White and Greenish 



find shelter beneath the inner petals that form a vault above 

 their heads, and warmth that may be felt by the finger, and 

 abundant food ; consequently they remain long in an asylum so 

 delightful, or until the expanding petals turn them out to carry the 

 pollen, with which they have been thoroughly dusted during their 

 hospitable entertainment, to younger flowers. As the blossoms 

 mature their stigmas in the first stage and the anthers in the 

 second, it follows the beetles must regularly cross-fertilize them 

 as they fly from one shelter to another. 



Gold-thread; Canker-root 



{Coptis trifolia) Crowfoot family 



Flowers — Small, white, solitary, on a slender scape 3 to 6 in. high. 

 Sepals 5 to 7, petal-like, falling early ; petals 5 or 6, incon- 

 spicuous, like club-shaped columns ; stamens numerous ; 

 carpels few, the stigmatic surfaces curved. Leaves: From 

 the base, long petioled, divided into 3 somewhat fan-shaped, 

 shining, evergreen, sharply toothed leaflets. Rootstock: 

 Thread-like, long, bright yellow, wiry, bitter. 



Preferred Habitat — Cool mossy bogs, damp woods. 



Flowering Season — May — August. 



I>istridution— Maryland and Minnesota northward to circumpolar 

 regions. 



The shining, evergreen, thrice-parted leaves with which this 

 charming little plant carpets its retreats form the best of back- 

 grounds to set off the fragile, tiny white flowers that look like 

 small wood anemones. Why does the gold-thread choose to 

 dwell where bees and butterflies, most flowers' best friends, rarely 

 penetrate ? Doubtless because the cool, damp habitat that de- 

 velops abundant fungi also perfectly suits the fungus gnats and 

 certain fungus-feeding beetles that are its principal benefactors. 

 '•'The entire flower is constructed with reference to their Visits," 

 says Mr. Clarence Moores Weed ; "the showy sepals attract their 

 attention ; the abnormal petals furnish them food ; the many 

 small stamens with white anthers and white pollen furnish a sur- 

 face to walk upon, and a foreground in which the yellow nectar- 

 cups are distinctly visible ; the long-spreading recurved stigmas 

 cover so large a portion of the blossom that it would be difficult 

 even for one of the tiny visitors to take many steps without con- 

 tact with one of them." On a sunny June day the lens usually 

 reveals at least one tiny gnat making his way from one club- 

 shaped petal to another — for the insignificant petals are mere nec- 

 taries — and transferring pollen from flower to flower. 



Dig up a plant, and the fine tangled, yellow roots tell why it 



12 177 



