WILD FLOWERS [181]
Moreover, they are better adapted to withstand the water's pressure and possible currents than solid blades would be. The floating leaves which loll upon the surface to take advantage of the air and sunlight, expand three, four, or five divisions, variously lobed. On this plant we see one set of leaves perfectly adapted to immersion, and another set to aerial existence. The stem, which may measure several feet in length, roots at the joints when it can. Range from the Mississippi and Ontario eastward to the Atlantic Ocean.
The WHITE WATER-CROWFOOT (Batrachium trichophyllum; Ranunculus aquatilis of Gray) has its fine thread-like leaves entirely submerged; but the flowers, like a whale, as the old conundrum put it, come to the surface to blow. The latter are small, white, or only yellow at the base, where each petal bears a spot or little pit that serves as a pathfinder to the flies. When the water rises unusually high, the blossoms never open, but remain submerged, and fertilize themselves. Seen underwater, the delicate leaves, which are little more than forked hairs, spread abroad in dainty patterns; lifted cut of the water these flaccid filaments utterly collapse. In ponds and shallow, slow streams, this common plant flowers from June to September almost throughout the Union, the British Possessions north of us, and in Europe and Asia.
The WATER PLANTAIN SPEARWORT (K. obtusiusculus; R. a/isrnaefoiius of Gray) flecks the marshes from June to August with its small golden flowers, which the merest novice knows must be kin to the buttercup. The smooth, hollow stem, especially thick at the base, likes to root from the lower joints. A peculiarity of the lance-shaped or oblong lance-shaped leaves is that the lower ones have petioles so broad where they clasp the stem that they appear to be long blades suddenly contracted just above their base.
BARBERRY; PEPPERIDGE-BUSH (Berberis vulgaris) Barberry family
Flowers - Yellow, small, odor disagreeable, 6-parted, borne in drooping, many-flowered racemes from the leaf axils along arching twigs. Stem: A much branched, smooth, gray shrub, to 8 ft. tall, armed with sharp spines. Leaves: From the 3-pronged spines (thorns); oval or obovate, bristly edged. Fruit: Oblong, scarlet, acid berries. Preferred Habitat - Thickets; roadsides; dry or gravelly soil. Flowering Season - May-June. Distribution - Naturalized in New England and Middle States; less common in Canada and the West. Europe and Asia.
When the twigs of barberry bushes arch with the weight of clusters of beautiful bright berries in September, everyone must take notice of a shrub so decorative, which receives scant attention from us, however, when its insignificant little flowers are out. Yet these blossoms, small as they are, are up to a marvelous trick, quite as remarkable as the laurel's (q.v.) or the calopogon's (q.v.), to compel insects to do their bidding. Three of the six sepals, by their size and color, attend to the advertising, playing the part of a corolla; and partly by curving inward at the tip, partly by the drooping posture of the flower, help protect the stamens, pistil, and nectar glands within from rain. Did the flowers hang vertically, not obliquely, such curvature of the tips of sepals and petals would be unnecessary. Six stamens surround a pistil, but each of their six anthers, which are in reality little pollen boxes opening by trap-doors on either side, is tucked under the curving tip of a petal at whose base lie two orange-colored nectar glands. A small bee or fly enters the flower: what happens? To reach the nectar, he must probe between the bases of two exceedingly irritable stamens. The merest touch of a visitor's tongue against them releases two anthers, just as the nibbling mouse all unsuspectingly releases the wire from the hook of the wooden trap he is caught in. As the two stamens spring upward on being released, pollen instantly flies out of the trap-doors of the anther boxes on the bee, which suffers no greater penalty than being obliged to carry it to the stigma of another flower.
The WHITE WATER-CROWFOOT (Batrachium trichophyllum; Ranunculus aquatilis of Gray) has its fine thread-like leaves entirely submerged; but the flowers, like a whale, as the old conundrum put it, come to the surface to blow. The latter are small, white, or only yellow at the base, where each petal bears a spot or little pit that serves as a pathfinder to the flies. When the water rises unusually high, the blossoms never open, but remain submerged, and fertilize themselves. Seen underwater, the delicate leaves, which are little more than forked hairs, spread abroad in dainty patterns; lifted cut of the water these flaccid filaments utterly collapse. In ponds and shallow, slow streams, this common plant flowers from June to September almost throughout the Union, the British Possessions north of us, and in Europe and Asia.
The WATER PLANTAIN SPEARWORT (K. obtusiusculus; R. a/isrnaefoiius of Gray) flecks the marshes from June to August with its small golden flowers, which the merest novice knows must be kin to the buttercup. The smooth, hollow stem, especially thick at the base, likes to root from the lower joints. A peculiarity of the lance-shaped or oblong lance-shaped leaves is that the lower ones have petioles so broad where they clasp the stem that they appear to be long blades suddenly contracted just above their base.
BARBERRY; PEPPERIDGE-BUSH (Berberis vulgaris) Barberry family
Flowers - Yellow, small, odor disagreeable, 6-parted, borne in drooping, many-flowered racemes from the leaf axils along arching twigs. Stem: A much branched, smooth, gray shrub, to 8 ft. tall, armed with sharp spines. Leaves: From the 3-pronged spines (thorns); oval or obovate, bristly edged. Fruit: Oblong, scarlet, acid berries. Preferred Habitat - Thickets; roadsides; dry or gravelly soil. Flowering Season - May-June. Distribution - Naturalized in New England and Middle States; less common in Canada and the West. Europe and Asia.
When the twigs of barberry bushes arch with the weight of clusters of beautiful bright berries in September, everyone must take notice of a shrub so decorative, which receives scant attention from us, however, when its insignificant little flowers are out. Yet these blossoms, small as they are, are up to a marvelous trick, quite as remarkable as the laurel's (q.v.) or the calopogon's (q.v.), to compel insects to do their bidding. Three of the six sepals, by their size and color, attend to the advertising, playing the part of a corolla; and partly by curving inward at the tip, partly by the drooping posture of the flower, help protect the stamens, pistil, and nectar glands within from rain. Did the flowers hang vertically, not obliquely, such curvature of the tips of sepals and petals would be unnecessary. Six stamens surround a pistil, but each of their six anthers, which are in reality little pollen boxes opening by trap-doors on either side, is tucked under the curving tip of a petal at whose base lie two orange-colored nectar glands. A small bee or fly enters the flower: what happens? To reach the nectar, he must probe between the bases of two exceedingly irritable stamens. The merest touch of a visitor's tongue against them releases two anthers, just as the nibbling mouse all unsuspectingly releases the wire from the hook of the wooden trap he is caught in. As the two stamens spring upward on being released, pollen instantly flies out of the trap-doors of the anther boxes on the bee, which suffers no greater penalty than being obliged to carry it to the stigma of another flower.