AUTUMN PLANTS 



one long point that serves as a dagger. Do you not 

 see what an elegant screen these interlacing stars form 

 against intense light, heat and dust? But these same 

 hairs have still another mission. Have you ever pi eked the 

 plants on a dewy or foggy morning and noticed how heavy 

 they are? You can find by experiment that the leaves take 



Fig. 14. TURKEY-WEED - 



setigera. 



in their own weight in water in a few hours, and under the 

 microscope you can see the water enter the hairs. Probably 

 this is why the plant can go on blossoming and ripening 

 seed after it seems impossible for the roots to get moisture 

 from the soil. 



No. 2, Fig. 15, is another disagreeable weed very 

 common in Southern California, but its flowers are pretty 

 and very interesting indeed. They keep honey for the 

 bees only, but they know how to make the bees pay for it 

 by rubbing pollen against their stigmas. No. i is the wild 



47 



