MIDSUMMER WILD FLOWERS 



55 



seed-beds. They grow side by side with the 

 grasses. But the corn cockle is a little more 

 fastidious. It likes the same surroundings as 

 wheat and matures its seeds at the same time. 

 In this way it gets reaped and threshed with 

 the grain, garnered with it, and sown again 

 with it. 



Thus it not only steals its bit of ground away 

 from the wheat, but forces the farmer to culti- 

 vate it. 



Like so many of the weeds that make the 

 farmer's hard life harder, the corn cockle is 

 an immigrant from Europe. It is a native of 

 Asia, but followed civilization into Europe, and 

 then crossed the seas to America in earth bal- 

 last, in packing straw, and in seed grain. 



Once landed on these shores, its star of em- 

 pire swept westward until it claims as its own 

 the entire wheat-, barley-, rye-, and oats-grow- 

 ing territory of the New World. 



Even in Shakespeare's time it was a pest. 

 Biron, in "Love's Labour's Lost," exclaims, 

 "Alons ! Alons ! sow'd cockle, reap't no corn." 

 Still further back in the history of man we 

 find Job exclaiming, "Let thistles grow instead 

 of wheat and cockle instead of barley." 



The United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture classes the corn cockle as one of the prin- 

 cipal poisonous plants, the dangerous qualities 

 being contained in a soluble, odorless powder 

 called saponin, which possesses a sharp burn- 

 ing taste and provokes violent sneezing when 

 inhaled, even in small quantities. When agi- 

 tated in water, it foams like soap. 



p When the corn cockle blossom opens it car- 

 ries a fine "display ad." in magenta and white, 

 announcing that messengers are wanted to con- 

 vey pollen to other flowers. The length of the 

 carriers' tongues rather than the fleetness of 

 their wings is the test of employment. One 

 species of night-flying moth never seeks serv- 

 ice elsewhere, and while sipping the nectar of 

 the cockle-cup and carrying the pollen from 

 the blossom's anthers also takes occasion to 

 lay its eggs in the heart of the flower, so that 

 its larvae may have a well-stocked larder of 

 immature cockle seeds. 



The corn cockle has many family relations, 

 among them being the spurries, the pearworts, 

 the chickweeds, the campions, the catchflies, 

 and the carnations. Bouncing-bet and ragged- 

 robin are likewise cousins. 



LAMBKILL OR SHEEP LAUREL 



Kalmia angustifolia L. [Plate VII, middle] 



. The heath family, of which the lambkill 

 is a member, has many branches, ranging from 

 the creeping snowberry and the trailing arbutus 

 *? ™ e kalmias, the rhododendrons, the azaleas, 

 the huckleberries, and the cranberries. 



The lambkill is a shrub of lesser proportions 

 than the common kalmia, or mountain laurel 

 (whose biography appears on page 488 of the 

 June, 1917, number of The Geographic), and 

 its flowers are similar but smaller and of a 

 crimson pink. They cluster closely around the 

 stem, which is terminated by newer leaves, 

 this again being a point at variance with the 

 larger species. 



The range of the species is from Canada to 

 Georgia. 



GAYFEATHER OR BLAZING STAR 



Lacinaria squarrosa (L.) Hill. [Plate VII, 

 right] 



The gayfeather, which possesses many other 

 names in the vernacular, among them "colic 

 root," "rattlesnake master," "blazing star," and 

 "button snakeroot," flowers from June to Sep- 

 tember and is found as far north as Ontario, 

 as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, and as far 

 west as Nebraska. 



The flowers at the top of the stem open first 

 and those further down in the order of their 

 position. All have both stamens and pistils, 

 and cater to the long-tongued bees, flies, and 

 moths. 



The rural name of "rattlesnake master" 

 comes from the belief that the tuber at the 

 root of the plant possesses properties that will 

 cure the bite of a rattlesnake. 



PURPLE WILD-BERGAMOT 

 Monarda media Willd. [Plate VIII, left] 



The purple wild-bergamot, like the hyssop 

 skullcap, pictured on Plate IV, and described 

 on page 53, is a member of the mint family. 

 It is a variety, according to some authorities, 

 of the species Monarda fistulosa. It grows in 

 most thickets from the Appalachian Mountains 

 west to Minnesota. 



The Monardas are particularly adapted to 

 the entertainment of the butterflies, though 

 bumblebees also frequent them and sometimes 

 hive bees are their guests. The two stamens 

 and the two-parted pistils are so situated that 

 no visitor whose tongue is long enough to sip 

 the blossom's nectar can avoid a pollen dusting 

 from the former or escape paying a pollen toll 

 for the latter. 



HAIRY PENTSTEMON OR BEARD 

 TONGUE 



Pentstemon hirsutus (L.) Willd. [Plate 

 VIII, middle] 



Flowering in midsummer, over a territory 

 that stretches from Ontario and Manitoba to 

 Florida and Texas, the hairy pentstemon is a 

 member of the versatile figwort family, which 

 includes the mulleins, the yellow toadflax, and 

 the Indian paintbrush, described in previous 

 issues of the National Geographic Magazine 

 (May, 1915; June, 1916, and June, 1917, re- 

 spectively). Its preferences in matter of en- 

 vironment lead it to dry or rocky fields, thick- 

 ets, and open woods. 



Its blossom first develops stamens and is 

 therefore in the first stage of its existence a 

 male flower. When these have given their pol- 

 len to the bees they are succeeded by pistils, 

 which transform the blossom into a female 

 flower. Thus cross-fertilization is assured. 



The scientific name comes from the densely 

 bearded, sterile fifth stamen. This stamen 

 makes a series of curves from the upper to the 

 under side of the flower, a fact which makes 

 it serve admirably in closing the mouth of the 



