SOME SUMMER FLOWERS 



CHAPTER XV. 



sone sunMER FLOWERS. 



There are some plants that, all through the winter 

 rains and spring sunshine, refuse to send out their flowers; 

 but after the rains are over, and when the days are so long 

 that the sun drinks up much of the moisture left in the soil, 

 they suddenly burst into bloom. Should you not think 

 they would pay dearly for their tardiness ? But they seem 

 to have reasoned in somewhat this way : After the rains 

 are over the pollen will be in less danger, and in the long 

 sunny days and warm nights, there will be more insects 

 or hummingbirds to carry it ; and, best of all, when the 

 crowds of spring flowers are gone, the late flowers will have 

 all these guests to themselves ; so it pays to store up food 

 and moisture to be used later on. 



And what a long time some of these plants have been 

 working and hoarding ! Do you remember how early last 

 autumn the soap-root sent up its pretty crinkled leaves ? 

 All through the rainy season the busy leaves make food 

 and send it down to the bulb storehouse, until finally the 

 air and soil become so dry that they can work no longer. 

 But after the leaves have quite disappeared, there shoots 

 up a slender branching flower stalk, two or three or some- 

 times five or six feet high. This stalk and the unopened 

 buds are so slender and gray that during the day there seems 

 to be but the ghost of a plant, but watch on some June or 

 July afternoon, about half-past four o'clock, and you will 



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