

40 



CARDINAL FLOWER. 



As the Scarlet Tanager is among 

 the brightest and most glorious of our 

 birds, so the Cardinal Flower is 

 among our wild flowers. The gor- 

 geous red blossoms are so very attrac- 

 tive that few can pass them by, with 

 the result that the constant picking 

 is rendering this species more diffi- 

 cult to find each year. The tall 

 straight stem is rather closely set 

 with alternating, toothed-edged leaves 

 and the summit is, during August 

 and September, topped with the 

 beautiful spike of flowers as shown 

 in the opposite illustration. The pre- 

 ferred habitat of the Cardinal Flower 

 is moist or low ground, especially along small streams. If 

 we wait patiently near some of the flowers we are quite sure 

 to see visiting it, that little winged jewel that the flower too 

 awaits, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. As he poises on 

 humming wings, before each flower in turn, he easily sips 

 the nectar from the very base of the long slender tube and 

 at the same time fulfills the life mission of the flower by 

 setting its seed. 



GREAT LOBELIA is almost a duplicate of the Cardinal 

 Flower except that its flowers are blue and are less delicate- 

 ly and gracefully formed. Even though it may suffer by 

 comparison in point of beauty, it is far more abundant in 

 its chosen retreats on moist land or beside brooks. The rea- 

 son is not difficult to discover for does it not flaunt the favor- 

 ite color of the bees, its greatest benefactors, and bees are 

 very common while Hummingbirds, upon which the Car- 

 dinal chiefly depends for its fertilization are comparatively 

 rare. This also explains why it is that we have such a small 

 number of brilliant red wild flowers. The stigmas of these 

 flowers mature later than the anthers on the same blossoms ; 

 consequently it is necessary that pollen from later plants 

 be brought by bees to those on which the stigma are in a 

 receptive mood. 



