From Blue to Purple 



other four project and form a convenient alighting place for 

 visitors, which necessarily dust their under sides with pollen as 

 they enter; for the red anthers were already ripe when the flower 

 opened. Then, however, the short, immature pistil was kept 

 below. After the stamens have shed their pollen and there can be 

 no longer danger of self-fertilization, it gradually elongates itself 

 beyond the point occupied by them, and divides into two little 

 horns whose stigmatic surfaces an incoming pollen-laden insect 

 cannot well fail to strike against. Cross-pollination is so thoroughly 

 secured in this case that the plant has completely lost the power 

 of fertilizing itself. Unwelcome visitors like ants, which would 

 pilfer nectar without rendering any useful service in return, are 

 warded off by the bristly, hairy foliage. Several kinds of female 

 bees seek the bugloss exclusively for food for their larvae as well 

 as for themselves, sweeping up the abundant pollen with their 

 abdominal brushes as they feast without effort. 



Blue Vervain; Wild Hyssop; Simpler's Joy 



{Verbena hastata) Vervain family 



Flowers — Very small, purplish blue, in numerous slender, erect, 

 compact spikes. Calyx 5-toothed ; corolla tubular, unequally 

 5-lobed ; 2 pairs of stamens ; 1 pistil. Stem: 3 to 7 ft. high, 

 rough, branched above, leafy, 4-sided. Leaves: Opposite, 

 stemmed, lance-shaped, saw-edged, rough ; lower ones lobed 

 at base. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist meadows, roadsides, waste places. 



Flowering Season — June — September. 



Distribution — United States and Canada in almost every part. 



Seeds below, a circle of insignificant purple-blue flowers in 

 the centre, and buds at the top of the vervain's slender spires do 

 not produce a striking effect, yet this common plant certainly 

 does not lack beauty. John Burroughs, ever ready to say a 

 kindly, appreciative word for any weed, speaks of its drooping, 

 knotted threads, that "make a pretty etching upon the winter 

 snow." Bees, the vervain's benefactors, are usually seen cling- 

 ing to the blooming spikes, and apparently sleep on them. Bor- 

 rowing the name of simpler's joy from its European sister, the 

 flower has also appropriated much of the tradition and folk-lore 

 centred about that plant which herb-gatherers, or simplers, truly 

 delighted to see, since none was once more salable. 



European Vervain {V. officinalis) Herb-of-the-Cross, Berbine, 

 Holy-herb, Enchanter's Plant, Juno's Tears, Pigeon-grass, Light- 

 ning Plant, Simpler's Joy, and so on through a long list of popu- 



40 



