SUPPLEMENT 



Children should become thoroughly familiar with the lupine as a 

 type of papilionaceous, or butterfly flowers, for the main group of the 

 order Leguminosae is very well represented in our fields and gardens, 

 and its flowers, fruits and leaves have such pronounced characteristics, 

 that the kinship of the plants is easily apparent. The piston appa- 

 ratus of the lupine flowers is in working order as soon as the banner 

 is erected, and is efficient until the upper edges of the keel separate. 

 The stigma is not the brushy part of the style, but is merely the tiny 

 tip that is surrounded by bristles. Perhaps the bristles serve to keep 

 off the flower's own pollen until after the first insect visit, but ulti- 

 mately there is sure to be close pollination. Whether all species are 

 fertile to their own pollen I do not know. Some of the most showy 

 lupines rarely mature fruit on the upper part of the raceme, but L, 

 micranthus, which I have never seen visited, matures abundance of 

 fruit. Naturally, lupines with the most showy and fragrant flower 

 clusters, receive the most insect attention ; the most successful one I 

 have seen is L. confertus, Kellog, in the San Bernardino Mountains, 

 and the bee that paid thirty-five calls per minute was the Nevada 

 bumble-bee. 



The alfalfa, Medicago saliva, Linn., wherever it is grown, is too 

 much appreciated to need extended exposition ; its roots not unfre- 

 quently attain a depth of eight or ten feet, and they sometimes go 

 much deeper. It is hoped that the story of its pollination is made 

 clear in the Reader ; with the flowers in hand it is easily seen ; self 

 pollination must always occur, and the flowers are said to be fertile to 

 their own pollen. Butterflies in great numbers are often seen flutter- 

 ing over alfalfa fields, but I have not had opportunity to determine 

 whether or not they usually explode the flowers ; bees certainly steal 

 the honey quite as often as they get it in the direct way. The coiled 

 fruits lack the great advantage of hooked appendages, but they are 

 very readily blown about in the dust. The flowers of bur-clover, 

 Medicago denticulata, Willd.. in spite of their minuteness are eagerly 

 sought by bees. 



California has a long list of native clovers, many more species than 

 the Atlantic States, but they do not grow abundantly, and the fragrant 

 clover fields that are such a feature of our North-Eastern States are 

 unknown in California, at least in the southern half of the state. 

 Our most striking native clover, Trifolium fucatum , Lindl., is a suc- 

 culent plant with large heads of pink or pale rose-colored flowers, the 

 individual flowers being perhaps an inch long. This handsome clover 

 is found in the foothills of both mountain ranges, and is sometimes 

 abundant enough to be valuable as a pasture plant. In Southern 



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