PINK FAMILY 



The blossom is very small and through a glass extremely pretty. 

 The five sepals form a very perfect star; the petals are curiously 

 two-cleft, making five look like ten; these are rounded at the apex 

 and shorter than the sepals. The Stamens are a variable number; 

 when things are going well with the plant there are sure to be five 

 and maybe more, but in late autumn or early winter the pinched 

 little blossom may be able to afford only two. 



The Chickweed is our one plant hardy enough to live and blos- 

 som throughout a Northern winter. Probably it could not do 

 this anywhere in New England; but on the southern shore of 

 Lake Erie, during those winters that not infrequently occur when 

 no ice is gathered from the lake, it grows and blossoms all winter 

 long in protected places. Its only possible companion is the dan- 

 delion and it is hardier than the dandelion. 



Most plants have one device for self-preservation; the Chick- 

 weed has two. After the blossom fades the flower stem lengthens 

 and droops, thus giving the ripening capsule the protection of the 

 leaves and body of the plant against frost. Also, the blossom is 

 capable of self-fertilization, for it will mature seeds after all insect 

 life has disappeared and its winter buds scarcely open. Its pro- 

 duction of seed — that test of successful plant life — is so sure that 

 the plant is found in almost every place where civilized man 

 has been. A very striking story to illustrate this is told by Sir J. 

 D. Hooker, who says: "Upon one occasion, landing on a small 

 uninhabited island nearly at the Antipodes, the first evidence I 

 met with of its having been previously visited by man was the 

 English Chickweed, and this I traced to a mound that marked 

 the grave of a British sailor which was covered with the plant, 

 doubtless the offspring of seed that had adhered to the spadie or 

 mattock with which the grave had been dug." 



Easter Bell, Stellaria Holostba, is a Chickweed often found in 

 rock gardens and is really desirable for dry banks where grass 

 will not grow. It is a perennial with erect stems six to twelve 

 inches high, from a creeping rootstock. The leaves are gray-green, 

 sessile, lanceolate, one to three inches long. Flowers are abun- 

 dant, white, terminal, and each of the five petals is cut half down 



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