From Blue to Purple 



sufficient reason for its habit of forming colonies and of gathering 

 its insignificant blossoms together into dense spikes, since by these 

 methods it issues a flaunting advertisement of its nectar. The 

 flower that simplifies dining for insects has its certain reward in 

 rapidly increased and vigorous descendants. To save repetition, 

 the reader interested in the process of fertilization is referred to 

 the account of the Maryland figwort, since many members of the 

 large family to which both belong employ the same method of 

 economizing pollen and insuring fertile seed. In this case visitors 

 have only to crawl over the tiny blossoms. 



From Labrador to Alaska, throughout almost every section 

 of the United States, in South America, Europe, and Asia, roams 

 the Thyme-leaved Speedwell (V. serpyllifolid), by the help of its 

 numerous flat seeds, that are easily transported on the wind, and 

 by its branching stem, that lies partly on the ground, rooting where 

 the joints touch earth. The small oval leaves, barely half an inch 

 long, grow in pairs. The tiny blue, or sometimes white, flowers, 

 with dark pathfinders to the nectary, are borne on spike-like 

 racemes at the ends of the stem and branches that rear themselves 

 upward in fields and thickets to display their bloom before the 

 passing bee. 



Pale, or Naked, or One-flowered Broom- 

 rape 



(Thalesia uniflora) Broom-rape family 



(Aphyllon uniflorum of Gray) 



Flowers — Violet, rarely white, delicately fragrant, solitary at end 

 of erect, glandular peduncles. Calyx hairy, bell-shaped, 

 5-toothed, not half the length of corolla, which is i in. or 

 less long, with curved tube spreading into 2 lips, 5-Iobed, 

 yellow-bearded within ; 4 stamens, in pairs, inserted on tube 

 of corolla ; 1 pistil. Stem: About 1 in. long, scaly, often 

 entirely underground; the 1 to 4 brownish scape-like pe- 

 duncles, on which flowers are borne, from 3 to 8 in. high. 

 Leaves: None. Fruit: An elongated, egg-shaped, 1 -celled 

 capsule containing numerous seeds. 



Preferred Habitat— -Damp woods and thickets. 



Flowering Season — April — J une. 



Distribution — British Possessions and United States from coast to 

 coast, southward to Virginia, and Texas. 



A curious, beautiful parasite, fastened on the roots of honest 

 plants from which it draws its nourishment. The ancestors 



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