Wild Flowers / Natures Garden | Page 6

- in this quiet vegetable
world we may find the elementary principles of all life in almost visible
operation." - JOHN FISKE in "Through Nature to God."

FROM BLUE TO PURPLE FLOWERS
"If blue is the favorite color of bees, and if bees have so much to do
with the origin of flowers, how is it that there are so few blue ones? I
believe the explanation to be that all blue flowers have descended from
ancestors in which the flowers were green; or, to speak more precisely,
in which the leaves surrounding the stamens and pistil were green; and
that they have passed through stages of white or yellow, and generally
red, before becoming blue." - Sir John Lubbock in "Ants, Bees, and
Wasps."
VIRGINIA or COMMON DAY-FLOWER (Commelina Virginica)
Spiderwort family
Flowers - Blue, 1 in. broad or less, irregular, grouped at end of stem,
and upheld by long leaf-like bracts. Calyx of 3 unequal sepals; 3 petals,
1 inconspicuous, 2 showy, rounded. Perfect stamens 3; the anther of 1
incurved stamen largest; 3 insignificant and sterile stamens; 1 pistil.
Stem: Fleshy, smooth, branched, mucilaginous. Leaves: Lance-shaped,
3 to 5 in. long, sheathing the stem at base; upper leaves in a spathe-like

bract folding like a hood about flowers. Fruit: A 3-celled capsule, seed
in each cell. Preferred Habitat - Moist, shady ground. Flowering Season
- June - September. Distribution - Southern New York to Illinois and
Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, and through tropical America to Paraguay.
- Britton and Browne.
Delightful Linnaeus, who dearly loved his little joke, himself confesses
to have named the day-flowers after three brothers Commelyn, Dutch
botanists, because two of them - commemorated in the two showy blue
petals of the blossom - published their works; the third, lacking
application and ambition, amounted to nothing, like the inconspicuous
whitish third petal! Happily Kaspar Commelyn died in 1731, before the
joke was perpetrated in "Species Plantarum."
In the morning we find the day-flower open and alert-looking, owing to
the sharp, erect bracts that give it support; after noon, or as soon as it
has been fertilized by the female bees, that are its chief benefactors
while collecting its abundant pollen, the lovely petals roll up, never to
open again, and quickly wilt into a wet, shapeless mass, which, if we
touch it, leaves a sticky blue fluid on our finger-tips.
The SLENDER DAY-FLOWER (C. erecta), the next of kin, a more
fragile-looking, smaller-flowered, and narrower-leafed species, blooms
from August to October, from Pennsylvania southward to tropical
America and westward to Texas.
SPIDERWORT; WIDOW'S or JOB'S TEARS (Tradescantia
Virginiana) Spiderwort family
Flowers - Purplish blue, rarely white, showy, ephemeral, 1 to 2 in.
broad; usually several flowers, but more drooping buds, clustered and
seated between long blade-like bracts at end of stern. Calyx of 3 sepals,
much longer than capsule. Corolla of 3 regular petals; 6 fertile stamens,
bearded; anthers orange; 1 pistil. Stem: 8 in. to 3 ft. tall, fleshy, erect,
mucilaginous, leafy. Leaves: Opposite, long, blade-like, keeled,
clasping, or sheathing stem at base. Fruit: 3-celled capsule. Preferred
Habitat - Rich, moist woods, thickets, gardens. Flowering Season -
May-August. Distribution - New York and Virginia westward to South

Dakota and Arkansas.
As so very many of our blue flowers are merely naturalized immigrants
from Europe, it is well to know we have sent to England at least one
native that was considered fit to adorn the grounds of Hampton Court.
John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I, for whom the plant and its kin
were named, had seeds sent him by a relative in the Virginia colony;
and before long the deep azure blossoms with their golden anthers were
seen in gardens on both sides of the Atlantic - another one of the many
instances where the possibilities of our wild flowers under cultivation
had to be first pointed out to us by Europeans.
Like its relative the dayflower, the spiderwort opens for part of a day
only. In the morning it is wide awake and pert; early in the afternoon its
petals have begun to retreat within the calyx, until presently they
become "dissolved in tears," like Job or the traditional widow. What
was flower only a few hours ago is now a fluid jelly that trickles at the
touch. Tomorrow fresh buds will open, and a continuous succession of
bloom may be relied upon for a long season. Since its stigma is widely
separated from the anthers and surpasses them, it is probable the flower
cannot fertilize itself, but is wholly dependent on the female bees and
other insects that come to it for pollen. Note the hairs on the stamens
provided as footholds for the bees.
The plant is a cousin of the "Wandering Jew" (T. repens), so commonly
grown either in water or