132 



OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



hair's breadth behind it. Thus each bloom is f er- 

 tihzed with the pollen from some other, insuring 

 cross-fertilization. The bumblebee takes his toll 

 in honey, but when he comes to back out he has 

 trouble. If you will listen close by you will hear 

 him buzzing and burbling like an overheated tea- 

 kettle as he struggles. The arching filaments of 

 those fuzzy stamins have tangled his short legs 

 and he is shaking the pollen out of the antlers all 

 into the fur of his yellow overcoat. Before he 

 gets out he is right mad and loaded with pollen 

 for the fertilization of the next bloom. He 

 comes squeezing out, as flat as a pancake, sharp 

 end first, and though I watch close by I am very 

 respectfully motionless. But he gets all over it 

 by the time he has flown to the next bloom and 

 his hum as he prods his way in has the tone of 

 a cheerful "Good morning." 



The turtle-heads have none of the frail loveli- 

 ness of the jewel-weeds that suggest half -visible 

 dryads, but they have a stanch beauty of their 

 own which I think makes them seem very comely. 

 Each corolla is a smooth, opaque white through 

 which no light may pass. It is easy to know 

 how it looks inside a jewel of the jewel-weed. 

 From without the imagination can appreciate 



