Part 36 (1/2)
Comparisons were ever odious. Because the yellow water lily has the misfortune to claim relations.h.i.+p with the sweet-scented white species (q.v.), must it never receive its just meed of praise?
Hiawatha's canoe, let it be remembered,
”Floated on the river Like a yellow leaf in autumn, Like a yellow water-lily.”
But even those who admire Longfellow's lines see no beauty in the golden flower-bowls floating among the large, l.u.s.trous, leathery leaves.
By a.s.suming the functions of petals, the colored sepals advertise for insects. Beetles, which answer the first summons to a free lunch, crowd in as the sepals begin to spread. In the center the star-like disc, already sticky, is revealed, and on it any pollen they have carried with them from older flowers necessarily rubs off. At first, or while the stigma is freshly receptive to pollen, an insect cannot make his entrance except by crawling over this large, sticky plate. At this time, the anthers being closed, self-fertilization is impossible. A day or two later, after the pollen begins to ripen on countless anthers, the flower is so widely open that visitors have no cause to alight in the center; anyway, no harm could result if they did, cross-fertilization having been presumably accomplished. While beetles (especially Donacia) are ever abundant visitors, it is likely they do much more harm than good. So eagerly do they gnaw both petals and stamens, which look like loops of narrow yellow ribbon within the bowl of an older flower, that, although they must carry some pollen to younger flowers as they travel on, it is probable they destroy ten times more than their share. Flies transport pollen too. The smaller bees (Halictus and Andrena chiefly) find some nectar secreted on the outer faces of the stamen-like petals, which they mix with pollen to make their babies' bread.
The very beautiful native AMERICAN LOTUS (Nelumbo lutea), also known as WATER c.h.i.n.kAPIN or w.a.n.kAPIN, found locally in Ontario, the Connecticut River, some lakes, slow streams, and ponds in New Jersey, southward to Florida, and westward to Michigan and Illinois, Indian Territory and Louisiana, displays its pale yellow flowers in July and August. They measure from four to ten inches across, and suggest a yellow form of the sweet-scented white water lily; but there are fewer petals, gradually pa.s.sing into an indefinite number of stamens. The great round, ribbed leaves, smooth above, hairy beneath, may be raised high above the water, immersed or floating. Both leaf and flower stalks contain several large air ca.n.a.ls. The flowers which are female when they expand far enough for a pollen-laden guest to crawl into the center, are afterward male, securing cross-fertilization by this means, just as the yellow pond lily does; only the small bees must content themselves here with pollen only - a diet that pleases the destructive beetles and the flies (Syrphidae) perfectly.
j.a.panese artists especially have taught us how much of the beauty of a Nelumbo we should lose if it ripened its decorative seed-vessel below the surface as the sweet-scented white water lily does. This flat-topped receptacle, held erect, has its little round nuts imbedded in pits in its surface, ready to be picked out by aquatic birds, and distributed by them in their wanderings. Both seeds and tubers are farinaceous and edible. In some places it is known the Indians introduced the plant for food. Professor Charles Goodyear has written an elaborate, plausible argument, ill.u.s.trated, with many reproductions of sculpture, pottery, and mural painting in the civilized world of the ancients to prove that all decorative ornamental design has been evolved from the sacred Egyptian lotus (Nelumbo Nelumubo), still revered throughout the East (q.v.).
MARSH MARIGOLD; MEADOW-GOWAN; AMERICAN COWSLIP (Caltha pal.u.s.tris) Crowfoot family'
Flowers - Bright, s.h.i.+ning yellow, 1 to 1 1/2 in. across, a few in terminal and axillary groups. No petals; usually 5 (often more) oval, petal-like sepals; stamens numerous; many pistils (carpels) without styles. Stem: Stout, smooth, hollow, branching, 1 to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Mostly from root, rounded, broad, and heart-shaped at base, or kidney-shaped, upper ones almost sessile, lower ones on fleshy petioles.
Preferred Habitat - Springy ground, low meadows, swamps, river banks, ditches.
Flowering Season - April-June.
Distribution - Carolina to Iowa, the Rocky Mountains, and very far north.
Not a true marigold, and even less a cowslip, it is by these names that this flower, which looks most like a b.u.t.tercup, will continue to be called, in spite of the protests of scientific cla.s.sifiers. Doubtless the first of these folk-names refers to its use in church festivals during the Middle Ages as one of the blossoms devoted to the Virgin Mary.
