Yellow and Orange 



bees must content themselves here with pollen only — a diet that 

 pleases the destructive beetles and the flies {Syrphidae) perfectly. 

 Japanese artists especially have taught us how much of the 

 beauty of a Nclumbo we should lose if it ripened its decorative 

 seed-vessel below the surface as the sweet-scented white water lily 

 does. This flat-topped receptacle, held erect, has its little round 

 nuts imbedded in pits in its surface, ready to be picked out by 

 aquatic birds, and distributed by them in their wanderings. Both 

 seeds and tubers are farinaceous and edible. In some places it 

 is known the Indians introduced the plant for food. Professor 

 Charles Goodyear has written an elaborate, plausible argument, 

 illustrated with many reproductions of sculpture, pottery, and 

 mural painting in the civilized world of the ancients to prove that 

 all decorative ornamental design has been evolved from the sacred 

 Egyptian lotus {Nclumbo Nelumbo), still revered throughout the 

 East (see p. 173). 



Marsh Marigold ; Meadow-gowan ; American 



Cowslip 



{Caltha palusiris) Crowfoot family 



Flowers — Bright, shining yellow, i to i >:^ in. across, a few in ter- 

 minal and axillary groups. No petals ; usually 5 (often 

 more) oval, petal-like sepals ; stamens numerous ; many 

 pistils (carpels) without styles. Stem : Stout, smooth, hol- 

 low, branching, i to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Mostly from root, 

 rounded, broad, and heart-shaped at base, or kidney-shaped, 

 upper ones almost sessile, lower ones on fleshy petioles. 



Preferred Habitat— S^nngy ground, low meadows, swamps, river 

 banks, ditches. 



Flowering Season — April — ^June. 



Distribution — Carolina to Iowa, the Rocky Mountains, and very 

 far north. 



Not a true marigold, and even less a cowslip, it is by these 

 names that this flower, which looks most like a buttercup, will 

 continue to be called, in spite of the protests of scientific classi- 

 fiers. Doubtless the first of these folk-names refers to its use in 

 church festivals during the Middle Ages as one of the blossoms 

 devoted to the Virgin Mary. 



" And winking Mary-buds begin 

 To ope their golden eyes," 



sing the musicians in "Cymbeline." Whoever has seen the 

 watery Avon meadows in April, yellow and twinkling with marsh 

 marigolds when "the lark at heaven's gate sings," appreciates 



291 



