AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS 



509 



is everywhere ; where it is scarce the bindweed 

 is an occasional visitor onh^ ; but where it does 

 not dwell at all the bindweed never comes. 

 Without the aid of that moth it is unable to 

 set seed and therefore unable to propagate 

 itself. 



The bindweed is an exceedingly rapid climber. 

 The twining stems often describe a complete 

 circle in less than two hours, turning always in 

 the direction opposite to that of the hands on 

 the face of a watch. A transverse section of 

 the flower of the bindweed, cut so as to show 

 the passages leading into the nectar chamber, 

 makes it look like the cylinder of a "five- 

 shooter" revolver. 



Not only is the great bindweed a relative of 

 the morning-glory, but it is close of kin to the 

 plant from which the "jalap" of the chemical 

 world coines. It itself has some of the thera- 

 peutic properties of jalap, and it is said that 

 hogs, which eat almost everything except toma- 

 toes, give it a wide berth. 



LARGER BLUE FLAG (Iris versicolor L.) 



(See page 487) 



Among the stateliest and proudest of the 

 members of America's flower family none ex- 

 cels the larger blue flag, which also wears the 

 names of blue iris and fleur-de-lis. Ruskin 

 calls it the flower of chivalry, which has a 

 sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart. 

 Longfellow pronounces it "a flower born in the 

 purple, to joy and pleasance." 



The larger blue flag seeks the wet, rich marsh 

 and meadow, where it can find ample moisture 

 for its rich nectar manufactories. It flowers 

 from May to July, and lends its beauties to 

 America from Newfoundland and Manitoba to 

 Florida and Arkansas. 



From the standpoint of the botanist, the 

 larger blue flag has an especial interest because 

 of the remarkable care it has taken to evolve a 

 never-failing system of cross-fertilization and 

 to avoid self-fertilization. The position of the 

 stamens is such that it is next to impossible 

 for their pollen to reach the stigmas of the 

 same flower, for these stigmas are protected 

 from the stamens by being borne in pockets on 

 the inner surface of the petal-like, overarching 

 styles. 



Therefore the flag flower must look to the 

 insect world entirely for its propagation, and 

 to the bees in particular. So it puts forth a 

 flower that is blue tinted, for its experience has 

 taught it that a bee can be wooed with blue 

 better than with any other color. Dressed in 

 her beautiful gown of blue, the pretty flower 

 maid proves irresistible to the passing bee, who 

 turns aside to drink at her well, and is given 

 her message of life to bear to some other wait- 

 ing flower. The bee finds the recurving plat- 

 form of the handsome sepal an ideal landing 

 platform, and from this the dark veins and 

 golden lines form the guide-posts that point 

 with unerring aim toward the nectar cup below. 



The iris was long centuries ago adopted by 

 Louis VII, the gallant young Crusader, as the 



emblem of his house. It became thereby "the 

 flower of Louis," which was corrupted into 

 "fleur-de-lis." 



The iris, or blue flag, is really meant when 

 one speaks of the lily of France. The story 

 runs that King Clovis, beaten on the battle-field 

 as long as he had three black toads upon his 

 shield, finally adopted the iris instead, upon the 

 plea of Queen Clotilde, to whom it had been 

 related by a holy hermit that an angel had 

 brought him a shield containing three irises 

 and shining as the sun. Clovis thereafter was 

 successful on the battle-field. In later reigns 

 the iris was thickly strewn upon the royal 

 standards of France, but Charles V finally re- 

 duced them to three to typify the Holy Trinity. 



The iris is a plant that insures its life. It 

 has a big rootstock, which contains a powerful 

 hepatic stimulant known as "iridin." In this, 

 rootstock it stores up endowment insurance in 

 the days of plenty, so that when the earth is. 

 chill, cold, and inhospitable its savings will pro- 

 vide against need. 



WILD PINK (Silene caroliniana Walt.) 

 (See page 488) 



An attractive little flower is the wild pink, or 

 catchfly, which seeks the dry, gravelly or sandy 

 soil as persistently as the larger blue flag or 

 the broad-leaved arrow-head seeks the soft 

 alluvial or marshy ground. From April to 

 June its delicate pink petals give cheer to many 

 a lonesome place, and it has succeeded in claim- 

 ing a rather large area for its occupancy, ex- 

 tending from New England to Georgia and 

 Kentucky. 



As fresh as the springtime itself are these 

 little flowers, when they open up to join the 

 floral chorus that proclaims that spring has 

 come to stay. They are flowers which never 

 believe in taking chances, when it comes to the 

 question of fertilization, so they have devel- 

 oped two sets of stamens, five to each set. 

 The one set rises first, then the other, so that 

 if one misses the transfer of its pollen the 

 other is likely to supply the resulting deficiency. 

 After all their pollen is shed, three recurved 

 styles put in their appearance out of the depths 

 of the tube, ready to receive pollen brought by 

 the bees and butterflies from other flowers. 



The wild pink finds its cupboard of sweets a 

 fair mark for many tiny insects that are large 

 enough to drain its cup of nectar and j'et too 

 small to bear away the flower's pollen to some 

 distant mate. So it has provided an effective 

 lock and key to that cupboard, which makes it 

 proof against the pilferer. This lock and key 

 is a gummy, viscid fluid that the pink secretes 

 and spreads around the sticky stem below the 

 flower. And woe betide the creeping thing that 

 is a thief and a robber from the pink's stand- 

 point ! For no fly that ever alighted on a piece 

 of man-made fly-paper was more certainly and 

 surely brought to an untimely end than the ant 

 that essays to sip the nectar of a wild pink. 

 Thus we can see that the fly-paper idea is not 

 man's invention at all, but an idea borrowed 



