COMMON AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS 



589 



California. It is a shrub, and grows to a 

 height varying from 3 to 12 feet. 



The button bush relies more on its appeal to 

 the nose than to the eye of the insect world, 

 having discovered that most insects can smell 

 further than they can see. Only a compara- 

 tively few flowers have learned this to as full 

 an extent as the button bush. It is said by 

 naturalists that in New York State, which has 

 rather a wide range of plant species, borrow- 

 ing both from the northern and southern flora, 

 there are only about thirty really fragrant 

 species to be found. 



The result of the button bush's fragrance is 

 that, in spite of any lack of gorgeousness its 

 flowers may show, it always has a liberal share 

 of the nectar drinkers of the insect world. 

 Every "pin in the cushion" has its own indi- 

 vidual honey well, and these are so deep that 

 a short-tongued bee or butterfly never succeeds 

 in drinking one dry. Butterflies come first 

 among its visitors, and after them honey-bees 

 and bumble-bees, though wasps and carpenter 

 bees also seek a chance cup of nectar now and 

 then. 



The button ball has learned in the hard 

 school of experience that there is degeneracy 

 in self-fertilization, and has therefore so shaped 

 its household economy that self-fertilization 

 cannot take place. The power to produce pol- 

 len is lost by its anthers before the power to 

 receive it is developed by its stigmas. Thus 

 the pollen produced by a given set of anthers 

 is not available for their companion stigmas, 

 but must be transferred to those of some other 

 flower. 



In many flowers self-fertilization is pre- 

 vented by the maturing of anthers and stigma 

 at different times, just as is the case in the 

 button bush ; others have the stamens curved 

 outward and away from the stigma. Still 

 others have found still other ways equally in- 

 genious and equally effective for the same end 

 (see also fringed gentian, below). 



And so it is that we see flowers ascending 

 the scale of existence, ever laboring to improve 

 their race, ever striving for a. higher and better 

 existence, ever seeking so to live and so to act 

 that they will be able to bequeath to their pos- 

 terity strength and fitness to survive. 



Through the centuries fate goes on and on 

 weeding out the unfit in flower land and teach- 

 ing its inhabitants that the path to excellence 

 is the only sure road to survival. 



FRINGED GENTIAN (Gentiana crinita 



Froelich) 



(See page 601) 



The fringed gentian lives in low, moist mead- 

 ows and woods, and begins to blossom when 

 most of its fellows of the flowery kingdom 

 have gone to seed and to death. One meets 

 the fringed gentian from Quebec to Georgia, 

 and as far West as the region beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi River. 



When this handsome but late comer arrives 

 even the birds have nearly all flown and their 

 songs are only a memory, while the color of 



autumn is largely that of leaves which have 

 arrayed themselves in the bright-hued gar- 

 ments in which they bid their parent trees 

 farewell. It seems, indeed, that the poet was 

 right who wrote that the fringed gentian comes 

 with its merry blue to cheer the melancholy 

 days that portend the passing year. 



In order to insure the production of a full 

 supply of fertile seeds, it has adopted methods 

 insuring it against self-fertilization. The sta- 

 mens mature and lose their power to fertilize 

 before the pistils are developed, and it thus 

 saves itself from that harmful inbreeding to 

 which only flowers low down in the scale of 

 floral existence resort (see also button bush, 

 page 588). 



The fringe of the gentian adds grace to it, 

 but that was not the flower's thought in pro- 

 viding the fringe, for even the most lovely of 

 flowers is utilitarian in its instincts. The ants 

 long generations since developed a fondness 

 for the nectar of the gentian ; great hordes of 

 them overran it and drained its nectar cups. 

 But, since the flower had taken precautions to 

 insure cross-fertilization, it could not afford to 

 have the ants pilfer the nectar which was the 

 currency with which it rewarded the bees and 

 butterflies for their assistance in its new plan 

 of fertilization. Therefore, like the butter- 

 and-eggs (see page 586), espousing the cause 

 of preparedness, it developed a system of de- 

 fenses against ant invasions that is remarkable 

 alike for its thoroughness and its beauty. 



There are many kinds of preparedness in the 

 plant world other than that used by the fringed 

 gentian and the butter-and-eggs. Some plants 

 secrete a milky juice which exudes whenever 

 the plant is injured and which usually covers 

 the invader with a touch of raw india-rubber. 

 Others secrete resins, such as turpentine. Oth- 

 ers supply themselves with a defense of tannic 

 acid, while still others manufacture poisons, or 

 have strong scents, like lavender and mint, or 

 spines like thistles, or thorns like roses (see 

 also poison ivy, page 585). 



Some even go so far as to make friends with 

 certain kinds of fierce ants, which keep the 

 leaf-cutters away, as in the case of the South 

 American acacia. The latter employs a species 

 of police, or a standing army, of ants to keep 

 off injurious insects or larger animals. The 

 plant has hollow thorns, and upon the tips of 

 its leaflets there are small projections full of 

 sugary material. The hollow spines are in- 

 habited by colonies of fierce soldier ants, which 

 swarm out and drive off any insect enemy. 

 They are fed, or "boarded," on these sweetish 

 projections. 



BUTTERFLY-WEED (Asclepias tuberosa 



u 



(See page 602) 



This hardy American, like many another wild 

 flower, has no taste for the solitude of woods 

 and marshes. Rather, it prefers to add its 

 touch of color to the roadside, the dry or sandy 

 field, and the hills. It loves to watch the world 



