THE MOCCASIN FLOWER 



(Cypripedium acauli Ait.) 



When Minnesota officially decreed, in 1893, 

 that the moccasin flower should be its favorite, 

 it led all the States in enacting such legisla- 

 tion, and it is the only Commonwealth which 

 has selected a member of the orchid family 

 (see page 502). 



This orchid loves the deep wood and seeks 

 a rocky, sandy place, usually as remote as pos- 

 sible from human habitation. Once the com- 

 monest of orchids, now it is one of the rarest. 

 The friend of the moccasin flower who said 

 that it "is generally and destructively appre- 

 ciated" accurately sized up the situation. 



We have heard much about prize-fighters 

 being overtrained and extinct mammals being 

 overspecialized, and now it has been said that 

 the moccasin flower is overorganized. It is 

 preeminently a flower that believes in the doc- 

 trine of cross-fertilization, and therefore has 

 developed so complex a system of protecting 

 its stigmas and anthers from self-fertilization 

 that it often defeats its own ends and must 

 rely on root propagation. 



In order to insure itself the cross-fertiliza- 

 tion it demands, the stamens are placed back 

 of the pistil in such a position that the pollen 

 cannot be transferred except by outside agen- 

 cies. The open end of the pouch is nearly 

 closed with a singular, broad, scoop-shaped, 

 sterile anther which shields the fertile anthers 

 and stigma. The flower is so arranged that 

 the bee which applies for a cup of nectar must 

 come inside and do a little crowding to get 

 room enough to stand. When the delightful 

 draught is quaffed and the winged beggar 

 turns to leave, it is confronted with a straight 

 and narrow way out, and before the open can 

 be reached our bee must squeeze under a re- 

 ceptive stigma covered with sticky hairs which 

 comb the pollen grains from the fuzzy back of 

 the visitor. But still the guest has not satisfied 

 the flower's bill. It must carry pollen to some 

 other flower. And so, working its way out, 

 the bee has to creep under an anther that is 

 placed almost across its path, getting a coating 

 of pollen as it passes to take the place of that 

 combed out by the pistil. 



It is a short stay that the blossoms of the 

 moccasin flower make in their annual visit to 

 the woods. They come in May and say fare- 

 well in June. It gladdens some of the Cana- 

 dian woods, reaches as far south as North 

 Carolina, and makes Minnesota its western- 

 most home. 



THE SAGEBRUSH 



(Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) 



Nevada's floral queen is not famed for its 

 retiring disposition; neither is it known for its 

 beauty; nor yet is it distinguished for its ag- 

 gressiveness or the usefulness of its product. 

 Rather, it is content to soften the sternness of 

 the unoccupied, semi-arid lands of the South- 

 west_ until the farmer comes along. Into his 

 ear it whispers the information that where it 

 grows alfalfa will flourish. After imparting 



this information, it is content to endure the 

 woes of surrendering its home. The farmer, 

 using a railroad rail or a plank-drag, clears 

 his ground of it and puts in its stead a field 

 of alfalfa (see page 503). 



The sagebrush belongs to the composite fam- 

 ily, and its immediate cousins are widely dis- 

 tributed. They are known as the artemisias, 

 and there are a host of them, many with im- 

 portant uses in the economy of civilization. 

 Artemisia absinthium is popularly known as 

 wormwood; from it comes the bitter, aromatic 

 liquor known as eau or creme d'absinthe. 

 Many of its cousins grow in Asia and Europe, 

 including the mugwort, used by the Germans 

 as a seasoning in cookery; southernwood, used 

 by the British to drive away moths from linen 

 and woolens and to force newly swarmed bees, 

 which have a peculiar antipathy for it, into the 

 hive; and tarragon, used by the Russians as 

 an ingredient for pickling and in the prepara- 

 tion of fish sauce. 



Sagebrush itself is found as far east as 

 Colorado and is one of the dominating shrubs 

 of the great basin which lies between the 

 Rockies and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 



The artemisias derived their name from Ar- 

 temisia, the beautiful wife of King Mausolus. 

 The magnificent tomb she erected to his mem- 

 ory at Halicarnassus has given the name mau- 

 soleum to every elaborate tomb from that day 

 to this. Americans thought so highly of this 

 wonderful structure that they duplicated it in 

 the national capital. The Southern Jurisdic- 

 tion of the Scottish Rite Masons of America 

 copied it for their great American temple, and 

 today Artemisia's architectural conception is 

 one of the show places of one of the most 

 beautiful cities of the earth. 



THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

 (Kalmis latifolia L.) 



When Connecticut's legislature adopted the 

 mountain laurel as the Nutmeg State's repre- 

 sentative flower, it chose one that is a patrician 

 in its history, a blue-blood in its family rela- 

 tionships, and an Adonis or a Venus in its 

 beauty. 



In its floral relationships the mountain laurel 

 is identified with the heath family, some of its 

 kinsfolk being the trailing arbutus, the winter- 

 gre,en, the rhododendron, the white swamp and 

 wild honeysuckles, the flaming azalea, and the 

 Lapland rose bay (see page 503). 



Because it grows in places where the bees 

 and butterflies are not so numerous as they 

 are in the fields, the mountain laurel has taken 

 care that no visitor shall escape without ren- 

 dering it the service of messenger. When the 

 flower opens its stigma is erect, but the anthers 

 are fastened down with a trigger-like arrange- 

 ment, one in each of ten little pockets in the 

 flower. The bee that creeps down into the 

 flower for a sip of nectar releases a tiny 

 spring, like a mouse entering a trap. The re- 

 leased anther flies up and dusts its pollen on 

 the hairy body of the insect. Now, if you take 

 this pollen and put it under a good microscope, 



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