58 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



TURTLEHEAD 



Chelone lyoni Pursh. [Plate XIII, left] 



Growing in ditches, beside streams, and amid 

 swamps, this interesting member of the fig- 

 wort family has many aliases in the vernacular. 



In some localities it is called "snake-head," in 

 others "codhead." Some people call it "shell- 

 flower," while others have christened it "bal- 

 mony." 



Its flowering season is from July to Septem- 

 ber and it is found in swamps and wet thickets 

 in the mountains from Virginia southward. 

 It attains a height of from one to three feet. 

 The leaves are reputed to have tonic proper- 

 ties in the treatment of liver complaints. 



Even bumblebees have difficulty in reaching 

 the overflowing nectar cups of the turtlehead 

 before it reaches maturity ; but as soon as the 

 heart-shaped anthers have their dust-bags of 

 pollen powder ready, the flower opens wider 

 and the visitors have their full of sweets while 

 taking their dusting of pollen. 



TEASEL 



Dipsacus sylvestris Huds. [Plate XIII, 



right J 



The chief distinction of this species is the 

 fact that it is the parent of the cultivated teasel 

 so widely used in raising the nap on various 

 woolen cloths. The wild species have straight 

 prickles on the heads and are therefore value- 

 less in cloth finishing; the cultivated teasel has 

 the hooked prickles. 



The heads of the cultivated variety are fixed 

 around a long cylinder, or roll, which is made 

 to revolve against the surface of the cloth. 

 The hooks of the prickles take hold as they 

 turn and raise the nap. No mechanism has 

 yet been devised that can take the place of the 

 teasel bracts, with their combined rigidity and 

 elasticity. They are strong enough to nap the 

 cloth, but too weak to tear it. 



The leaves grow out from the teasel stem 

 in such a way that they form little cups at 

 their base. These collect dew and rain, the 

 water serving to keep ants and other creeping 

 creatures from reaching the flowers, in the 

 same way that tin disks on hawsers keep rats 

 from going between ships and docks. 



Each tiny floret on the teasel's head consists 

 of a long tubular corolla made up of four 

 petals grown together. The exposed parts 

 of these petals are of pale lilac; the lower, 

 almost hidden, parts are white. 



On the first day of the floret's life their 

 four anthers show and shed pollen. On the 

 second day these wither and the pistil comes 

 to maturity. 



The spiky nature of the teasel's head pre- 

 vents insects from walking over it. Therefore 

 they must dive head foremost into the tubes if 

 they want the honey these have to offer. Thus 

 they always carry pollen from the flowers with 

 mature stamens to those with mature pistils. 



The teasel blossoms from July to September 

 over a range that reaches from Maine and On- 

 tario to Virginia and the Mississippi River. 

 It prefers roadsides and waste places. 



VENUS LOOKING-GLASS 



Specularia perfoliata (L.) A. DC. 

 XIV, left] 



Plate 



This member of the bluebell family has 'a 



wand-like stem that is sometimes too weak to 

 stand alone, and is often found leaning on 

 surrounding vegetation for support. It blos- 

 soms from May to August and grows almost 

 everywhere, from upper Canada to middle 

 Mexico, preferring waste places and dry woods. 

 The late John Burroughs thus describes this 

 (lower: "A pretty and curious little weed, 

 sometimes found growing in the edge of the 

 garden, is the clasping Specularia, a relative of 

 the harebell and of the European Venus 

 looking-glass. Its leaves are shell-shaped, and 

 clasp the stalk so as to form little, shallow 

 cups. In the bottom of each cup three buds 

 appear that never expand into flowers, but 

 when the top of the stalk is reached, one, and 

 sometimes two, buds open wide into a large, 

 delicate, purple-blue corolla. All the first-born 

 of this plant are still-born, as it were; only the 

 latest, which spring from its summit, attain to 

 perfect bloom." 



FERNLEAF FALSE-FOXGLOVE 



Aureolaria pedicularia (L.) Raf. [Plate XIV, 

 middle] 



This bright member of the figwort family, 

 growing from one to three feet tall and having 

 lemon-colored, bell-shaped flowers an inch or 

 more in diameter, would be worthy of cultiva- 

 tion if it were not a dangerous companion for 

 the honest folk of the flower garden. In the 

 biographies of the mistletoe (see The Geo- 

 graphic for June, 191 7 ) and the dodder (see 

 page 59) we see how honest plants have de- 

 generated into vampires — blood-suckers that 

 live not by their own toil, but by invading the 

 vitals of other plants for sustenance. 



The false-foxgloves have only recently started 

 on this downward path, but they have gone far 

 enough to wrap their roots around those of 

 other plants and steal their juices. Knowing 

 their traits, no gardener will invite them into 

 his garden, and they must therefore be content 

 to live on the borders of dry woodlands and 

 thickets in their natural range, which is from 

 Maine west and south to Minnesota and Mis- 

 souri. 



BLUEBELL 



Campanula rotundifolia L. [Plate XIV, 

 right] 



No flower in all Nature's garden has more 

 of romance and interest clustering about it 

 than the bluebell. What heart has not thrilled 

 at the lore and legends of the bluebells of 

 Scotland ! And yet Scotland has no monopoly 

 of them. They are at home throughout much 

 of the Northern Hemisphere, gladdening im- 

 partially the Asiatic regions of Europe, Asia, 

 and America. In America they wander as far 

 south as the Mason and Dixon Line in the 

 East, to Arizona in the Rockies, and to Cali- 

 fornia in the Sierras. 



