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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



The stamens and pistils of the scented water- 

 lily mature at different times, thus insuring 

 cross-fertilization. 



SHEEP SORREL 

 Rumex acetosella L. [Plate II, left! 



The sheep sorrel is another of the plant 

 world immigrants to America that deserves 

 deportation as an undesirable alien ; but, like 

 the English sparrows of the feathery kingdom, 

 it fights its way into every community by its 

 fecundity. Rivers, mountains, quarantines, 

 every barrier that nature or man has set up 

 against it, has been overridden. Even the 

 Rockies, which have stood as a wall of adamant 

 against the serried hosts of most westward- 

 bound floral invasions, have been too low to 

 keep the sheep sorrel in check ; so that it is 

 found from ocean to ocean and from Canada 

 to Mexico. 



The plant by some is known as field sorrel 

 and by others as sour grass. It invades hay 

 and pasture fields and crowds out the valuable 

 grasses. Likewise, it disputes with the new- 

 sown winter wheat for control of ground on 

 which it has secured a foothold. Only the most 

 persistent harrowing of the ground before 

 seeding time will hold it in check until the 

 wheat can come up and grow strong enough 

 for the fray with the hardy foe. 



The sheep sorrel is a member of the buck- 

 wheat family. Among its cousins are the buck- 

 wheats, the docks, the knot-weeds, the smart- 

 weeds and the tear-thumbs. It grows from 

 six to twelve inches tall and when mature gives 

 the field which it has colonized a real sorrel- 

 top appearance. 



ENGLISH PLANTAIN 

 Plantago lanceolata L. [Plate II, right] 



Like the charlock, corn cockle, and the sheep 

 sorrel, the English plantain is an alien which 

 came to our shores as a stowaway and has 

 made America its own. It has sundry names 

 in divers localities, such as ribgrass, narrow 

 plantain, and ripple-grass. It blossoms from 

 June to September and fights stubbornly for 

 position in both field and lawn. Its seeds ma- 

 ture about the same time as clover seed, and 

 it is indeed a "tare among the wheat" when the 

 farmer wants to sow his clover. 



The English plantain places its homely cone 

 of greenish buds on a tall grooved stem. These 

 buds mature as brownish flowers, so minute as 

 to be almost indistinguishable. The ones at the 

 bottom open first, and then the procession 

 moves up the cone, day by day, until each row 

 of flowers has taken its turn at blooming. 

 These flowers possess long-extending anthers 

 mounted on filamentous stamens, and they float 

 around the cone as the rings of Saturn around 

 the planet. In the illustration one may see the 

 cones at the various stages. 



BLUE VERVAIN 



Verbena hastata L. [Plate III, left] 



Growing from four to six feet tall, with its 

 flowering spikes branching upward like the 



arms of a candelabra, the blue vervain, whose 

 flowers are more purple and violet than blue, 

 possesses a range as wide as any other plant 

 species in America, almost the entire United 

 States and Canada being home soil to it. Wild 

 hyssop and simpler' s joy are other names for it. 



One always regrets that Verbena hastata 

 has a way of maturing the blossoms on each 

 spike a few at a time instead of all at once, for 

 seeds at the bottom of the spike, flowers in the 

 middle, and buds at the top do not produce the 

 pretty effect that a spike full of flowers would. 

 The late John Burroughs, who could always 

 be relied on to find beauty in any flower that 

 possessed a trace of it, wrote of its drooping 

 knotty threads as making "pretty etching upon 

 the winter snow." 



The blue vervain is a favorite with the bum- 

 blebees, which, with many other members of 

 the bee family and the bee-like fly species, 

 gather at its festal board. 



It borrowed its name, simpler's joy, from a 

 European sister, and has also appropriated 

 many of the latter's traditions and much of its 

 folklore. No plant that the herb-gatherer could 

 find was more salable than the vervain ; hence 

 none brought so much joy to the simple peasant. 



The vervain is known abroad as the holy 

 herb, and was one of the plants sacred to the 

 Druids of England. Likewise, it was held sa- 

 cred to Thor, the God of Thunder, and was 

 supposed to exert a peculiar influence upon the 

 eyesight. It is said to have been found grow- 

 ing on Mt. Calvary, and is reputed, in the folk- 

 lore of Europe, to stimulate affection and to 

 be able to break the power of witches. 



PICKERELWEED 

 Pontederia cordata L. [Plate III, right] 



The pickerelweed is one of the members of 

 the plant kingdom that insists upon making its 

 home in the water, usually preferring the shal- 

 low waters of a stagnant pond. 



It is a tall plant, with one blunt, arrow-head- 

 shaped leaf, varying to a very elongated tri- 

 angle. Above this leaf rises a spike about four 

 inches long, from which issue numerous more 

 or less irregular ephemeral, violet-blue flowers, 

 each marked with a distinct yellow-green spot. 



That ever-delightful biographer of the folk 

 of Nature's garden, Neltje Blanchan, called the 

 pickerelweed a vigorous wader, a sort of floral 

 crane, and reminds us that in the backwoods 

 people think that this plant is the favored 

 resort of the pickerel when she deposits her 

 eggs. 



A botanist who made a careful study of 

 Pontederia cordata says that its flowers occur 

 in three forms, not on the same, but on differ- 

 ent plants, excelling even the purple loosestrife 

 in the striking type of its dimorphism. 



Unable to set seed without insect aid, they 

 resort to what seems little short of marvelous 

 tactics to get the maximum benefit out of the 

 visits of their winged guests. In one type of 

 flower the stigma is raised on a long style to 

 the very top of the blossom ; in the second 

 type the stigma comes half way up the flower 

 cup ; in the third type it remains at the bottom. 



