of his hole, and sat for a moment in 

 the sun. Before he could be reached, 

 however, he had returned to it. In six 

 weeks and three days he again came 

 out, and what was surprising, .he did 

 not appear to have forgotten any of 



his friends, of whom he had many 

 among the cats, dogs, and rabbits of 

 the neighborhood, trotting about among 

 them on his hind legs. A cruel boy 

 and a savage dog ended the life of this 

 harmless little animal. C. C. M. 



FLOWERS WITH HORNS AND CLAWS. 



E. F. MOSBY. 



THE milkweed is best known to 

 most of us by its pods — long, 

 rough cases, packed close with 

 shining white silk attached to 

 little brown seeds. The lightest wind 

 that blows can carry these a stage or 

 two on their journey with such lovely 

 silken sails. But perhaps everyone has 

 not noticed one rather strange thing 

 about them. Almost always there are 

 two pods, one vigorous of growth, 

 large and full; the other stunted and 

 ill-formed. They are like the two 

 brothers or sisters of Fairy Tales, one 

 fair and well-favored and gracious, the 

 other ill-grown and dwarfish. But w/ij 

 this is so, is one of the many secrets of 

 the milkweed. 



It is quite a large family of flowers, or 

 weeds, as you may choose to call them. 

 There is the gorgeous orange-colored 

 butterfly weed, always surrounded by 

 hovering or fluttering butterflies, most 

 of them also orange or yellow in their 

 coloring; the fragrant, rose-colored 

 milkweed of June, the purple milk- 

 weed and its cousin of the marsh. 

 But it is the common milkweed that is 

 called the horned herb. It was once 

 thought possessed of many healing 

 virtues when the business of gathering 

 and drying herbs was more important 

 than it is now. Yet one needs no idea 

 of this kind to look with interest 

 on this curiously formed plant which 

 grows in such profusion by the dusty 

 roadside or by our very doorstep. A 

 milky juice exudes from the stem when- 

 ever a flower is gathered, and the pol- 

 len is in such sticky masses that a fee- 

 ble insect is often caught and cannot 

 escape with its fatal treasure. 



The blossom cluster, reflexed so 

 oddly, is pretty and quaint at first 

 sight, but as we look deeper we find 

 some unknown law of fives has ruled 

 its structure — the recurved calyx is five- 



parted, so too the deeply recurved 

 corolla; five stamens there are surround- 

 ing, like a circle of courtiers, a fairy 

 king and queen, the two pistils in the 

 center, above which hangs "a large five- 

 angled disk," an awning of state. But 

 oddest of all is the crown of five- 

 hooded nectaries aboVe the corolla, 

 each nectary enclosing an hicurvedhorn. 

 Is not this a strange honey-cup with 

 the horn concealed under the silky 

 flower-hood? The insects love the 

 banquet thus spread for their delight 

 and no doubt they know the secrets of 

 the blossom. 



There is another family of wild flow- 

 ers that abounds i/? horns and claws, es- 

 pecially the latter— the large crowfoot 

 family. The hook-beaked crowfoot 

 has little one-seeded fruits with long 

 and hooked beaks, like those of birds 

 of prey, collected into a head. The 

 wild columbine, nodding so merrily 

 from the high rocks, and the larkspur, 

 have hooked spurs and claws and the 

 larkspur hides its long spurs in its 

 cal3'x. But the monk's-hood is the 

 more interesting of all. 



In early days, before stamens and 

 pistils are ready for open air and wan- 

 dering insects or pattering showers, 

 you may find a dark blue bud in the 

 meadow. The calyx is large and 

 showy and blue like a flower, and its 

 curved front sepals close the entrance 

 before while the hindmost sepal, like 

 a soldier's helmet, or a monk's hood, 

 comes down over all as a covering. 

 Then the sun shines and the blossom 

 ripens and it is time to open. 



Wide fly the little doors, back falls 

 the blue hood, and the golden heart 

 of stamens and pistils is ready with a 

 welcome. But where are the. petals? 

 Hidden under the hood are two tiny 

 hammer-like claws, the only petals this 

 flower possesses. 



132 



