Now, in all our lily kin nectar is secreted in a groove at the base of each of the six divisions of the flower, and upon its removal by that insect best adapted to come in contact with anthers and stigma as it flies from lily to lily depends all hope of perpetuating the lovely race.For countless ages it has been the flower's business to find what best pleased the visitors on whom so much depended.Some lilies decided to woo one class of insects; some, another.Those which literally set their caps for color-loving bees and butterflies whose long tongues could easily drain nectar deeply hidden from the mob for their special benefit, assumed gay hues, speckling the inner side of their spreading divisions, even providing lines as pathfinders to their nectaries in some cases, lest a visitor try to thrust in his tongue between the petal-like parts while standing on the outside, and so defeat their well-laid plan.It is almost pathetic to see how bright and spotted they are inside, that the visitor may not go astray.Thus we find the chief pollenizers of the Canada and the Turk's cap lilies to be specialized bees, the interesting upholsterers, or 1eaf-cutters, conspicuous among the throng.Nectar they want, of course; but the dark, rich pollen is needed also to mix with it for the food supply of a generation still unborn.Anyone who has smelled a lily knows how his nose looks afterward.The bees have no difficulty whatever in removing lily pollen and transferring it.So much for the colored lilies.
The long, white, trumpet-shape type of lily chooses for her lover the sphinx moth.For him she wears a spotless white robe -speckles would be superfluous - that he may see it shine in the dusk, when colored flowers melt into the prevailing blackness;for him she breathes forth a fragrance almost overwhelming at evening, to guide him to her neighborhood from afar; in consideration of his very long, slender tongue she hides her sweets so deep that none may rob him of it, taking the additional precaution to weld her six once separate parts together into a solid tube lest any pilferer thrust in his tongue from the side.
The common orange-tan DAY LILY (Hemerocallis fulva) and the commoner speckled, orange-red TIGER LILY (L.tigrinum) are not slow in seizing opportunities to escape from gardens into roadsides and fence corners.
YELLOW ADDER'S TONGUE; TROUT LILY; DOG-TOOTH "VIOLET"(Erythronium Americanum) Lily family Flower - Solitary, pale russet yellow, rarely tinged with purple, slightly fragrant, 1 to 2 in.long, nodding from the summit of a footstalk 6 to 12 in.high, or about as tall as the leaves.
Perianth bell-shaped, of 6 petal-like, distinct segments, spreading at tips, dark spotted within; 6 stamens; the club-shaped style with 3 short, stigmatic ridges.Leaves: 2, unequal, grayish green, mottled and streaked with brown or all green, oblong, 3 to 8 in.long, narrowing into clasping petioles.
Preferred Habitat - Moist open woods and thickets, brooksides.
Flowering Season - March-May Distribution - Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to the Mississippi.
Colonies of these dainty little lilies, that so often grow beside leaping brooks where and when the trout hide, justify at least one of their names; but they have nothing in common with the violet or a dog's tooth.Their faint fragrance rather suggests a tulip; and as for the bulb, which in some of the lily-kin has tooth-like scales, it is in this case a smooth, egg-shaped corm, producing little round offsets from its base.Much fault is also found with another name on the plea that the curiously mottled and delicately pencilled leaves bring to mind, not a snake's tongue, but its skin, as they surely do.Whoever sees the sharp purplish point of a young plant darting above ground in earliest spring, however, at once sees the fitting application of adder's tongue.But how few recognize their plant friends at all seasons of the year!
Every one must have noticed the abundance of low-growing spring flowers in deciduous woodlands, where, later in the year, after the leaves overhead cast a heavy shade, so few blossoms are to be found, because their light is seriously diminished.The thrifty adder's tongue, by laying up nourishment in its storeroom underground through the winter, is ready to send its leaves and flower upward to take advantage of the sunlight the still naked trees do not intercept, just as soon as the ground thaws.But the spring beauty, the rue-anemone, bloodroot, toothwort, and the first blue violet (palmata) among other early spring flowers, have not been slow to take advantage of the light either.Fierce competition, therefore, rages among them to secure visits from the comparatively few insects then flying - a competition so severe that the adder's tongue often has to wait until afternoon for the spring beauty to close before receiving a single caller.
Hive-bees, and others only about half their size, of the Andrena and Halictus clans, the first to fly, the Bombylius frauds, and common yellow butterflies, come in numbers then.Guided by the speckles to the nectaries at the base of the flower, they must either cling to the stamens and style while they suck, or fall out.Thus cross-fertilization is commonly effected; but in the absence of insects the lily can fertilize itself.Crawling pilferers rarely think it worthwhile to slip and slide up the smooth footstalk and risk a tumble where it curves to allow the flower to nod - the reason why this habit of growth is so popular.The adder's tongue, which is extremely sensitive to the sunlight, will turn on its stalk to follow it, and expand in its warmth.At night it nearly closes.
A similar adder's tongue, bearing a white flower, purplish tinged on the outside, yellow at the base within to guide insects to the nectaries, is the WHITE ADDER'S TONGUE (E.albidum), rare in the Eastern States, but quite common westward as far as Texas and Minnesota.
YELLOW CLINTONIA