136 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



"horse -balm." I had known it all my life, and 

 twenty years previously had made a careful ana- 

 lytical drawing of the mere botanical specimen. 

 What could it say to me now in my more ques- 

 tioning mood? Its queer little yellow -fringed 

 flowers hung in profusion from their spreading 

 terminal racemes. I recalled their singular shape, 



Fig. 9 



and the two out - stretched stamens protruding 

 from their gaping corolla, and could distinctly 

 see them as I sat in the carriage. I had never 

 chanced to read of this flower in the literature 

 of cross-fertilization, and murmuring, half aloud, 

 " What pretty mystery is yours, my Collinsonia ?" 

 prepared to investigate. 



What I observed is pictured severally at Fig. 9, 



