WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 



white, corduroy panties. Perhaps, one night dur- 

 ing the springtime, they were caught in an April 

 shower and their pretty white panties became soiled, 

 and perhaps their mammas washed them, and hung 

 them out to dry on a stem, and perhaps they grew 

 fast to the stem — who knows ? Surely the dainty and 

 curiously constructed flowers of the Dutchman's 

 Breeches would cause one to think so when he first 

 saw them. The finely ribbed, white, yellow-tipped 

 flowers consist of two upright, hollow, flattened and 

 tapered spurs, widely separated at the tips, like a 

 pair of horns, and joined toward the base, forming 

 a baggy, heart-shaped pouch — for all the world like 

 a miniature pair of inverted pantaloons, which were 

 so becoming to the dear, good old ancestors of our 

 own Pennsylvania Dutch. The two leg-like spurs 

 are in reality petals, of which there are four. The 

 other two are very small and narrow, and at right 

 angles with the two longer ones and their hollowed 

 tips are extended to form an arch over the slightly pro- 

 truding, yellow stamens, of which there are six. The 

 green style is very slender and is capped with a two- 

 lobed stigma. The flowers are daintily suspended by 

 a short stem, one after another, toward the tip of a 

 slender and slightly curving, pale green stalk, which 

 grows from five to ten inches high. The whitish, 

 two-parted sepal is exceedingly small. The minutely 

 crested flowers vary in number from one or two to 

 seven, eight or nine. They are delicately textured, 

 and of brief endurance. Frequently they are tinted 



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