Wild-Flower Study 



519 



THE MAY APPLE, OR MANDRAKE ' ' ^ ] 



Teacher's Story 



•HIS is a study of parasols and, therefore, of 

 perennial interest to the little girls who 

 use the small ones for their dolls, and 

 with many airs and graces hold the large 

 ones above their own heads. And when 

 this diversion palls, they make mandarin 

 dolls of these fascinating plants. This 

 is easily done by taking one of the small 

 plant umbrellas and tying with a grass- 

 sash all but two of the lobes closely 

 around the stem, thus making a dress, 

 the lobes left out being cut in proper 

 shape for flowing sleeves ; then for a head 

 some other flower is robbed of its flower 

 bud, which is put into place and sur- 

 mounted with a clover leaflet hat, and a 

 pin is then thrust through hat, head and 

 neck into the stem of the dressed plant; 

 the whole is properly finished by placing a small umbrella above the little 

 green mandarin. 



The mandrakes grow in open places where there is sun, and yet not too 

 much of it; they like plenty of moisture, and grow luxuriantly in open 

 glades or in meadows or pastures bordering woodlands, and they especially 

 rejoice in the fence-corners, along roadsides. The first lesson of all 

 should be how nature folds her little umbrellas. Study the plants when 

 they first put their heads above ground, each parasol wrapped in its case, 

 and note how similarly to a real umbrella it is folded around its stem. 

 Later, after the umbrellas are fairly spread, they afliord a most interesting 

 study in varieties of form and size. Some of the parasols have only four 

 lobes while others have many more. I have found them with as many as 

 nine, although the botanies declare seven to be the normal number. One 

 of the special joys afforded by nature-study is finding things different 

 from the descriptions of them in the books. 



One of these little parasols is a worthy object for careful observation. 

 Its stem is stout and solid, and at its base may be seen the umbrella-case, 

 now discarded like other umbrella-cases; the stem is pink wherever the 

 sun touches it, but close up under the leaves it is likely to be green; it 

 ends at the middle of the parasol by sending out strong, pale green, fuzzy 

 ribs into each lobe. The lobes are narrow toward the stem but broad at 

 the outer edge, each lobe being sparsely toothed on its outer margins and 

 with a deep, smooth notch at the center. From the ribs of each lobe 

 extend other ribs, an arrangement quite different from that we find in 

 cloth umbrellas. The lobes of the mandrake parasol are divided almost 

 to the center, and it is therefore evident that it is much better fitted for 

 protection from the sun than from the rain. The parasol is a beautiful 

 shining green on the upper side, and has a pale green lining that feels 

 somewhat woolly. 



In examining any patch of May apples, we find that many of the 

 parasols are double ; the secret of this is, that the mandrake baby needs 



