Notice how flat the stamens lie upon the petals to keep safely out of reach of the stigma.Another flower, exactly like the first, now expands, and the bloom continues for weeks.Why does only one blossom open at a time? Because the whole aim of the showy flowers is to set cross-fertilized seed, and when only one at a time appears, pollination not only between distinct blossoms but between distinct plants insures the healthiest, most vigorous offspring - a wise precaution against degeneracy, in view of the quantities of self-fertilized seed that will be set late in summer by the tiny apetalous flowers that never open (see white wood sorrel).Surely two kinds of blossoms should be enough for any species; but why call this the frost-flower when its bloom is ended by autumn? Only the witch-hazel may be said to flower for the first time after frost.When the stubble in the dry fields is white some cold November morning, comparatively few notice the ice crystals, like specks of glistening quartz, at the base of the stems of this plant.The similar HOARY FROST-WEED (H.majus), whose showy flowers appear in clusters at the hoary stein's summit, in June and July, also bears them.Often this ice formation assumes exquisite feathery, whimsical forms, bursting the bark asunder where an astonishing quantity of sap gushes forth and freezes.Indeed, so much sap sometimes goes to the making of this crystal flower, that it would seem as if an extra reservoir in the soil must pump some up to supply it with its large fantastic corolla.
BEACH or FALSE HEATHER; POVERTY GRASS
(Hudsonia tomentosa) Rock-rose family Flowers - Bright yellow, small, about 1/4 in.across, numerous, closely ascending the upper part of the heath-like branches.
Sepals 5, unequal; 5 petals; stamens, 9 to 18.Stem: 4 to 8 in.
tall, tufted, densely branched and matted, hoary hairy, pale.
Leaves: Overlapping like scales, very small.
Preferred Habitat - Sands of the seashore, pine barrens, beaches of rivers and lakes.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - New Brunswick to Maryland, west to Lake of the Woods.
Like the showy flowers of the frost-weed, these minute ones open in the sunshine only, and then but for a single day.
Nevertheless, the hoary, heath-like little shrub, by growing in large colonies and keeping up a succession of bright bloom, tinges the sand dunes back of the beach with charming color that artists delight to paint in the foreground of their marine pictures.
YELLOW VIOLETS
(Viola) Violet family Fine hairs on the erect, leafy, usually single stem of the DOWNYYELLOW VIOLET (V.pubescens), whose dark veined, bright yellow petals gleam in dry woods in April and May, easily distinguish it from the SMOOTH YELLOW VIOLET (V.scabriuscula), formerly considered a mere variety in spite of its being an earlier bloomer, a lover of moisture, and well equipped with basal leaves at flowering time, which the downy species is not.Moreover, it bears a paler blossom, more coarsely dentate leaves, often decidedly taper-pointed, and usually several stems together.
Our other common yellow species, the ROUND-LEAVED VIOLET (V.
rotundifolia), lifts smaller, pale, brown-veined, and bearded blossoms above a tuffet of broad, shining leaves close to the ground.The veins on the petals serve as pathfinders to the nectary for the bee, and the beard as footholds, while she probes the inverted blossoms.Such violets as have their side petals bearded are most frequently visited by small greenish mason bees (Osmia), with collecting brushes on their abdomen that receive the pollen as it falls.Abundant cleistogamous flowers (see blue violets and white wood sorrel) are borne on the runners late in the season.Bryant, whose botanical lore did not always keep step with his Muse, wrote of the yellow violet as the first spring flower, because he found it "by the snowbank's edges cold," one April day, when the hepaticas about his home at Roslyn, Long Island, had doubtless been in bloom a month.
"Of all her train the hands of Spring First plant thee in the watery mould,"he wrote, regardless of the fact that the round-leaved violet's preferences are for dry, wooded, or rocky hillsides.Muller believed that all violets were originally yellow, not white, after they evoluted from the green stage.
EASTERN CACTUS; PRICKLY PEAR; INDIAN FIG
(Opuntia Opuntia; 0.vulgaris of Gray) Cactus family Flowers -Yellow, sometimes reddish at center, 2 to 3 in.across, solitary, mostly seated at the side of joints.Calyx tube not prolonged beyond ovary, its numerous lobes spreading.Petals numerous; stamens very numerous; ovary cylindric; the style longer than stamens, and with several stigmas.Stem: Prostrate or ascending, fleshy, juicy, branching, the thick, flattened joints oblong or rounded, 2 to 5 in.long.Leaves: Tiny, awl-shaped, dotting the joints, but usually falling early; tufts of yellowish bristles at their base.Plant unarmed, or with few solitary stout spines.Fruit: Pear-shaped, pulpy, red, nearly smooth, 1 in.long or over, edible.
Preferred Habitat - Sandy or dry or rocky places.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - Massachusetts to Florida.
