SOME SUMMER FLOWERS 



a great amount of soil left vacant by the death or dormant 

 state of winter and spring vegetation. For instance, in 

 Southern California hundreds of acres of grain land are 

 in summer taken possession of by such hardy plants as 

 blue-curls, turkey-weed and various kinds of tar-weed. 

 This group of plants we have already studied as ( ' plants 

 that know how to meet hard times," but during the mid- 

 summer you may have opportunities to study their flowers 

 more fully. Many of the plants belong to the highest of 

 plant families, the Composite, and their "social flowers" 

 have the usual family advantages. There are also plants 

 belonging to smaller families, that have excellent devices 

 for pollination. The blue-curls, pictured in Fig. 15, has, 

 perhaps, the most original trick of all. Pull off one of the 

 corollas, and notice how its slender tube is bent back on 

 itself. It would seem impossible for any guest to get 

 around this troublesome corner; but watch a large bee set- 

 tle on the lower lip of the flower; the bee's weight 

 straightens the tube and at the same time brings the an- 

 thers and .stigmas against his back. In younger flowers 

 the anthers are covered with pollen, and in older ones the 

 stigmas are mature. 



For those who can spend the summer in our California 

 mountains, there is another world of flowers, for the plants 

 of the higher mountains have wakened from their winter 

 sleep, and will have a good supply of moisture all summer, 

 since there are melting snows, summer showers, springs 

 and streams. In the mountains of Southern California 

 even more than in the valleys, red is a prominent color 

 among summer flowers. As one winds up the mountain 

 trails, at first familiar, scarlet, mountain posies flash out 

 from the greener slopes, the larkspur, painted cup, Indian 

 pink, climbing Pentstemon, wild fuchsia, and, along 

 streams, the scarlet Mimulus. Farther on, along the 

 streams the elegant columbine lifts its scarlet clusters 



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