CHAPTER VII 



have a theory for the color, the most plausible one seems to be, that 

 it helps in supplying heat, and the essential organs of the flower are 

 said to be specially sensitive to cold. The seeds of the peony mature 

 during the summer ; I told that the fruits (follicles) explode and 

 fling their seeds, 



The buttercup, Ranunculus Californicus, Benth., gets its family 

 and generic name from its supposed association with the frog pond, 

 Ranunculus meaning tadpole. This species is abundant on moist 

 hillsides. The peony belongs to the same family, Ranunculacese, 

 because, like the buttercup, none of its parts are united. The story 

 of the pollination of the plebian buttercup, with its indiscriminating 

 hospitality, is rather fully told in the Reader. As in the peony, the 

 stigmas wither early when the flowers are freely visited by insects. 

 They do not seem to be capable of self pollination, although close 

 pollination may be effected by insects about the second or third day. 

 The larger insects are sure to alight in the center of a flower like 

 the buttercup. I have seen large flies and even butterflies work as 

 systematically as bees in gathering every drop of honey from this 

 flower, an uncommon occurrence, I think, for usually flies and butter- 

 flies work intermittently and are not very effective agents. The little 

 hooked style remains as part of the fruit (an akene) and helps to dis- 

 tribute the seeds. 



Two functions of the appendages of the cluster lily, or Brodisea, 

 have been noted, they serve also by their contrasting color to guide 

 the guests to the honey. The opening buds of the Brodisea seem to 

 me to contain even more honey than the expanded flowers ; at any 

 rate, bees often try to force them open, and every visit to a bud means 

 cross pollination. The Brodisea, because of early flowering, scant 

 provision of honey, and limited range of guests, doubtless needs to 

 be able to pollinate itself. Its fruits are capsules, which mature late. It 

 is easy to see where new bulbs, or more properly, corms, are formed, 

 but it is not so obvious how the upper corm retains its depth, and 

 how the side corms get more widely separated. The key to the mys- 

 tery is found when one digs up a colony of Brodiseas, that is, a larger 

 plant surrounded by a ring of smaller ones. The little plants forming 

 this ring about the mother plant, have sprung from the side corms of 

 last year, and each of these corms has sent out a long and extraordi- 

 narily thick root, that by contraction is pulling it directly away from 

 the parent corm. By means of these pulling roots, the circle of 

 daughter plants widens each year and gets farther from the mother 

 corm, so the Brodiaea is well disseminated and is always abundant, 

 persisting even in grain fields where it is never allowed to mature seed. 



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