WILD FLOWERS pink 



with those of any other family. Of course, nearly 

 everybody knows that these plants are filled with a 

 copious, milky fluid or sap that exudes upon the slightest 

 provocation. It is also true, in a way, that some- 

 thing about most of them suggests the conventional 

 type of rubber-plant that has become inseparable 

 from the modern , city apartment — more so, at least, 

 than any other of the wild flowers. In the fall, the 

 bursting seed pods expose a silvery, white mass of 

 soft, silky substance of the finest quality. And this 

 fluffy, flossy material is popularly gathered and util- 

 ized for filling sofa pillows. The intricate construc- 

 tion of the unique flowers is of unusual interest. They 

 are comparatively small, and are set on slender stems 

 which spring from a common centre and form a well- 

 grouped terminal cluster, known as an umbel. The 

 five-parted calyx is bent abruptly downward from the 

 deeply cleft and five-parted corolla, which is crowned 

 with five erect or spreading hoods seated on the stamen 

 tube, and each of them encloses a little incurving 

 horn. Five short, stout stamens are inserted on the 

 base of the corolla within the crown, and their fringed 

 tips form a tube which incloses the pistil. The 

 broad anthers are united with this tube at their base 

 and form a prominent flat- topped, sticky, five- angled, 

 stigmatic disk. The vertical cells of each anther 

 are tipped with winged membranes containing a 

 flattened, pear-shaped, and waxy pollen mass, hung 

 in pairs from the stigma, like tiny wishbones. These 

 tiny wings become wedged on the feet of bees and are 



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