BLUE AND PURPLE 



Thoreau writes regarding them : ' < The Solarium Dulcamara 

 berries are another kind which grow in drooping clusters. I do 

 not know any clusters more graceful and beautiful than these 

 drooping cymes of scented or translucent, cherry-colored ellip- 

 tical berries. . . . They hang more gracefully over the 

 river's brim than any pendant in a lady's ear. Yet they are 

 considered poisonous ; not to look at surely. . . . But why 

 should they not be poisonous ? Would it not be bad taste to 

 eat these berries which are ready to feed another sense ? ' ' 



GREAT LOBELIA. 



Lobelia syphilitica. Lobelia Family. 



Stem. Leafy, somewhat hairy, one to three feet high. Leaves. Alter- 

 nate, ovate to lance-shaped, thin, irregularly toothed. Flowers. Rather 

 large, light blue, spiked. Calyx. Five-cleft, with a short tube. Corolla. 

 Somewhat two-lipped, the upper lip of two rather erect lobes, the lower 

 spreading and three-cleft. Pistil. One, with a fringed stigma. 



The great lobelia is a striking plant which grows in low 

 ground, flowering in midsummer. In some places it is called 

 " High-Belia," a pun which is supposed to reflect upon the less 

 tall and conspicuous species, such as the Indian tobacco, L. in- 

 flata, which are found flowering at the same season. 



If one of its blossoms is examined, the pistil is seen to be en- 

 closed by the united stamens in such a fashion as to secure self- 

 fertilization, one would suppose. But it is hardly probable that 

 a flower as noticeable as this, and wearing a color as popular as 

 blue, should have adorned itself so lavishly to no purpose. Con- 

 sequently we are led to inquire more closely into its domestic 

 arrangements. Our curiosity is rewarded by the discovery that 

 the lobes of the stigma are so tightly pressed together that they 

 can at first receive no pollen upon their sensitive surfaces. We 

 also find that the anthers open only by a pore at their tips, and 

 when irritated by the jar of a visiting bee, discharge their pol- 

 len upon its body through these outlets. This being accom- 

 plished the fringed stigma pushes forward, brushing aside what- 

 ever pollen may have fallen within the tube. When it finally 



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