HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



We may, then, think of bright colors and odors of flowers 

 as banners hung out to inform the insect army that the 

 feast is ready. Since most flowers have not yet attained 

 to their highest condition, white and greenish colors are 

 predominant, while next follow yellows, pinks, blues, and 

 purples. There are few really red blossoms. Dark crimson, 

 magenta, and crimson purple are generally counted as red. 

 A thousand years hence, when evolution has made greater 

 progress among the plants, a white flower may be rare. 



Habitats 



The influence of surroundings is especially noticeable in 

 the plant world. A plant born to wet soil will not flourish 

 in dry. One adapted to open fields will not bury itself in 

 the shade of deep woods. If it is transplanted to new en- 

 vironments, it may vary its normal type in the endeavor to 

 adapt itself to its new dwelling-place. For this reason, if 

 the soil be changed, as when marshes are drained or fields 

 cultivated, new plants will spring up. Weeds follow the 

 farmer's plow. When the forest disappears, the forest 

 flora will also go. Build a road and see the typical roadside 

 plants spring up along its borders. Certain "fireweeds" 

 cover burnt-over districts as if by magic. Whence come 

 the new plants ? Do their seeds always lie in the soil wait- 

 ing for favorable conditions? The " alternation of crops" 

 which farmers find so useful to their soil and harvests may 

 have its suggestive prototype in nature. 



The Flower Calendar 



The season for blossoming remains unchanged for every 

 plant, forming a never-failing flower calendar. Thoreau says 

 that if he were waked up from a long winter's nap and placed 

 in the woods or fields, by seeing what flowers were in bloom 

 around him he could tell almost the day of the month. Not 

 more surely does the first robin announce the coming of 

 spring than do the bloodroot and hepatica peeping from 

 under the dead leaves of the woods. The spring flowers fade 

 and are succeeded by those that like the hot sun of July and 

 August. Asters and hawkweeds tell of the coming of 

 autumn, the end of the flower season, and the approach of 

 winter. 



