Yellow and Orange 



ovate, coarsely toothed, petioled. Fruit: An oblong capsule, 

 its 5 valves opening elastically to expel the seeds. (Illustra- 

 tion facing p. 304.) 



Preferred Habitat Beside streams, ponds, ditches; moist ground. 



Flowering Season J uly October. 



Distribution Nova Scotia to Oregon, south to Missouri and Florida. 



These exquisite, bright flowers, hanging at a horizontal, like 

 jewels from a lady's ear, may be responsible for the plant's folk 

 name ; but whoever is abroad early on a dewy morning, or after 

 a shower, and finds notched edges of the drooping leaves hung 

 with scintillating gems, dancing, sparkling in the sunshine, sees 

 still another reason for naming this the jewel-weed. In a brook, 

 pond, spring, or wayside trough, which can never be far from its 

 haunts, dip a spray of the plant to transform the leaves into glis- 

 tening silver. They shed water much as the nasturtium's do. 



When the tiny ruby-throated humming bird flashes north- 

 ward out of the tropics to spend the summer, where can he hope 

 to find nectar so deeply secreted that not even the long-tongued 

 bumblebee may rob him of it all? Beyond the bird's bill his 

 tongue can be run out and around curves no other creature can 

 reach. Now the early blooming columbine, its slender cornu- 

 copias brimming with sweets, welcomes the messenger whose 

 needle-like bill will carry pollen from flower to flower ; presently 

 the coral honeysuckle and the scarlet painted-cup attract him by 

 wearing his favorite color ; next the jewel-weed hangs horns of 

 plenty to lure his eye ; and the trumpet vine and cardinal 

 flower continue to feed him successively in Nature's garden; 

 albeit cannas, nasturtiums, salvia, gladioli, and such deep, irregu- 

 lar showy flowers in men's flower beds sometimes lure him 

 away. These are bird flowers dependent in the main on the 

 ruby-throat, which is not to say that insects never enter them, 

 for they do ; only they are not the visitors catered to. Watch 

 the big, velvety bumblebee approach a roomy jewel-weed blos- 

 som and nearly disappear within. The large bunch of united 

 stamens, suspended directly over the entrance, bears copious 

 white pollen. So much comes off on his back that after visiting 

 a flower or two he becomes annoyed ; clings to a leaf with his 

 fore legs while he thoroughly brushes his back and wings with 

 his middle and hind pairs, and then collects the sticky grains into 

 a wad on his feet which he presently kicks off with disgust to 

 the ground. Examine a jewel-weed blossom to see that the 

 clumsy bumblebee's pollen-laden back is not so likely to come in 

 contact with the short five-parted stigma concealed beneath the 

 stamens, as a humming bird's slender bill that is thrust obliquely 

 into the spur while he hovers above. 



But, as if the plant had not sufficient confidence in its visitors 

 to rely exclusively on them for help in continuing the lovely 

 species, it bears also cleistogamous blossoms that never open 



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