Magenta to Pink 



beauties. Let us watch a bumblebee as she alights on the con- 

 venient fringe which edges the lower petal of this milkwort. 

 Now the weight of her body so depresses the keel, or tubular 

 petals, wherein the stamens and pistil lie protected from the rain 

 and useless insects, that as soon as it is pressed downward a spoon- 

 tipped pistil pushes out the pollen through the slit on the top on 

 the bee's abdomen. The stigmatic surface of the pistil is on the 

 opposite side of the spoon, nearest the base of the flower, to guard 

 against self-pollination. After the pollen has been removed, a 

 bumblebee, already dusted from other blossoms, must leave some 

 on the stigma as she sucks the nectar. Indeed, every feature pos- 

 sessed by this pretty flower has been developed for the most seri- 

 ous purpose of life the salvation of the species. 



Only locally common throughout a wide area, embracing the 

 eastern half of the United States and Canada, is the Racemed 

 Milkwort (P. polygama), whose small, purple-pink, but showy 

 flowers, clustered along the upper part of numerous leafy stems, 

 are found in dry soil during June and July. Like the fringed 

 milkwort, this one bears many cleistogamous, or blind flowers, 

 on underground branches, flowers that always set an abundance 

 of fertile self-planted seed in case of failure to form any on the 

 part of their showy sisters, which are utterly dependent upon the 

 bee's ministrations. During prolonged stormy weather few in- 

 sects are abroad. 



Swamp Rose-mallow; Mallow Rose 



(Hibiscus Moscheutos) Mallow family 



Flowers Very large, clear rose pink, sometimes white, often with 

 crimson centre, 4 to 7 in. across, solitary, or clustered on 

 peduncles at summit of stems. Calyx 5-cleft, subtended by 

 numerous narrow bractlets ; 5 large, veined petals ; stamens 

 united into a valvular column bearing anthers on the outside 

 for much of its length ; i pistil partly enclosed in the column, 

 and with five button-tipped stigmatic branches above. Stem : 

 4 to 7 ft. tall, stout, from perennial root. Leaves: 3 to 7 in. 

 long, tapering, pointed, egg-shaped, densely white, downy 

 beneath ; lower leaves, or sometimes all, lobed at middle. 



Preferred Habitat Brackish marshes, riversides, lake shores, saline 

 situations. 



Flowering Season August September. 



Distribution Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to 

 Louisiana ; found locally in the interior, but chiefly along 

 Atlantic seaboard. 



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