White and Greenish 



Vernal Whitlow-grass 



(Draba verna) Mustard family 



Flowers Very small, white, distant, growing on numerous scapes 

 i to 5 in. high ; in formation each flower is similar to all the 

 mustards, except that the 4 petals are 2-cleft, destroying the 

 cross-like effect. Leaves : Y? to i in. long, in a tuft or rosette 

 on the ground, oblong or spatulate, covered with stiff hairs. 



Preferred Habitat Waste lands, sandy fields, and roadsides. 



Flowering Season February May. 



Distribution Throughout our area ; naturalized from Europe and 

 Asia. 



An insignificantly small plant, too common, however, to be 

 wholly ignored. Although each tiny flower secretes four drops of 

 nectar between the bases of the short stamens and the long ones 

 next them, it would be unreasonable to depend wholly upon 

 insects to carry pollen, since there is so little else to attract them. 

 Therefore the anthers of the four long stamens regularly shed 

 directly upon the stigma below them, leaving to the few visitors, 

 the small bees chiefly, the transferring from flower to flower of 

 pollen from the two short stamens which must be touched if they 

 would reach the nectar. In spite of the persistency with which 

 these little blossoms fertilize themselves, they certainly increase at 

 a prodigious rate ; but how much larger and more beautiful might 

 they not be if they possessed more executive ability ! 



A similar but larger plant, with its hairy leaves not only tufted 

 at the base, but also alternating up the stiff stem, is the Hairy 

 Rock-cress (Arabis hirsuta), whose white or greenish flowers, 

 growing in racemes after the usual mustard fashion, are quickly 

 followed by very narrow, flattened pods two inches long or less. 

 Around the world this small traveller has likewise found its way, 

 choosing rocky places to display its insignificant flowers through- 

 out the entire summer to such small bees and flies as seek the 

 nectar in its two tiny glands. It is not to be confused with the 

 saxifrage or stone-breaker. 



Round-leaved Sundew; Dew-plant 



(Drosera rotundifolid) Sundew family 



Flowers Small, white, growing in a i -sided, curved raceme of 

 buds chiefly. Calyx usually 5-parted ; usually 5 petals, and 

 as many stamens as petals ; usually 3 styles, but 2-cleft, 



192 



