Yellow and Orange 



cutters, conspicuous among the throng. Nectar they want, of 

 course ; but the dark, rich pollen is needed also to mix with it for 

 the food supply of a generation still unborn. Any one who has 

 smelled a lily knows how his nose looks afterward. The bees 

 have no difficulty whatever in removing lily pollen and trans- 

 ferring it. So much for the colored lilies. 



The long, white, trumpet-shape type of lily chooses for her 

 lover the sphinx moth. For him she wears a spotless white robe 

 speckles would be superfluous that he may see it shine in the 

 dusk, when colored flowers melt into the prevailing blackness; 

 for him she breathes forth a fragrance almost overwhelming at 

 evening, to guide him to her neighborhood from afar; in con- 

 sideration of his very long, slender tongue she hides her sweets 

 so deep that none may rob him of it, taking the additional pre- 

 caution to weld her six once separate parts together into a solid 

 tube lest any pilferer thrust in his tongue from the side. 



The common orange-tan Day Lily (Hemerocallis ful-oa) and 

 the commoner speckled, orange-red Tiger Lily (L. tigrinum) are 

 not slow in seizing opportunities to escape from gardens into 

 roadsides and fence corners. 



Yellow Adder's Tongue; Trout Lily; Dog-tooth 



"Violet" 



(Erythronium Americanum) Lily family 



Flower Solitary, pale russet yellow, rarely tinged with purple, 

 slightly fragrant, I to 2 in. long, nodding from the summit of 

 a footstalk 6 to 12 in. high, or about as tall as the leaves. 

 Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 petal-like, distinct segments, spread- 

 ing at tips, dark spotted within; 6 stamens; the club-shaped 

 style with 3 short, stigmatic ridges. Leaves: 2, unequal, 

 grayish green, mottled and streaked with brown or all green, 

 oblong, 3 to 8 in. long, narrowing into clasping petioles. (Il- 

 lustration facing p. 273.) 



Preferred Habitat Moist open woods and thickets, brooksides. 



Flowering Season March May. 



Distribution Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to the Mississippi. 



Colonies of these dainty little lilies, that so often grow beside 

 leaping brooks where and when the trout hide, justify at least 

 one of their names ; but they have nothing in common with the 

 violet or a dog's tooth. Their faint fragrance rather suggests a 

 tulip; and as for the bulb, which in some of the lily-kin has tooth- 

 like scales, it is in this case a smooth, egg-shaped corm, produc- 

 ing little round offsets from its base. Much fault is also found 

 with another name on the plea that the curiously mottled and 



279 



