On the beech-drop’s slender branches two kinds of flowers
are seated : below are the minute fertile ones, which never open,
but, without imported pollen, ripen an abundance of seed with
literally the closest economy. Nevertheless, to save the species
from still deeper degeneracy through perpetual self-fertilization,
small purplish-striped flowers above them mature stigmas and
anthers on different days, and invite insect visits to help them pro-
duce a few cross-fertilized seeds. Evena few willsaveit. Ever
plant which bears cleistogamous or blind flowers—violets, wood-
sorrel, jewel-weed, among others—must also display some showy
ones.
38a


Red and Indefinites


Trumpet-flower; Trumpet-creeper


(Tecoma radicans) Trumpei-creeper family


Flowers—Red and veined within, paler and inclined toward tawny
without, trumpet-shaped, about 2% in. long, the limb with 5
rounded lobes; 2 to 9 flowers in the terminal clusters ;
anther-bearing stamens 4, in pairs, under upper part of tube ;
1 pistil. Stem: A woody vine 20 to 40 ft. long, prostrate or
climbing. Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compounded of 7
to 11 ovate, saw-edged leaflets.
Preferred Habitat—Moist, rich woods and thickets.
Flowering Season—August—September.
Distribution—New Jersey and Pennsylvania, westward to Illinois,
and south to the Gulf States. Occasionally escaped from
gardens farther north.
From early May until the middle of October, the ruby-throatea
humming bird forsakes the tropics to spend the flowery months
with us. Which wild flowers undertake to feed him? Years
before showy flowers were brought from all corners of the earth
to adorn our gardens, about half a dozen natives in that parterre of
Nature’s east of the Mississippi catered to him in orderly succession.
