YELLOW 



just such a boggy meadow as we have searched in vain a hun- 

 dred times, and will behold myriads of its deep orange, dome- 

 like spires erecting themselves in radiant beauty over whole acres 

 of land. The separate flowers, with their long spurs and deeply 

 fringed lips, will repay a close examination. They are well cal- 

 culated, massed in such brilliant clusters, to arrest the attention 

 of whatever insects may specially affect them. Although I have 

 watched many of these plants I have never seen an insect visit 

 one, and am inclined to think that they are fertilized by night 

 moths. 



Mr. Baldwin declares : " If I ever write a romance of Indian 

 life, my dusky heroine, Birch Tree or Trembling Fawn, shall 

 meet her lover with a wreath of this orchis on her head. ' ' 



JEWEL-WEED. TOUCH-ME-NOT. 



Geranium Family. 

 Impatiens pallida. Pale Touch-me-not. 



Flowers. Pale yellow, somewhat spotted with reddish-brown ; common 

 northward. 



Impatiens fulva. Spotted Touch-me-not. 



Flowers. Orange- yellow, spotted with reddish-brown ; common south- 

 vard. 



Two to six feet high. Leaves. Alternate, coarsely toothed, oval. 

 Flowers. Nodding, loosely clustered, or growing from the axils of the 

 leaves. Calyx and Corolla. Colored alike, and difficult to distinguish ; of 

 six pieces, the largest one extended backward into a deep sac ending in a 

 little spur, the two innermost unequally two-lobed. Stamens. Five, very 

 short, united over the pistil. Pistil. One. 



These beautiful plants are found along shaded streams and 

 marshes, and are profusely hung with brilliant jewel-like flowers 

 during the summer months. In the later year they bear those 

 closed inconspicuous blossoms which fertilize in the bud and are 

 called cleistogamous flowers. The jewel-weed has begun to ap- 

 pear along the English rivers, and it is said that the ordinary 

 showy blossoms are comparatively rare, while the cleistogamous 

 ones abound. Does not this look almost like a determination on 

 the part of the plant to secure a firm foothold in its new envi- 

 ronment before expending its energy on flowers which, though 

 radiant and attractive, are quite dependent on insect-visitors for 

 fertilization and perpetuation ? 



.54 



