Magenta to Pink 



to rub on the stigma of an older flower. After the anthers have 

 shed their pollen and become effete, the stigma matures, and 

 occupies their place. By this time the flower presents a wider 

 entrance, and as the moisture-loving plant keeps the nectaries 

 abundantly filled, what is to prevent insects too small to come in 

 contact with anthers and stigma in the roof from pilfering to their 

 heart's content? The woolly throat discourages many, to be 

 sure ; but the turtle-head, like its cousins the beard-tongues, has 

 a sterile fifth stamen, whose greatest use is to act as a drop-bar 

 across the base of the flower. The long-tongued bumblebee 

 can get his drink over the bar, but smaller, unwelcome visitors 

 are literally barred out. 



If bees are the preferred visitors of the turtle-head, why do 

 we find the Baltimore butterfly, that very beautiful, but freaky, 

 creature (Melitaea phaeton] hovering near? that is, when we find 

 it at all ; for where it is present, it swarms, and keeps away from 

 other localities altogether. On the under side of the leaves we 

 shall often see patches of its crimson eggs. Later the caterpillars 

 use the plant as their main, if not exclusive, food store. They are 

 the innocent culprits which nine times out of ten mutilate the 

 foliage. (Illustration, p. 92.) 



Large Purple Gerardia 



(Gerardia purpurea) Figwort family 



Flowers Bright purplish pink, deep magenta, or pale to whitish, 

 about i in. long and broad, growing along the rigid, spread- 

 ing branches. Calyx ^-toothed ; corolla funnel-form, the 

 tube much inflated above and spreading into 5 unequal, 

 rounded lobes, spotted within, or sometimes downy; 4 sta- 

 mens in pairs, the filaments hairy; i pistil. Stem: i to 2% 

 ft. high, slender, branches erector spreading. Leaves: Oppo- 

 site, very narrow, i to i^ in. long. 



Preferred Habitat Low fields and meadows; moist, sandy soil. 



Flowering Season August October. 



Distribution Northern United States to Florida, chiefly along At- 

 lantic coast. 



Low-lying meadows gay with gerardias were never seen by 

 that quaint old botanist and surgeon, John Gerarde, author of the 

 famous "Herball or General Historic of Plants," a folio of nearly 

 fourteen hundred pages, published in London toward the close of 

 Queen Elizabeth's reign. He died without knowing how much 

 he was to be honored by Linnaeus in giving his name to this 

 charming American genus. 



Large patches of the lavender-pink gerardia, peeping above 

 the grass, make the wayfarer pause to feast his eyes, while the 



146 



