登陆注册
15677900000083

第83章 WHITE AND GREENISH FLOWERS(14)

Tall white rockets, shooting upward from a mass of large handsome leaves in some heavily shaded midsummer woodland border, cannot fail to impress themselves through more than one sense, for their odor is as disagreeable as the fleecy white blossoms are striking.Obviously such flowers would be most attractive to the carrion and meat flies.Cimicifuga, meaning to drive away bugs, and the old folk-name of bugbane testify to a degree of offensiveness to other insects, where the flies' enjoyment begins.As these are the only insects one is likely to see about the fleecy wands, doubtless they are their benefactors.The countless stamens which feed them generously with pollen willingly left for them alone must also dust them well as they crawl about before flying to another fetid lunch.

The close kinship with the baneberries is detected at once on examining one of these flowers.Were the vigorous plant less offensive to the nostrils, many a garden would be proud to own so decorative an addition to the shrubbery border.

WOOD ANEMONE; WIND FLOWER

(Anemone quinquefolia) Crowfoot family Flowers - Solitary, about 1 in.broad, white or delicately tinted with blue or pink outside.Calyx of 4 to 9 oval, petal-like sepals; no petals; stamens and carpels numerous, of indefinite number.Stem: Slender, 4 to 9 in.high, from horizontal elongated rootstock.Leaves: On slender petioles, in a whorl of 3 to 5below the flower, each leaf divided into 3 to 5 variously cut and lobed parts; also a late-appearing leaf from the base.

Preferred Habitat - Woodlands, hillsides, light soil, partial shade.

Flowering Season - April-June.

Distribution - Canada and United States, south to Georgia, west to Rocky Mountains.

According to one poetical Greek tradition, Anemos, the wind, employs these exquisitely delicate little star-like namesakes as heralds of his coming in early spring, while woods and hillsides still lack foliage to break his gust's rude force.Pliny declared that only the wind could open anemones! Another legend utilized by countless poets pictures Venus wandering through the forests grief-stricken over the death of her youthful lover.

"Alas, the Paphian! fair Adonis slain!

Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain;But gentle flowers are born and bloom around From every drop that falls upon the ground:

Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the rose;And where a tear has dropped, a wind-flower blows."Indeed, in reading the poets ancient and modern for references to this favorite blossom, one realizes as never before the significance of an anthology, literally a flower gathering.

But it is chiefly the European anemone that is extolled by the poets.Nevertheless our more slender, fragile, paler-leaved, and smaller-flowered species, known, strange to say, by the same scientific name, possesses the greater charm.Doctors, with more prosaic eyes than the poets, find acrid and dangerous juices in the anemone and its kin.Certain European peasants will run past a colony of these pure innocent blossoms in the belief that the very air is tainted by them.Yet the Romans ceremonially picked the first anemone of the year, with an incantation supposed to guard them against fever.The identical plant that blooms in our woods, which may be found also in Asia, is planted on graves by the Chinese, who call it the "death flower."To leave legend and folk lore, the practical scientist sees in the anemone, trembling and bending before the wind, a perfect adaptation to its environment.Anchored in the light soil by a horizontal rootstock; furnished with a stem so slender and pliable no blast can break it; its pretty leaves whorled where they form a background to set off the fragile beauty of the solitary flower above them; a corolla economically dispensed with, since the white sepals are made to do the advertising for insects; the slightly nodding attitude of the blossom in cloudy weather, that the stigmas may be in the line of the fall of pollen jarred out by the wind in case visitors seeking pollen fail to bring any from other anemones - all these features teach that every plant is what it is for excellent reasons of its own;that it is a sentient being, not to be admired for superficial beauty merely, but also for those same traits which operate in the human race, making it the most interesting of studies.

Note the clusters of tuberous dahlia-like roots, the whorl of thin three-lobed rounded leaflets on long, fine petioles immediately below the smaller pure white or pinkish flowers usually growing in loose clusters, to distinguish the more common RUE-ANEMONE (Syndesmon thalictroides - Thalictrum anemonoides of Gray) from its cousin the solitary flowered wood or true anemone.

