HOUSTONIA CERULEA. BLUETS. 99 



of over-naming it. That the first name in the list, Venus' 

 Pride, did not become popular, is hardly to be wondered at; for 

 according to all accounts, Venus was rather a clashing young 

 lady, with a high opinion of her own charms, and such a char- 

 acter is totally at variance with this " wee, modest, crimson- 

 tip'd flower," as our Innocence might be called in imitation 

 of Burns, who in these words characterizes the English daisy. 

 Those poets who have taken this little flower as the emblem of 

 contentment and happiness under poor surroundings have per- 

 ceived a truth more clearly than is often the case. No flower 

 that we know of so well expresses the virtue of great merits, 

 combined with modesty of bearing, as this. It might well say, 

 with Pope, — 



" Honor and shame from no conditions rise ; 

 Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 



But leaving sentiment aside, we find in our plant a great deal 

 to interest those even who care chiefly for material things. 

 Dr. Gray has pointed out that the " flowers are dimorphous in 

 some individuals, with the anthers borne up on the tube of the 

 corolla and projecting from its throat, while the style is short, 

 and the stigma, therefore, included ; in the other sort, the anthers 

 are low down in the corolla and the style long, the stigmas, 

 therefore, protruding." Dr. Gray does not notice the additional 

 fact of the dimorphic tubes of the corolla. In the one form, in 

 which the pistil is wholly included, the thick portion of the tube 

 is very short, and the anthers are set on the ledge at the point 

 where the tube narrows (see Fig. 2), while, in the case where the 

 stigma is exserted, the narrow portion of the tube is the short- 

 est (Fig. 3). There is no lengthening of the stamens in either 

 case, but they are simply borne up or down, according to the 

 position of the ledge on which they are placed. In Mr. 

 Darwin's interesting book on " Forms of Flowers," this dimor- 

 phism is referred to in connection with some experiments ol 

 Prof. J. T. Rothrock on cultivated plants; and Mr. Darwin 



