Wild Flowers as They Grow 



country names is " Hurt Sickle," and an old poem 



runs : 



" Blue-bottle, thee my numbers fain would praise. 

 And thy complexion challenges my praise. 

 Thy countenance, like summer skies, is fair — 

 But, ah ! how different thy vile manners are. 



"A treacherous guest, destruction dost thou bring 

 To th' hospitable field where thou dost spring ; 

 Thou blunt'st the very reaper's sickle, and so. 

 In life and death, becom'st the fanner's foe." 



Each bloom is a colony of flowers — not a single 

 individual — and this colony is bounded by a wall 

 of overlapping dark bracts, each bract being edged 

 with small teeth. A glance shows that the colony 

 is made up of two sets of individuals — one very 

 gay, very blue, and very large in comparison, in a 

 ring outside, a second set, smaller and purplish, 

 within. Naturally, we give our attention to the 

 more conspicuous set first. In each of these the 

 delicate blue tissue of the united petals is shaped 

 like a funnel whose margin is irregular, as the 



diagram shows, but when we peer within it is all 



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