Now that we have come to read the faces of flowers much as their insect friends must have done for countless ages, we suspect at a glance that the strong-scented horse-balm, with its profusion of lemon-colored, irregular little blossoms, is up to some ingenious trick.The lower lip, out of all proportion to the rest of the corolla, flaunting its enticing fringes; the long stamens protruding from some flowers, and only the long style from others on the same plant, excite our curiosity.Where many fragrant clumps grow in cool, shady woods at midsummer, is an excellent place to rest a while and satisfy it.Presently a bumblebee, attracted by the odor from afar, alights on the fringed platform too weak to hold him.Dropping downward, he snatches the filaments of the two long stamens to save himself; and, as he does so, pollen jarred out of their anther sacs falls on his thorax at the juncture of his wings.Hanging beneath the flower a second, he sips its nectar and is off.Many bees, large and small, go through a similar performance.Now the young, newly opened flowers have the forked stigmas of the long style only protruding at this stage, the miniature stamens being still curled within the tube.Obviously a pollen-dusted bee coming to one of these young flowers must rub off some of the vitalizing dust on the sticky fork that purposely impedes his entrance at the precise spot necessary.Notice that after a flower's stamens protrude in the second stage of its development the fork is turned far to one side to get out of harm's way -self-fertilization being an abomination.It was the lamented William Hamilton Gibson who first called attention to the horse-balm's ingenious scheme to prevent it.
VIRGINIA GROUND CHERRY
(Physalis Virginiana; P.Pennsylvanica of Gray) Potato family Flowers - Sulphur or greenish yellow, with 5 dark purplish dots, 1 in.across or less, solitary from the leaf axils.Calyx 5-toothed, much inflated in fruit; corolla open bell-shaped, the edge 5-cleft; 5 stamens, the anthers yellow, style slender, 2-cleft.Stem: l 1/2 to 3 ft.tall, erect, more or less hairy or glandular, branched, from a thick rootstock.Leaves: Ovate to lanceolate, tapering at both ends or wedge-shaped, often yellowish green, entire or sparingly wavy-toothed.Fruit: An inflated, 5-angled capsule, sunken at the base, loosely surrounding the edible reddish berry.
Preferred Habitat - Open ground; rich, dry pastures; hillsides.
Flowering Season - July-September Distribution - New York to Manitoba, south to the Gulf States.
A common plant, so variable, however, that the earlier botanists thought it must be several distinct species, lanceolata among others.A glance within shows that the open flower is not so generous as its spreading form would seem to indicate, for tufts of dense hairs at each side of grooves where nectar is secreted, conceal it from the mob, and, with the thickened filaments, almost close the throat.Doubtless these hairs also serve as footholds for the welcome bee clinging to its pendent host.The dark spots are pathfinders.One anther maturing after another, a visitor must make several trips to secure all the pollen, and if she is already dusted from another blossom, nine chances out of ten she will first leave some of the vitalizing dust on the stigma poked forward to receive it before collecting more.
Professor Robertson says that all the ground cherries near his home in Illinois are remarkable for their close mutual relation with two bees of the genus Colletes.So far as is known, the insignificant little greenish or purplish bell-shaped flowers of the Alum-root (Heuchera Americana), with protruding orange anthers, are the only other ones to furnish these females with pollen for their babies' bread.Slender racemes of this species are found blooming in dry or rocky woods from the Mississippi eastward, from May to July, by which time the ground cherry is ready to provide for the bee's wants.The similar Philadelphia species was formerly cultivated for its "strawberry tomato." Many birds which feast on all this highly attractive fruit disperse the numerous kidney-shaped seeds.
GREAT MULLEIN; VELVET or FLANNEL PLANT; MULLEIN DOCK; AARON'S ROD(Verbascum Thapsus) Figwort family Flowers - Yellow, 1 in.across or less, seated around a thick, dense, elongated spike.Calyx 5-parted; corolla of 5 rounded lobes; 5 anther-bearing stamens, the 3 upper ones short, woolly;1 pistil.Stem: Stout, 2 to 7 ft.tall, densely woolly, with branched hairs.Leaves: Thick, pale green, velvety-hairy, oblong, in a rosette on the ground; others alternate, strongly clasping the stem.
Preferred Habitat - Dry fields, banks, stony waste land.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Minnesota and Kansas, eastward to Nova Scotia and Florida.Europe.
Leaving the fluffy thistle-down he has been kindly scattering to the four winds, the goldfinch spreads his wings for a brief undulating flight, singing in waves also as he goes to where tall, thick-set mullein stalks stand like sentinels above the stony pasture.Here companies of the exquisite little black and yellow minstrels delight to congregate with their somber families and feast on the seeds that rapidly follow the erratic flowers up the gradually lengthening spikes.
Delpino long ago pointed out that the blossom is best adapted to pollen-collecting bees, which, alighting on the two long, protruding stamens, rub off pollen on their undersides while clinging for support to the wool on the three shorter stamens, whose anthers supply their needs.As a bee settles on another flower, the stigma is calculated to touch the pollen on his under side before he gets dusted with more; thus cross-pollination is effected.Three stamens furnish a visitor with food, two others clap pollen on him.Numerous flies assist in removing the pollen, too.
