White and Greenisk 



species on their honey and pollen gathering expeditions. If a 

 bee dusted with loose pollen visits flowers of another species, it 

 will not long retain pollen in sufficient quantity to effectually 

 fertilize flowers of the original species. On the other hand, if an 

 insect returns at any time during the day, or even after a few days, 

 to the species of Asclepias from which it got a load of pollinia, it 

 may bring with it all or most of the pollinia which it has carried 

 from the first plants visited. The firmness with which the pol- 

 linia keep their hold on the insect is one of the best adaptations 

 for cross-fertilization." 



Ants, the worst pilferers of nectar extant, find the hairy stem 

 of the whorled milkweed, as well as its sticky juice, most dis- 

 couraging, if not fatal, obstacles to climbing. How daintily the 

 goldfinch picks at the milkweed pods and sets adrift the seeds 

 attached to silky aeronautic fluff 1 



Wild Potato Vine; Man-of-the-Earth; 

 Mecha-Meck 



(Ipomoea pandurata) Morning-glory family 



Flowers Funnel form, wide-spread, 2 to 3 in. long, pure whitt 

 or pinkish purple inside the throat; the peduncles I to 5 

 flowered. Stem: Trailing over the ground or weakly twin- 

 ing, 2 to 12 ft. long. Leaves: Heart, fiddle, or halbert shaped 

 (rarely 3-lobed), on slender petioles. Root: Enormous, 

 fleshy. 



Preferred Habitat Dry soil, sandy or gravelly fields or hills. 



Flowering Season May September. 



Distribution Ontario, Michigan, and Texas, east to the Atlantic 

 Ocean. 



No one need be told that this flaring, trumpet-shaped flower 

 is next of kin to the morning-glory that clambers over the trellises 

 of countless kitchen porches, and escapes back to Nature's garden 

 whenever it can. When the ancestors of these blossoms welded 

 their five petals into a solid deep bell, which still shows on it 

 edges the trace of five once separate parts, they did much to pro- 

 tect their precious contents from rain ; but some additional pro- 

 tection was surely needed against the little interlopers not adapted 

 to fertilize the flower, which could so easily crawl down its tube. 

 Doubtless the hairs on the base of the filaments, between which 

 certain bumblebees and other long-tongued benefactors can easily 

 penetrate to suck the nectar secreted in a fleshy disk below, act as 

 a stockade to little would-be pilferers. The color in the throat 

 serves as a pathfinder to the deep-hidden sweets. How pleasant 

 the way is made for such insects as a flower must needs encour- 



245 



