sessed by the fading of the blossom. Then 

 only does it go to another field to pasture ; but 

 as it goes it carries liberal quantities of pollen 

 grains with which to reward its new host for 

 the food and drink and shelter it seeks and 

 secures. 



THE PEACH BLOSSOM 

 (Amygdalus persica L.) 



Who that has wandered through a full-blown 

 peach orchard, inhaling the fragrance of a mil- 

 lion buds and feasting the eye upon acres of 

 heavenly pink, can fail to applaud Delaware's 

 choice of the peach blossom as her State 

 flower (see page .507). 



A deep claim has the peach upon national 

 admiration, as well as upon local affection, for 

 it ranks second among all the inhabitants of 

 the American orchard in the money value of 

 its annual crop of fruit. It yields about two 

 bushels for every family in the land, and the 

 product ranges from the delicious Elberta to 

 the small, neglected cling-stone of the wayside 

 volunteer tree. 



Of ancient lineage is the peach. Indeed, so 

 far back can it be traced that its origin is 

 lost in the mazes of Chinese tradition. Trav- 

 elers from Persia saw it in China, loved it, and 

 carried it home with them. Here they gave it 

 firm root and endowed it with the name it 

 bears. Thence it traveled westward, a sort of 

 pacemaker for the Star of Empire. The_ Ro- 

 mans in the days of Claudius brought it to 

 Italy's shores and thence carried it to Britain. 

 By the time of the discovery of America it had 

 made all Europe its friend and was ready to 

 join the pioneers in shipping for America. 



Before the War of 1812 it had crossed the 

 Mississippi and was found as far west as Ar- 

 kansas. In those days there were many hardy 

 varieties, and where they once gained a foot- 

 hold they maintained it without human aid. 

 To this day one may journey through the Blue 

 Ridge and Allegheny Mountains and see 

 gnarled and knotty old trees, which must have 

 outlived several generations of men, still bear- 

 ing their small but delicious cling-stone fruit. 



THE CARNATION 

 (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) 



This beautiful blossom belongs to the pink 

 family. When man first looked upon it and 

 conceived the intention of leading it captive to 

 grace the flower garden and to add to the 

 shekels in the florist's purse, it was the modest 

 little clove pink, such as may still be seen on 

 the slopes of turf that succeed the great chalk 

 cliffs of the Cheddar Gorge, in Somerset 

 County, England. The Briton considers it the 

 rarest wild flower in Nature's garden (see pp. 

 507 and 5io) ; 



How long it is since the carnation joined the 

 ranks of domesticated flowers no one can say 

 with certainty, but that it was a favorite flower 

 in Queen Elizabeth's day is certain. The 

 "Winter's Tale" was published in 1623. In 

 that play Shakespeare tells us that "'the fairest 

 flowers of the season are our carnations." 



Many honors have been paid the carnation 



by man, and in its turn it has helped honor the 

 memories of those who have counted for some- 

 thing in our lives. The scarlet carnation was 

 William McKinley's flower, and to this day 

 Americans who pause to honor his memory 

 wear it on his birthday. When the movement 

 for an annual "Mothers' Day" reached impor- 

 tant proportions, it was a white carnation that 

 was set aside as the badge of her purity, her 

 goodness, and the nobility and self-sacrifice of 

 her soul. 



Horticulturists have vied with one another 

 in producing carnations of rare beauty, some 

 of which have won nation-wide reputations 

 and names. Men have given many thousands 

 of dollars for control of a new variety. 



Two States have by legislative action adopted 

 the carnation as their favorite flower — Ohio 

 and Indiana. Ohio has taken the scarlet car- 

 nation (of a brighter color than that pictured 

 on page 507) as emblematic of its spirit, and 

 Indiana has chosen the carnation, without de- 

 fining the color. 



THE SUNFLOWER 

 (Helianthus annuus L.) 



It is fitting that such a genuinely American 

 Commonwealth as Kansas should choose a 

 genuinely American flower to represent it at 

 home and abroad. And the sunflower is such, 

 for the Old World's eyes never fell upon it 

 until the days when the exploration of the 

 New World began. The Incas of Peru and 

 the Hurons of our own country alike were en- 

 joying it as a cultivated crop when the white 

 man first visited them. They used it much as 

 the bamboo growers use the bamboo — as a Jack 

 of all Services. Its seeds they found useful 

 alike as food and as the raw material of a 

 home-made hair oil ; its petals were utilized in 

 the manufacture of a yellow dye; its leaves 

 served them as fodder and from its stalk they 

 secured their thread (see page 508). 



The sunflower, along with the goldenrod, the 

 black-eyed susan, the asters, and many others, 

 is a member of the composite family, the Na- 

 poleons of finance and industry in the flower 

 world. If there were politics and politicians 

 among the flowers, there would be a lively 

 campaign against the "trusts," for the compo- 

 sites seem bent upon a monopoly of the nectar 

 business. They are efficiency experts, knowing 

 how to crowd hundreds of blossoms into a 

 single head, with brilliant ray flowers at the 

 edge to attract their insect customers. It has 

 been estimated that one-ninth of all the flower- 

 ing plants of the earth have joined the com- 

 posite group, and that it includes in the United 

 States and Canada alone more than 1,600 spe- 

 cies. 



The wild sunflower is the one that gave 

 Kansas the title of "The Sunflower State." 

 Its range extends from the Atlantic seaboard, 

 through Kansas, and from the Northwestern 

 Territory to the Gulf of Mexico. 



Like the potato, which is the world's most 

 productive food crop, like maize, which has 

 marched to the ends of the earth, and like the 

 tomato, which has come to enjoy a place all 

 its own in the culinary establishments of civili- 



494 



