the female bumblebees and the little brown bombylius, among other
pollen carriers. A newly opened flower, with its stamens
surrounding the pistil, must be in peril of self-fertilization
one would think who did not notice that when the pollen is in
condition for removal by the bees and flies, the stigmatic
surfaces of the three-cleft style are tightly pressed together
that not a grain may touch them. But when the anthers have shed
their pollen, and the filaments have spread outward and away from
the pistil, the three stigmatic arms branch out to receive the
fertilizing dust carried from younger flowers by their busy
friends.


STARRY CAMPION
(Silene stellata) Pink family

Flowers - White, about 1/2 in. broad or over, loosely clustered
in a showy, pyramidal panicle. Calyx bell-shaped, swollen,
5-toothed, sticky; 5 fringed and clawed petals; 10 long, exserted
stamens; 3 styles. Stem: Erect, leafy, 2 to 3 1/2 ft. tall,
rough-hairy. Leaves: Oval, tapering to a point, 2 to 4 in. long,
seated in whorls of 4 around stem, or loose ones opposite.
Preferred Habitat - Woods, shady banks.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - Rhode Island westward to Mississippi, south to the
Carolinas and Arkansas.

Feathery white panicles of the starry campion, whose protruding
stamens and fringed petals give it a certain fleeciness, are
dainty enough for spring; by midsummer we expect plants of ranker