Magenta to Pink 



brown substance, and after this, all the struggling^ of the ants to 

 free themselves from the viscid matter were in vain." Nature's 

 methods of preserving a flower's nectar for the insects that are 

 especially aoapted to fertilize it, and of punishing all useless in- 

 truders, often shock us ; yet justice is ever stern, ever kind in the 

 largest sense. 



If the asclepias really do kill some insects with their juice, 

 others doubtless owe their lives to it. Among the " protected " 

 insects are the milkweed butterflies and their caterpillars, which 

 are provided with secretions that are distasteful to birds and pre- 

 daceous insects. "These acrid secretions are probably due to the 

 character of the plants upon which the caterpillars feed," says Dr. 

 Holland, in his beautiful and invaluable " Butterfly Book." " En- 

 joying on this account immunity from attack, they have all, in 

 the process of time, been mimicked by species in other genera 

 which have not the same immunity." "One cannot stay long 

 around a patch of milkweeds without seeing the monarch butterfly 

 (Anosia plexippus), that splendid, bright, reddish-brown winged 

 fellow, the borders and veins broadly black, with two rows of 

 white spots on the outer borders and two rows of pale spots across 

 the tip of the fore wings. There is a black scent-pouch on the 

 hind wings. The caterpillar, which is bright yellow or greenish 

 yellow, banded with shining black, is furnished with black fleshy 

 ' horns ' fore and aft." 



Like the dandelion, thistle, and other triumphant strugglers 

 for survival, the milkweed sends its offspring adrift on the winds 

 to found fresh colonies afar. Children delight in making pompons 

 for their hats by removing the silky seed-tufts from pods before 

 they burst, and winding them, one by one, on slender stems 

 with fine thread. Hung in the sunshine, how charmingly fluffy 

 and soft they dry ! 



Among the comparatively few butterfly flowers although, 

 of course, other insects not adapted to them are visitors is the 

 Purple Milkweed (A. purpurasceus), whose deep magenta umbels 

 are so conspicuous through the summer months. Humming- 

 birds occasionally seek it too. From Eastern Massachusetts to 

 Virginia, and westward to the Mississippi, or beyond, it is to be 

 found in dry fields, woods, and thickets. (Illustration facing p. 144.) 



The Swamp Milkweed (A. incarnatd), on the other hand, 

 rears its intense purplish-red or pinkish hoods in wet places. Its 

 leaves are lance-shaped or oblong-lanceolate, whereas the purple 

 milkweed's leaves are oblong or ovate-oblong. This is a smooth 

 plant ; and a similar species once reckoned as a mere variety 

 (A. pulchra) is the Hairy Milkweed. It differs chiefly in having 

 some hairs on the under side of its leaves, and a great many hairs 



138 



