The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-08-18

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puts forth a flower that is blue tinted
for it's experience has taught it that
a bee can be wooed with blue better
than with any other color.
The iris was long centuries ago
adopted by Louis VII, the gallant
Young crusader, as the emblem of his
house. 1t becomes thereby the flow
er of Louis, which was corrupted in
to F~leur-de-lis.' The iris, or blue flag.
is really meant wnen one speaks of
the lily of France. The iris is a plant
that insures its life. In its large
rootstock it lays up endowment in
surance in the days of plenty, so that
when the earth is chill, cold and in
hospitable its savings will provide
against need.
The great bindweed, a first cousin
to the morning glory, is a hobo
among flowers. 1t has Travelled up
and down the lanes Of world trade
for centuries, until it has come to
claim most of the northern hemis-
phere for its abiding place. 1t loves
wayside hedges and thickets, where
it climbs over everything in its fight
for the survival of the fttest; but it
knows no joy greater than getting
into a cornfield, where it can use the
stalks as a ~nature-built trellis for its
w~anderings. 1t flowers from June un-
til September. 1t keeps solid hours,
getting to bed when the sun goes
down except on moonlight nights
when it keeps open house for the
benefit of certain moths that are its
especial friends.
The wild pink, or cathfy, a dweller
on dry gravelly or sandy soil, giving
color to many lonesome places from
April to June with its delicate pink
petals. is among those flowers who
believe in taking no chances when it
comes to the question of fertilization.
The wild pinks have developed two
sets of stamens, n above the other,
so that if one misses the transfer of
it's pollen, the other is likely to sup
ply the resulting deficiency. The wild
pink finds its cupboard of sweets a
fair mark for many tiny insects that
are large enough to drain its cup of
nectar and yet too small to bear away
the flowers pollen to some distant
mate. So it has provided an effec-
tive lock and key to its pantry. This
lock and. key is a gummy, viscid fluid
that the pink secretes and spreads
around the sticky stem below the
flower. No fly that ever alighted up
on a piece of man-made fly paper
was more certainly and surely
brought to an untimely end than the
ant that essays to sip the nectar of
the wild pink. Thus we can see that
the fly paper idea is not mans inven-
ton at all, but an idea borrowed
from a flower.
Fighting her way across the Amer
lean continent, b~lack-eyed susan has
proven the master of the allied forces
of man and nature. In the competi-
ton of life she has been able to make
a home wherever she sets her foot,
and neither the rivalries of the field
nor the laws and labors of man have
been able to hold her in check. Black
eyed susan loves dry fields and open,
sunny places. Its Towering season is
long, from May until September. 1t
is one of the few Migrants that has
travelled from the West to the East.
In years gone by much clover seed
was shipped out of the West, and
| black-eyed susan hoboed her way.
along with it. Most of the weeds of
the field have followed the star of
empire, from the East to the West;
but black-eyed susan has reversed
the progress and she has now secur-
ed a fooothold in and is fighting for
the conquest of the fields of Europe.
Among the truly wild" flowers,
two that ask of mar only to be let
alone in their native fastnessss, are
the mayflower, or trailing arbutus,
and the twin berry, or partridge ber-
ry, the last named a member of the
madden family and a distant relative
of the coffee tree. The mayfower is
widest and shyest of all. No more
is the eagle at home in the farm yard
or the cardinal in the cage than the
%mayhower in the garden. AS the i'm
prisoned cardinal pines away and
dies when the gilded bars of a bird
cage separate it from it's liberty, so
the mayfower sickens and withers
away in the garden.
The moth MULLEN for many a year
has been a rural moth ball. 1t is a
member of the fgwort family.
Among its relatives are the great
MULLEN, the blue toad-fax, the small
snap-dragon, the .turtle-head, the
beard-tongue, the monkey-lower, the
louse-wort and the cow-wheat. The
country-dwelling housewife uses it's
leaves in packing away wooden gar
ments of winter to keep out the tiny
cloth moths of summer. 1t is also
believed to be a bane to cockroaches.
The snowy lady's slipper, a shy
member of the orchid family, flower
ing from June to September, v
seeks the haunts of man, but tries to
remove itself as far from their COM
ings and goings as it can, and it sue
ceeds 50 we'll that only the flower
lover who is willing to take pains
can approach its dwelling place.
Moreover, it is so persistent in it's
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