Generally there are three blossoms of the rue-anemone to a cluster, the central one opening first, the side ones only after it has developed its stamens and pistils to prolong the season of bloom and encourage cross-pollination by insects.In the eastern half of the United States, and less abundantly in Canada, these are among the most familiar spring wild flowers.Pick them and they soon wilt miserably; lift the plants early, with a good ball of soil about the roots, and they will unfold their fragile blossoms indoors, bringing with them something of the unspeakable charm of their native woods and hillsides just waking into life.

同类推荐
  • 小儿语_续小儿语_女小儿语

    小儿语_续小儿语_女小儿语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 五人墓碑记

    五人墓碑记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 沙弥罗经

    沙弥罗经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 祝鹊

    祝鹊

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 二酉委谭摘录

    二酉委谭摘录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 阵才

    阵才

    琴棋书画本为古代技法,又称雅人四好,但在庆元大陆,四艺演变成了一种艺法,可用于修炼成术,术凝练出阵,依靠阵法,人族上天入地,征战八荒,开创了前所未有的艺法时代。琴迷画乱、棋困笔伐,这是庆元大陆对四艺阵法的体现,依仗四艺阵法一途,人族独树一帜,被称为雅士一族。秦河原为地球一所棋艺研究院的研究生,在钻研一副春秋时期的古棋盘时发生了意外,穿越到了对四艺推崇备至的庆元大陆,就此展开一段席卷天地的阵皇传说。《忘忧清乐集》《仙机武库》《秋仙遗谱》《玄玄棋经》,这些仅仅是地球古往今来,震古烁今的绝世棋谱之中冰山一角,在地球强大的棋艺文明支撑下,秦河在庆元大陆如鱼得水,纵横无疆,开创了人族万族来朝的辉煌盛世。
  • Joe Wilson and His Mates

    Joe Wilson and His Mates

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 我们是战地救护者

    我们是战地救护者

    小说根据作者亲身经历改编,这是一群胶东农民的儿女在革命战争中战斗、生活和成长的经历,农村青年小刘投笔从戎,作为一名战地卫生员,本着对革命的人道主义精神,在南征北战中救死扶伤,解放战争胜利后,又与战友们相逢在朝鲜战场,上演了一场血与火的生死考验,它从另一个角度再现了战争的历史真相,是又一部集结号!
  • 只要出发,就能到达

    只要出发,就能到达

    乔·阿卡夫是一位美国屌丝,8年时间换过8份工作,一年最多做过26份兼职,他为生存而挣扎,他更换工作的频率,比你我都频繁。然而,他靠着自己的一步一步用心经营,成为《纽约时报》畅销书作家、美国个人发展领域最炙手可热的人物,最受美国年轻人追捧的自由创业者。而他最大的成功便是,他的成功你我都可以复制。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 健身营养指南(60岁花甲篇)

    健身营养指南(60岁花甲篇)

    本书为60多岁人士的健身和营养需要,提供针对增强腹部肌肉、减轻腰部疼痛、降低血压以及减肥的有效锻炼方法。
  • 末法新世界

    末法新世界

    一把虎魄扬神威,半面石镜为何起?须佐对战EVA,仙人为何屠凡人?错开远古看近代,错在何处为哪般?且看末日系列,远古神话小说!
  • 白色眷恋

    白色眷恋

    因为不满皇马6比2的比分,中国青年律师沈星怒砸啤酒瓶,结果电光火石间,他穿越成了佛罗伦蒂诺的儿子,且看来自09年的小伙子如何玩转03年的欧洲足坛
  • 最强王牌

    最强王牌

    杨帆,空军学院的天之骄子,毗邻毕业时被开除学籍,在魔鬼教官的帮助下,从而踏上一条全新的征程。为国战,为民战,誓死不悔。兵锋所指,战魂无敌,群雄避让,从此成就最强王者之名。
  • 破世七鬼

    破世七鬼

    千年前的一次旷世大战,人间沧桑。。。。。。暗黑界的统治者魔君暗黑神领众妖席卷人间。。。。。。传说中的七鬼与暗黑界展开旷世大战....千年后,暗黑界新的统治者魔尊修罗是否会像千年前?暗黑界将是否在重临于世?七鬼战神将再次站出卫世。。。。谁生?谁死?迷雾重重,真相在何方?千年的战争,千年的恩怨.........究竟人间是否会真如诅咒般消失于世?