White iind Gireenisli 



pale sage-green leaves, densely woolly beneath, the lower ones, 

 seeming to run along the stem, need no farther ^description : 

 every one knows the common everlasting. Its right to the Greek 

 generic name, meaning a lock of wool, no one will dispute. 

 From Pennsylvania and Arizona, north to Nova Scotia and 

 British Columbia, its amaranthine flowers are displayed from July 

 to September, the staminate and the pistillate heads on distinct 

 plants. Many insect visitors ap|»mach the flowers; some, like 

 the bees, are working for them in transferring pollen ; others, 

 like the ants, which are trying to steal nectar, usually getting 

 killed on the sticky, cottony stem ; and, hovering near, ever con- 

 spicuous among the larger visitors, is the beautiful hunter's 

 butterfly {Pyrameis hunterd), to be distinguished from its sister 

 the painted lady, always seen about thistles, by the two large 

 eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings. What are 

 these butterflies doing about their chosen plants ? Certainly the 

 minute florets of the everlasting offer no great inducements to a 

 creature that lives only on nectar. But that cocoon, compactly 

 woven with silk and petals, which hangs from the stem, tells the 

 story of the hunter's butterfly's presence. A brownish-drab 

 chrysalis, or a slate-colored and black-banded little caterpillar with 

 tufts of hairs on its back, and pretty red and white dots on the 

 dark stripes, shows our butterfly in the earlier stages of its exist- 

 ence, when the everlastings form its staple diet. 



When the hepatica, arbutus, saxifrage, and adder's tongue 

 are running for first place among the earliest spring flowers, 

 another modest little competitor joins the race — the Dwarf Ever- 

 lasting {Antennaria plantaginifolia), also known as Plantain- 

 leaved, Mouse-ear, Spring or Eariy Everlasting, White Plantain, 

 Pussy-toes, and Ladies' Tobacco. From March to June, in different 

 parts of its wide range, rocky flelds, hillsides, and dry, open 

 woods are whitened with broad patches of it, formed by runners ; 

 the fertile plants from six to eighteen inches high; the male 

 plants, in distinct patches, smaller throughout. At the base the 

 tufted leaves, which are green on the upper side, but silvery 

 beneath, often woolly when young, are broadly oval or spatulate, 

 the upper leaves oblong to lance-shaped^ seated on the woolly 

 stem. Charming little rosettes remain all winter, ready to send 

 up the first flowers displayed by the vast host of composites. 

 Several little heads of fertile florets, resembling tufts of silvery- 

 white silk, are set in pale-greenish cups in a broad cluster at 

 the top of the stem ; the staminate florets in whiter cups with 

 more rounded scales. Small bees, chiefly those of the Andrena 

 and Halictus tribe, and many flies, attend to transferring pollen. 

 Our friend, the hunter's butterfly, also hovers near. Range from 

 Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Nebraska. 



367 