”And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes,”
sing the musicians in ”Cymbeline.” Whoever has seen the watery Avon meadows in April, yellow and twinkling with marsh marigolds when ”the lark at heaven's gate sings,” appreciates why the commentators incline to identify Shakespeare's Mary-buds with the Caltha of these and our own marshes.
Not for poet's rhapsodies, but for the more welcome hum of small bees and flies intent on breakfasting do these flowers open in the morning suns.h.i.+ne. Nectar secreted on the sides of each of the many carpels invites a conscientious bee all around the center, on which she should alight to truly benefit her entertainer.
Honey bees may be seen sucking only enough nectar to aid them in storing pollen; b.u.mblebees feasting for their own benefit, not their descendants'; little mining bees and quant.i.ties of flies also, although not many species are represented among the visitors, owing to the flower's early blooming season. Always conspicuous among the throng are the brilliant Syrphidae flies - gorgeous little creatures which show a fondness for blossoms as gaily colored as their own l.u.s.trous bodies. Indeed, these are the princ.i.p.al pollinators.
Some country people who boil the young plants declare these ”greens” are as good as spinach. What sacrilege to reduce crisp, glossy, beautiful leaves like these to a slimy mess in a pot! The tender buds, often used in white sauce as a subst.i.tute for capers, probably do not give it the same piquancy where piquancy is surely most needed - on boiled mutton, said to be Queen Victoria's favorite dish. Hawked about the streets in tight bunches, the marsh-marigold blossoms - with half their yellow sepals already dropped - and the fragrant, pearly-pink arbutus are the most familiar spring wild flowers seen in Eastern cities.
COMMON MEADOW b.u.t.tERCUP; TALL CROWFOOT; KINGCUPS; CUCKOO FLOWER; GOLDCUPS; b.u.t.tER-FLOWERS; BLISTER-FLOWERS
(Ranunculus acris) Crowfoot family
Flowers - Bright, s.h.i.+ning yellow, about 1 in. across, numerous, terminating long slender footstalks. Calyx of 5 spreading sepals; corolla of 5 petals; yellow stamens and carpels. Stem: Erect, branched above, hairy (sometimes nearly smooth), 2 to 3 feet tall, from fibrous roots. Leaves: In a tuft from the base, long petioled, of 3 to 7 divisions cleft into numerous lobes; stem leaves nearly sessile, distant, 3-parted.
Preferred Habitat - Meadows, fields, roadsides, gra.s.sy places.
Flowering Season - May-September.
Distribution - Naturalized from Europe in Canada and the United States; most common North.
What youngster has not held these s.h.i.+ning golden flowers under his chin to test his fondness for b.u.t.ter? Dandelions and marsh-marigolds may reflect their color in his clear skin too, but the b.u.t.tercup is every child's favorite. When
”Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight,”
daisies, pink clover, and waving timothy bear them company here; not the ”daisies pied,” violets, and lady-smocks of Shakespeare's England. How incomparably beautiful are our own meadows in June!
But the glitter of the b.u.t.tercup, which is as nothing to the glitter of a gold dollar in the eyes of a practical farmer, fills him with wrath when this immigrant takes possession of his pastures. Cattle will not eat the acrid, caustic plant - a sufficient reason for most members of the Ranunculaceae to stoop to the low trick of secreting poisonous or bitter juices.
Self-preservation leads a cousin, the garden monk's hood, even to murderous practices. Since children will put everything within reach into their mouths, they should be warned against biting the b.u.t.tercup's stem and leaves, that are capable of raising blisters. ”Beggars use the juice to produce sores upon their skin,” says Mrs. Creevy. A designer might employ these exquisitely formed leaves far more profitably.
This and the bulbous b.u.t.tercup, having so much else in common, have also the same visitors. ”It is a remarkable fact,” says Sir John Lubbock, ”as Aristotle long ago mentioned, that in most cases bees confine themselves in each journey to a single species of plant; though in the case of some very nearly allied forms this is not so; for instance, it is stated on good authority (Muller) that Ranunculus acris, R. repens, and R. bulbosus are not distinguished by the bees, or at least are visited indifferently by them, as is also the case with two of the species of clover.” From what we already know of the brilliant Syrphidae flies' fondness for equally brilliant colors, it is not surprising to find great numbers of them about the b.u.t.tercups, with bees, wasps, and beetles - upwards of sixty species. Modern scientists believe that the habit of feeding on flowers has called out the color-sense of insects and the taste for bright colors, and that s.e.xual selection has been guided by this taste.
The most unscientific among us soon finds evidence on every hand that flowers and insects have developed together through mutual dependence.