Yellow and Orange 



to lanceolate, tapering at both ends or wedge-shaped, often 

 yellowish green, entire or sparingly wavy-toothed. Fruil: 

 An inllated, 5-angled capsule, sunken at the base, loosely sur- 

 rounding the edible reddish berry. 



Preferred Ilabilat — Open ground ; rich, dry pastures ; hillsides. 



Flowering Season — July — September. 



Distribution — New York to Manitoba, south to the Gulf States. 



A common plant, so variable, however, that the earlier botan- 

 ists thought it must be several distinct species, lanceolata among 

 others. A glance within shows that the open flower is not so 

 generous as its spreading form would seem to indicate, for tufts 

 of dense hairs at each side of grooves where nectar is secreted, 

 conceal it from the mob, and, with the thickened filaments, almost 

 close the throat. Doubtless these hairs also serve as footholds for 

 the welcome bee clinging to its pendent host. The dark spots 

 are pathlinders. One anther maturing after another, a visitor must 

 make several trips to secure all the pollen, and if she is already 

 dusted from another blossom, nine chances out of ten she will first 

 leave some of the vitalizing dust on the stigma poked forward to 

 receive it before collecting more. Professor Robertson says that 

 all the ground cherries near his home in Illinois are remarkable for 

 their ctose mutual relation with two bees of the genus Colletes. 

 So far as is known, the insignificant little greenish or purplish bell- 

 shaped flowers of the Alum-root (Heuc-liera Americana), with 

 protruding orange anthers, are the only other ones to furnish these 

 females with pollen for their babies' bread. Slender racemes of 

 this species are found blooming in dry or rocky woods from the 

 Mississippi eastward, from May'to July, by which time the ground 

 cherry is ready to provide for the bee's wants. 1 he similar Phila- 

 delphia species was formerly cultivated for its "strawberry to- 

 mato." Many birds which feast on all this highly attractive fruit 

 disperse the numerous kidney-shaped seeds. 



Great Mullein; Velvet or Flannel Plant; 

 Mullein Dock; Aaron's Rod 



{^erbascum Thapsiis) Figwort family 



Flowers — Yellow, I in. across or less, seated around a thick, dense, 

 elongated spike. Calyx 5-parted; corolla of 1^ rounded lobes; 

 5 anther-bearing stamens, the 3 upper ones short, woolly; i 

 pistil. Stem: Stout, 2 to 7 ft. tall, densely woolly, with 

 branched hairs. Leaves: Thick, pale green, velvety-hairy, ob- 

 long, in a rosette on the ground ; others alternate, strongly 

 clasping the stem. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry fields, banks, stony waste land. 



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