Magenta to Pink 



Style-branches arise. Stem: 3 to 10 ft. high, green or pur- 

 plish, leafy, usually branching toward top. Leaves: in 

 whorls of 3 to 6 (usually 4), oval to lance-shaped, saw-edged, 

 petioled, thin, rough. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist soil, meadows, woods, low ground. 



Flotvering Season — August — September. 



Distribution — New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to 

 Manitoba and Texas. 



Towering above the surrounding vegetation of low-lying 

 meadows, this vigorous composite spreads clusters of soft, fringy 

 bloom that, however deep or pale of tint, are ever conspicuous 

 advertisements, even when the golden-rods, sunflowers, and 

 asters enter into close competition for insect trade. Slight frag- 

 rance, which to the delicate perception of butterflies is doubtless 

 heavy enough, the florets' color and slender tubular form indicate 

 an adaptation to them, and they are by f;ir the most abundant 

 visitors, which is not to say that long-tongued bees and flies 

 never reach the nectar and transfer pollen, for they do. But an 

 excellent place for the butterfly collector to carry his net is to a 

 patch of Joe-Pye weed in September. As the spreading style- 

 branches that f^ringe each tiny floret are furnished with hairs for 

 three-quarters of their length, the pollen caught in them comes 

 in contact with the alighting visitor. Later, the lower portion of 

 the style-branches, that is covered with stigmatic papillae along 

 the edge, emerges from the tube to receive pollen carried from 

 younger flowers when the visitor sips his reward. If the hairs 

 still contain pollen when the stigmatic part of the style is exposed, 

 insects self-fertilize the flower ; and if in stormy weather no 

 insects are flying, the flower is nevertheless able to fertilize itself, 

 because the hairy fringe must often come in contact with the 

 stigmas of neighboring florets. It is only when we study flowers 

 with reference to their motives and methods that we understand 

 why one is abundant and another rare. Composites long ago 

 utilized many principles of success in life that the triumphant 

 Anglo-Saxon carries into larger affairs to-day. 



Joe-Pye, an Indian medicine-man of New England, earned 

 fame and fortune by curing typhus fever and other horrors with 

 decoctions made from this plant. (Illustration, p. 138.) 



Common Burdock; Cockle-bur; Beggar's 

 Buttons; Clot-bur; Cuckoo Button 



{Arctium minus) Thistle family 



{Lappa officinalis : var. minor oi Gray) 



Flower-heads — Composite of tubular florets only, about )4 in. broad ; 

 magenta varying to purplish or white ; the prominent round 



149 



