BORAGINACEAE 



BORAGE FAMILY 



VIRGINIAN COWSLIP. BLUEBELLS 



Mertcnsia virginica (L.) Link 



The early spring flowers of this plant are visited by various 

 kinds of insects. Among these are the female bumblebees, the 

 only bumblebees to fly at this time of year. They have mouth 

 parts long enough 

 to reach the bottom 

 of the corollas but 

 for some reason 

 they frequently 

 pierce the corolla 

 tube at its side in- 

 stead of obtaining 

 the nectar in the 

 usual way. 



The Virginian 

 Cowslip grows in low 

 meadows, moist 

 woods and along 

 streams from New 

 York and southern 

 Ontario to Minnesota, 

 south to South Caro- 

 lina and Kansas. It is 

 perennial and when once started often spreads and forms beauti- 

 ful large patches unless destroyed by flower pickers. The rather 

 stout and usually much branched stems grow 1-2 feet high and 

 like the leaves are entirely without hairs. The oblong, oval or 

 obovate leaves are 2-5 inches long, obtuse at apex, pinnately 

 veined, the uppermost sessile and the lower narrowed into 

 margined petioles. 



The plants bloom during April and May. The buds are pink 

 but the open flowers are light blue or purplish and rarely white. 

 The calyx persists and is slightly enlarged in fruit. The corolla 

 is so nearly bell shaped that the plant is sometimes called Blue- 

 bells. On its slightly 5-lobed but plaited tube are inserted the 5 

 stamens, whose slender filaments are much longer than the 

 anthers but not long enough to project beyond the corolla. The 

 ovary is 4-divided and the style is very slender. The fruit consists 

 of 4 single-seeded nutlets which are rounded and somewhat 

 roughened on the surface. 



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