MANDRAKES; WILD LUPINE, AND NOTES ON SNAPPING TURTLE 



997 



should twenty or thirty others of similar proportions be 

 in the same group, the whole forms a picture that will 

 live in the mind of the nature lover for many a day nay, 

 for many a summer to come. Sometimes its flowers are 

 a pale pink, though rarely, and still less often pure white. 

 They have been described as "butterfly-shaped ;" but this 

 is a bit far-fetched, as a glance at Figure 6 will prove. In 

 arrangement they form a long raceme on an erect stem ; 

 the leaves are of a particularly fine green color, and of 

 a compound arrangement, generally composed of eight 

 or nine leaflets arranged in a circle. When the Lupine 

 fruits, its four or five seeds are contained in a pod of 

 some two inches in length ; it is a hairy affair broad 

 and flat. 



Lupine is generally found growing on gravel banks 

 or gravelly hillsides, and sometimes on sandbanks that 



advantage gained in the pea-shaped blossom? As usual, 

 the insect that fertilizes the flower best knows the answer. 

 The corolla has five petals, the upper one called the stand- 

 ard, chiefly a flaunted advertisement; two side wings, or 

 platforms, to alight on, and a keel like a miniature boat, 

 formed by the two lower petals, whose edges meet. In 

 this the pistil, stamens, and nectar are concealed and 

 protected. The pressure of a bee's weight as he alights 

 on the wings, light as it must be, is nevertheless sufficient 

 to depress and open the keel, which is elastically affected 

 by their motion, and to expose the pollen just where the 

 long-lipped bee must rub off some against his under side 

 as he sucks the nectar. He actually seems to pump the 

 pollen that has fallen into the forward part of the keel 

 upon himself, as he moves about. As soon as he leaves 

 the flower, the elastic wings resume their former position, 



Fig. 5. THIS IS A BED OF WILD LUPINE (Lupinus perenms) AS IT FIRST COMES INTO FLOWER IN THE SPRING. IT HAS NOT 

 BEEN DISTURBED IN ANY PARTICULAR, SO ITS BEAUTIFUL LEAVES AND RACEMES OF ELEGANT PURPLISH BLUE FLOWERS 

 CAN BE APPRECIATED IN ALL THEIR GLORY . _. ' I 



Lupine belongs in the Pulse family (Lcguminotae)* very extensive group of trees, shrubs and plants; it even contains the Judas tree, here shown 



in Fig. 1. 



are utterly lacking in moisture. Should they remain un- 

 disturbed for several consecutive seasons, and the 

 locality be particularly favorable to the growth of the 

 plant, the group may eventually cover an area of fifty or 

 sixty square feet a wonderful sight indeed ! It has a 

 root that often finds its way into the soil for a distance of 

 several feet thus the plant is rarely taken up success- 

 fully for transplanting to gardens ; so it is fortunate that 

 it may readily be introduced through planting its ferti- 

 lized seeds. 



Speaking of its fertilized seeds, Neltje Blanchan has, 

 with marked significance, described how this fertilization 

 comes about in the flowers of the Pea family generally. 

 It is most delightfully put, and she asks, "What is the 



thus closing the keel to prevent waste of pollen. Take 

 a sweet pea from the garden ; press down its wings with 

 the thumb and forefinger to imitate the acting of the bee 

 on them ; note how the keel opens to display its treasures, 

 and resume its customary shape when the pressure is 

 removed." (Nature's Garden.) 



Another interesting fact about wild lupine is that, in 

 common with some other plants, it dozes off after the day 

 is over. The leaves do not change position from an 

 horizontal to a vertical one, as in other members of the 

 legume group, but they twist about on their own axes 

 sometimes as much as through an entire half arc of a 

 circle. This may be a diurnal trick as well as a nocturnal 

 one hence the term "sun-dial" applied to several of these 



