From Blue to Purple 



Preferred Habitat— -Moist, shady ground. 

 Flowering Season — J uly — September. 



Distribution — New York to the Carolinas, westward to Tennessee 

 and Kansas ; possibly beyond. 



An insignificant little flower by itself, conspicuous only 

 because it rears itself in clusters on a level with one's eyes, lack- 

 ing beauty, perfume, and all that makes a blossom charming to 

 the human mind — why has it been elevated by the botanists to 

 the dignity of lending its name to a large and important family, 

 and why is it mentioned at all in a popular flower book beside 

 the more showy ornaments of nature's garden ? Both questions 

 have the same answer : Because it is the typical flower of the 

 family, and therefore serves as an illustration of the manner in 

 which many others are fertilized. Beautiful blossoms are by no 

 means always the most important ones. 



It well repays one to observe the relative times of matur- 

 ing anthers and stigmas in the flowers, as thereby hangs a 

 tale in which some insect plays an interesting role. The figwort 

 matures its stigma at the lip of the style before its anthers haw- 

 ripened their pollen. Why ? By having the stigma of a newly 

 opened flower thrust forward to the mouth of the corolla, an 

 insect alighting on the lip, which forms his only convenient 

 landing place, must brush against it and leave upon it some 

 pollen brought from an older flower, whose anthers are already 

 matured. At this early stage of the flower's development its 

 stamens lie curved over in the tube of the corolla ; but presently, 

 as the already fertilized style begins to wither, and its stigma is 

 dry and no longer receptive to pollen, then, since there can be no 

 longer any fear of self-pollination — the horror of so many 

 flowers — the figwort uncurls and elevates its stamens. The 

 insect visitor in search of nectar must get dusted with pollen 

 from the late maturing anthers now ready for him. By this 

 ingenious method the flower becomes cross-fertilized and wastes 

 the least pollen. 



Bees and wasps evidently pursue opposite routes in going to 

 work, the former beginning at the bottom of a spike or raceme, 

 where the older, more mature flowers are, and working upward; 

 the wasps commencing at the top, among the newly opened ones. 

 In spite of the fact that we usually see hive bees about this plant. 

 pilfering the generous supply of nectar in each tiny cup. it is un- 

 doubtedly the wasp that is the flower's truest benefactor, since 

 he carries pollen from the older blossoms of the last raceme visited 

 to the projecting stigmas of the newly opened flowers at the top 

 of the next cluster. Manifestly no flower, even though it were 

 especially adapted to wasps, as this one is, could exclude bees. 

 About one-third of all its visitors are wasps. 



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