From Blue to Purple 



Creeping Thistle it is variously known here and in Europe, whence 

 it came to overrun our land from Newfoundland to Virginia, west- 

 ward to Nebraska. By horizontal rootstocks it creeps and forms 

 patches almost impossible to eradicate. The small reddish-pur- 

 ple flower-heads, barely an inch across, usually contain about a 

 hundred florets each. In their tubes the abundant nectar rises 

 high, so that numerous insects, even with the shortest tongues, 

 are able to enjoy it. Not only bees and butterflies, but wasps, 

 flies, and beetles feast diligently. When a floret opens, a quantity 

 of pollen emerges at the upper end of the anther cylinder, pressed 

 up by the growing style. Owing to their slight stickiness and the 

 sharp processes over their entire surface, the pollen grains, which 

 readily cling to the hairs of insects, are transported to the two- 

 branched, hairy stigma of an older floret. But even should insects 

 not visit the flower (and in fine weather they swarm about it), it is 

 marvellously adapted to fertilize itself. Farmers may well despair 

 of exterminating a plant so perfectly equipped in every part to 

 win life's battles. 



" The colour of purple . . . was, amongst the ancients, typical 

 of royalty. It was a kind of red richly shot with blue, and the dye pro- 

 ducing it was attained from a shell found in considerable numbers off the 

 coast of Tyre, and on the shore near the site of that ancient city, great 

 heaps of such shells are still to be found. The production of the true 

 royal purple dye was a very costly affair, and therefore it was often imi- 

 tated with a mixture of cochineal and indigo. . . ." J. JAMES TISSOT. 



As many so-called purple flowers are more strictly magenta, the 

 reader is referred to the next group if he has not found the flower for 

 which he is in search here. Also to the " White and Greenish " section, 

 since many colored flmvers show a tendency to revert to the white type 

 from which, doubtless, all were evolved. He should remember that aH 

 flowers are more or less variable in shade, according to vary ing condition* 



