36 



BUTTER-AND 



TOADFLAX 

 EGGS. 



Although an immigrant from 

 Europe, pretty Toadflax which is 

 shown on the right hand of the oppo- 

 site picture, has multiplied and 

 spread, like the English Sparrow, 

 until it is now found throughout our 

 country from the Atlantic to the Pa- 

 cific Oceans. Even without the blos- 

 soms, it is an attractive and decora- 

 tive plant, the closely set, narrow, 

 grayish-green leaves furnishing an 

 agreeable contrast to the other foli- 

 age. It usually grows in such dense 

 jpgjW ^g^ pi^ colonies that the effect produced is 

 a very pleasing one. 

 The flowers grow in a spike at the top of the plant, each 

 tubular, yellow blossom having a two-lipped corolla, the 

 upper one being of two lobes and the lower of three, the 

 central one of which extends back into a slender spur and 

 has a protruding, pouting, orange palate that closes the 

 throat of the flower. This arrangement, which is designed 

 especially for the bumblebee, effectually closes the entrance 

 to the interior to all light-weight bees and ants, but the 

 weight of the bumblebees, together with his strength, easily 

 forces the lips apart and he can partake of the nectar at his 

 leisure. It is not at all difficult for one to see why the name 

 of Butter-and-eggs should have been applied to this plant, 

 the palate being just the color of an egg yolk and the rest 

 of the flower the color of good butter. 



BEUE TOADFLAX is a smaller species growing in 

 sandy soil. It is not nearly as sturdy a species as the pre- 

 ceding, in fact the slender stem is ofttimes too weak to 

 stand erect and the pretty blue blossoms are literally drag- 

 ged in the dust. Both small butterflies and bees visit the 

 little blossoms, which are too weakly constructed to pre- 

 vent the sweets being drained even if they wished to. The 

 name Toadflax is an opprobrious one applied to these plants 

 because before the flowers appear the foliage is somewhat 

 like that of the true flax. 



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