Red and Indefinites 



to or upon the ground. Calyx cup-shaped, deeply cleft, its 

 3 acutely pointed lobes spreading, curved ; corolla wanting ; 

 12 short, stout stamens inserted on ovary ; the thick style 

 6-lobed, its stigmas radiating on the lobes. Leaves : A single 

 pair, dark green, reniform, 4 to 7 in. broad, on downy petioles 

 6 to 12 in. high, from a creeping, thick, aromatic, pungent 

 rootstock. 



Preferred Habitat Rich, moist woods ; hillsides. 



Flowering Season March May. 



Distribution North Carolina, Missouri, and Kansas, northward to 

 New Brunswick and Manitoba. 



Like the wicked servant who buried the one talent entrusted 

 to his care, the wild ginger hides its solitary flower if not actually 

 under the dry leaves that clothe the ground in the still leafless 

 woodlands, then not far above them. Why ? When most plants 

 flaunt their showy blossoms aloft, where they may be seen of all, 

 why should this one bear only one dull, firm cup, inconspicuous 

 in color as in situation ? In early spring and it is one of the 

 earliest flowers gnats and small flies are warming into active life 

 from the maggots that have lain under dead leaves and the bark of 

 decaying logs all winter. To such guests a flower need offer few 

 attractions to secure them in swarms. Bright, beautiful colors, 

 sweet fragrance, luscious nectar, with which the highly specialized 

 bees, butterflies, and moths are wooed, would all be lost on them, 

 lacking as they do aesthetic taste. For flies, a snug shelter from cold 

 spring winds such asjack-in-the-pulpit, the marsh calla, the pitcher- 

 plant, or the skunk cabbage offers ; sometimes a foetid odor like 

 the latter's, or dull purplish red or brownish color resembling stale 

 meat, which the purple trillium likewise wears as an additional at- 

 traction, are necessary when certain carrion flies must be catered 

 to ; and, above all, an abundance of pollen for food with any or all 

 of these seductions a flower dependent on flies has nothing to fear 

 from neglect. Therefore the wild ginger does not even attempt 

 to fertilize itself. Within the cosey cup one can usually find a con- 

 tented fly seeking shelter or food. Close to the ground it is warm 

 and less windy. When the cup first opens, only the stigmas are 

 mature and sticky to receive any pollen the visitors may bring in on 

 their bodies from other asylums where they have been hiding. 

 These stigmas presently withering, up rise the twelve stamens 

 beside them to dust with pollen the flies coming in search of it. 

 Only one flower from a root compels cross-fertilizing between 

 flowers of distinct plants a means to insure the most vigorous 

 seed, as Darwin proved. Evidently the ginger is striving to attain 

 some day the ambitious mechanism for temporarily imprisoning 

 its guests that its cousin the Dutchman's pipe has perfected. After 

 fertilization the cup nods, inverted, and the leathery capsule follow- 

 ing it bursts irregularly, discharging many seeds. 



374 



