Wild Flowers / Natures Garden | Page 9

to another blossom.
Absence of the usual floral attractions gives, the carrion flies a practical

monopoly of the pollen food, which no doubt tastes as it smells.
The SESSILE-FLOWERED WAKE-ROBIN (T. sessile), whose dark
purple, purplish-red, or greenish blossom, narrower of sepal and petals
than the preceding, is seated in a whorl of three egg-shaped, sometimes
blotched, leaves, possesses a rather pleasant odor; nevertheless it seems.
to have no great attraction for insects. The stigmas, which are very
large, almost touch the anthers surrounding them; therefore the beetles
which one frequently sees crawling over them to feed on the pollen so
jar them, no doubt, as to self-fertilize the flower; but it is scarcely
probable these slow crawlers often transfer the grains from one
blossom to another. A degraded flower like this has little need of color
and perfume, one would suppose; yet it may be even now slowly
perfecting its way toward an ideal of which we see a part only complete.
In deep, rich, moist woods and thickets the. sessile trillium blooms in
April or May, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota southward
nearly to the Gulf.
LARGER BLUE FLAG; BLUE IRIS; FLEUR-DE-LIS;
FLOWER-DE-LUCE (Iris versicolor) Iris family
Flowers - Several, 2 to 3 in. long, violet-blue variegated with yellow,
green, or white, and purple veined. Six divisions of the perianth: 3
outer ones spreading, recurved; 1 of them bearded, much longer and
wider than the 3 erect inner divisions; all united into a short tube. Three
stamens under 3 overhanging petal-like divisions of the style, notched
at end; under each notch is a thin plate, smooth on one side, rough and
moist (stigma) on side turned away from anther. Stem: 2 to 3 ft. high,
stout, straight, almost circular, sometimes branching above. Leaves:
Erect, sword-shaped, shorter than stem, somewhat hoary, from 1/2 to 1
in. wide, folded, and in a compact flat cluster at base; bracts usually
longer than stem of flower. Fruit: Oblong capsule, not prominently
3-lobed, and with 2 rows of round, flat seeds closely packed in each
cell. Rootstock: Creeping, horizontal, fleshy. Preferred Habitat -
Marshes, wet meadows. Flowering Season - May-July. Distribution -
Newfoundland and Manitoba to Arkansas and Florida.
"The fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of chivalry," says Ruskin, "has a

sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart." When that young and pious
Crusader, Louis VII, adopted it for the emblem of his house, spelling
was scarcely an exact science, and the fleur-de-Louis soon became
corrupted into its present form. Doubtless the royal flower was the
white iris, and as li is the Celtic for white, there is room for another
theory as to the origin of the name. It is our far more regal looking, but
truly democratic blossom, jostling its fellows in the marshes, that is
indeed "born in the purple."
When Napoleon wished to pose as the true successor of those ancient
French kings whose territory included the half of Europe - ignoring
every Louis who ever sat on the throne, for their very name and
emblem had become odious to the people - he discarded the fleur-de-lis,
to replace it with golden bees, the symbol in armory for industry and
perseverance. It is said some relics of gold and fine stones, somewhat
resembling an insect in shape, had been found in the tomb of Clovis's
father, and on the supposition that these had been bees, Napoleon
appropriated them for the imperial badge. Henceforth "Napoleonic
bees" appeared on his coronation robe and wherever a heraldic emblem
could be employed.
But even in the meadows of France Napoleon need not have looked far
from the fleurs-de-lis growing there to find bees. Indeed, this gorgeous
flower is thought by scientists to be all that it is for the bees' benefit,
which, of course, is its own also. Abundant moisture, from which to
manufacture nectar - a prime necessity with most irises - certainly is for
our blue flag. The large showy blossom cannot but attract the passing
bee, whose favorite color (according to Sir John Lubbock) it waves.
The bee alights on the convenient, spreading platform, and, guided by
the dark veining and golden lines leading to the nectar, sips the
delectable fluid shortly to be changed to honey. Now, as he raises his
head and withdraws it from the nectary, he must rub it against the
pollen-laden anther above, and some of the pollen necessarily falls on
the visitor. As the sticky side of the plate (stigma), just under the
petal-like division of the style, faces away from the anther, which is
below it in any case, the flower is marvelously guarded against
fertilization from its own pollen. The bee, flying off to another iris,

must first brush past the projecting lip of the over-arching style, and
leave on the stigmatic