Red and Indefinites 



shortsighted ! A few tiny drops of nectar exuding from the centre 

 table prevent the visitors from starving. Presently the fertilized 

 stigmas wither, and when they have safely escaped the danger of 

 self-fertilization, the pollen hidden under their lobes ripens and 

 dusts afresh the little flies so impatiently awaiting the feast. Now, 

 and not till now, it is to the advantage of the species that the 

 prisoners be released, that they may carry the vitalizing dust to 

 stigmas waiting for it in younger flowers. Accordingly, the slip- 

 pery pipe begins to shrivel, thus offering a foothold ; the once 

 stiff hairs that guarded its exit grow limp, and the happy gnats, 

 after a generous entertainment and snug protection, escape unin- 

 jured, and by no means unwilling to repeat the experience. 

 Evidently the wild ginger, belonging to a genus next of kin, is 

 striving to perfect a similar prison. In the language of the street, 

 the ginger flower does not yet "work" its visitors "for all they 

 are worth." 



Later, when we see the exquisite dark, velvety, blue-green, 

 pipe-vine swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio philenor) hovering 

 about verandas or woodland bowers that are shaded with the 

 pipe-vine's large leaves, we may know she is there only to lay 

 eggs that her caterpillar descendants may find themselves on their 

 favorite food store. 



The Virginia Snakeroot, or Serpentary (A. Serpentaria), found 

 in dry woods, chiefly in the Middle States and South, although its 

 range extends northward to Connecticut, New York, and Michi- 

 gan, is the species whose aromatic root is used in medicine. It 

 is a low-growing herb, not a vine ; its heart-shaped leaves, 

 which are narrow and tapering to a point, are green on both sides, 

 and the curious, greenish, S-shaped flower, which grows alone at 

 the tip of a scaly footstalk from the root, appears in June or July. 

 Sometimes the flowers are cleistogamous (see p. 108). 



Fire Pink; Virginia Catchfly 



(Silene Virginicd) Pink family 



Flowers — Scarlet or crimson, i>4 in. broad or less, a few on slender 

 pedicels from the upper leaf-axils. Calyx sticky, tubular, bell- 

 shaped, 5-cleft, enlarged in fruit ; corolla of 5 wide-spread, 

 narrow, notched petals, sometimes deeply 2-clcft ; 10 

 stamens ; 3 styles. Stem : 1 to 2 ft. high ; erect, slender, 

 sticky. Leaves: Thin, spatulate, 3 to 5 in. long ; or upper 

 ones oblong to lance-shaped. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry, open woodland. 



Flowering Season — May — September. 



376 



