288 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



vociferous note of the Whip-poor-will, and the very in- 

 congruity appears to put his feathered listeners to shame 

 at the hoax." 



Passing from birds to some of the flowers we find 

 in early summer, let us first glance at one of the most 

 abundant and best known ones ; I refer to the Wild Car- 

 rot, also known as Bird's Nest and Queen Anne's Lace. 

 This is a plant 

 that often 

 spreads over 

 wide meadowis 

 and along 

 dusty country 

 roads, on both 

 sides, for more 

 miles than 1 

 would care to 

 estimate. 

 Neltje Blan- 

 chan i n t r o- 

 duces it in the 

 following fash- 

 ion when she 

 says: "A pest 

 to farmers, a 

 joy to the flow- 

 er-lover, and a 

 welcome signal 

 for refresh- 

 ment to hosts 

 of flies, beetles, 

 Dees and wasps, 

 especially t o 

 the paper-nest 

 builders, the 

 sprangly wild 

 carrot lifts its 

 fringy foliage 

 and exquisite 

 lacy blossoms 

 above the dry 

 soil of three 

 c o n t i n e nts. 

 From Europe 

 it has come to 

 s])read its deli- 

 cate wheels 

 over our sum- 

 mer landscape, 

 until whole 

 fields are whit- 

 ened by them east of the Mississippi." It may be and 

 I>robably is a pest in the eyes of the farmer; yet the 

 flower or flowers of this abundant plant are admired by 

 nature lovers from one side of the continent to the other. 

 W luMi reproduced the size of life, as it is here in Figure 

 8. few wild flowers indeed can excel it in delicate struc- 

 ture of the tiny flowers themselves, as they exist on the 



Fig. 9.- 



plant and so well shown in my illustration. Now and 

 then the Wild Carrot exhibits a single, central floret of 

 a deep crimson shade, which is a very interesting fact. 

 Then, too, as autumn comes on, the umbels of the flower- 

 head become dry and dark, at the same time gradually 

 curving upward towards the center. This forms, in 

 time, a cup-shaped structure which, to the popular mind, 



resembles the 

 nest of some 

 small bird; 

 licnce many 

 call this Wild 

 Carrot "Bird's 

 nest." But why 

 it should be 

 called a "Wild 

 Carrot" it is 

 hard to say. as 

 the plant is in 

 no way related 

 to any such 

 species, and 

 this has Iieen 

 proved over 

 and over again 

 l)y the plant 

 cultivators of 

 more countries 

 than one. 



As the woods 

 warm up in 

 early summer 

 in certain of 

 t h e Eastern 

 and Middle 

 States, there 

 appears in the 

 shadows of the 

 trees a ver>' 

 beautiful blos- 

 som, of which 

 I give a pretty 

 illustration in 

 Figure 10. Fre- 

 q u e n 1 1 y it 

 grows as a tall, 

 loosely c 1 u s- 

 tered panicle of 

 rather conspic- 

 uous white 

 flowers, each 

 Its fringed, five- 



THE CHICKWEEDS 



During earjy spring and summer the pretty white flowers of this plant are sure to 

 attract the attention of those passing them. 



having a more or less sticky calyx 

 petaled flower is responsible for one of its popular names, 

 as it is known as the Starry Campion. A pretty name; 

 but what's in a name when this lovely flower is the cause 

 of the death of scores of tiny insects that come in contact 

 with its treacherous calices, all smeared over with their 

 sticky exudation. Hence Campion is frequently known 



