colds. As this fluid stains whatever it touches - hence its value
to the Indians as a war-paint - one should be careful in picking
the flower. It has no value for cutting, of course; but in some
rich, shady corner of the garden, a clump of the plants will
thrive and bring a suggestive picture of the spring woods to our
very doors. It will be noticed that plants having thick
rootstocks, corms, and bulbs, which store up food during the
winter, like the irises, Solomon's seals, bloodroot, adder's
tongue, and crocuses, are prepared to rush into blossom far
earlier in spring than fibrous-rooted species that must
accumulate nourishment after the season has opened.

A newly opened flower which is in the female stage has its
anthers tightly closed, and pollen must therefore be carried from
distinct plants by the short-tongued bees and flies out
collecting it. No nectar rewards their search, although they
alight on young blossoms in the expectation of finding some food,
and so cross-fertilize them. Late in the afternoon the petals,
which have been in a showy horizontal position during the day,
rise to the perpendicular before closing to protect the flower's
precious contents for the morrow's visitors. In the blossom's
staminate stage, abundant pollen is collected by the hive bees
chiefly; but, those of the Halictus tribe, the mining bees and
the Syrphidae flies also pay profitable visits. Inasmuch as the
hive bee is a naturalized foreigner, not a native, the bloodroot
probably depended upon the other little bees to fertilize it
before her arrival. For ages this bee's small relatives and the
flowers they depended upon developed side by side, adapting
themselves to each other's wants. Now along comes an immigrant
and profits by their centuries of effort.