Yellow and Orange 



to receive any vitalizing dust brought to them, it follows that 

 quantities of vigorous seed must be set. 



''There is a natural rotation of crops, as yet little under- 

 stood," says Miss Going. " Where a pine forest has been cleared 

 away, oaks come up; and a botanist can tell beforehand just 

 what flowers will appear in the clearings of pine woods. In 

 northern Ohio, when a piece of forest-land is cleared, a particular 

 sort of grass appears. When' that is ploughed under, a growth 

 of the golden coreopsis comes up, and the pretty yellow blossoms 

 are followed in their turn by the plebeian rag-weed which takes 

 possession of the entire field." 



The charmingly delicate, wiry Garden Tickseed, known in 

 seedsmen's catalogues as Calliopsis {Coreopsis tinctoria), which 

 has also locally escaped to roadsides and waste places eastward, 

 is at home in moist, rich soil from Louisiana, Arizona, and Ne- 

 braska northward into Minnesota and the British Possessions. 

 From May to September its fine, slender, low-growing stems are 

 crowned with small yellow composite flowers whose rays are 

 velvety maroon or brown at the base. (Coreopsis = like a bug, 

 from the shape of the seeds.) 



Larger or Smooth Bur-marigold ; Brook 

 Sunflower 



(Bidens laevis) Thistle family 



(B. chrysanthemoides of Gray) 



Flower-heads — Showy golden yellow, i to 2 J /> in. across, numer- 

 ous, on short peduncles ; 8 to 10 neutral rays around a dingy 

 yellowish or brown disk of tubular, perfect, fertile florets. 

 Stem: i to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Opposite, sessile, lance-shaped, 

 regularly saw-toothed. 



Preferred Habitat— Wet ground, swamps, ditches, meadows. 



Flowering Season — August — November. 



Distribution — Quebec and Minnesota, southward to the Gulf States 

 and Lower California. 



Next of kin to the golden coreopsis, it behooves some of the 

 bur-marigolds to redeem their clan's reputation for ugliness ; 

 and certainly the brook sunflower is a not unworthy relative. 

 How gay the ditches and low meadows are with its bright, gen- 

 erous bloom in late summer, and until even the golden-rod 

 wands turn brown ! Yet all this show is expended merely for ad- 

 vertising purposes. The golden ray florets, sacrificing their fer- 

 tility tothe general welfare of the cooperative community, which 

 each flower-head is in reality, have grown conspicuous to attract 



360 



