the time the anthers which bear the pollen are ripe, 

 and also the mature split-topped pistil whose open 

 portals are prettj sure to 

 scrape the pollen from the 

 visiting bumblebee's back. 

 The spring beauty is not a 

 self -fertilized plant ; Nature 

 has so arranged matters that 

 the bee shall bring the rip- 

 ened pollen from one flower 

 to the ripened pistil of an- 

 other. 



Among the earliest of the 

 violets are the yellow ones. 

 The round-leaved violet ( Vwla rotundifolid) is per- 

 haps the earliest of all, as its tiny blossoms appear 

 in Pennsylvania soon after the snow has gone. This 

 violet grows on the woodland border, and we will 

 find it hugging the damp rich mold, with its round- 

 ish leaves flat upon the ground ; in midsummer 

 these leaves are fully two inches in diameter. The 

 flower is pale yellow marked with madder-brown 

 veins. The downy yellow violet ( Viola pubescens) 

 grows about ten inches high ; the tiny yellow blos- 



Pistil of Spring Beauty : A, 

 immature ; B, mature. 



