WILD FLOWERS PINK 
with those of any other family. Of course, nearly 
everybody knows that these plants are, filled with a 
copious, milky fluid or sap that exudes upon the slightest 
provocation. It is also true, in a way, that some- 
thing about most of them suggests the conventional 
type of rubber-plant that has become inseparable 
from the moder city apartment — more so, at least, 
than any other of the wild flowers. In the fall, the 
bursting seed pods expose a silvery, white mass of 
soft, silky substance of the finest quality. And this 
fluffy, flossy material is’ popularly gathered and util- 
ized for filling sofa pillows. The intricate construc- 
tion of the unique flowers is of unusual interest. They 
are comparatively small, and are set on slender stems 
which spring from a common centre and form a well- 
grouped terminal cluster, known as an umbel. The 
five-parted calyx is bent abruptly downward from the 
deeply cleft and five-parted corolla, which is crowned. 
with five erect or spreading hoods seated on the stamen 
tube, and each of them encloses a little incurving 
horn. Five short, stout stamens are inserted on the 
base of the corolla within the crown, and their fringed 
tips form a tube which incloses the pistil. The 
broad anthers are united with this tube at their base 
and form a prominent flat-topped, sticky, five-angled, 
stigmatic disk. The vertical cells of each anther 
are tipped with winged membranes containing a 
flattened, pear-shaped, and waxy pollen mass, hung 
in pairs from the stigma, like tiny wishbones. These 
tiny wings become wedged on the feet of bees and are 
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