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There was the blue sea outside; only the birch trees on the shore had changed their tints. In the garden the dahlias were still in full splendour, and the perfume of the mignonette rose from the borders of the flower beds. A few bees still visited the dying calyces but returned disappointed to their hives.
A serpent, of a brick-red, about the thickness of a large quill, and five or six inches long, half protrudes its flat head from one of those enormous, perfumed calyces, in which it lies closely curled up. Within the ajoupa, a young man is extended on a mat in a profound sleep.
In the case of flowers with very deep calyces, he sometimes makes short cut to the honey by piercing with his sharp curved bill a hole in the side through which to insert the tongue. The cock purple sunbird needs no description. His glistening metallic plumage compels attention. He is usually accompanied by his spouse, who is earthy brown above and pale yellow below.
Coal-measures, Edinburgh. c. Stem and spike; 1/2 natural size. b. Remains of the spathe magnified. c. Portion of spike magnified. d. Robert Paterson. The spike is covered on the exposed surface with the four-cleft calyces of the flowers arranged in parallel rows.
The floral leaves are rhomboidal, acuminate, and membraneous, the upper ones being shorter than the calyces, bracteas obovate; the calyces are bluish, nearly cylindrical, contracted toward the mouth, and ribbed with many veins. The corolla is of a pale bluish violet, of a deeper tint on the inner surface than the outer, tubular, two-lipped, the upper lip with two and the lower with three lobes.
L. Stæchas (Stichas) was discovered prior to the year 50 A.D. in the Stæchades Islands (now the Islands of Hyères), hence the name. At present it is found wild in the South of Europe and North of Africa, also at Teneriffe. The leaves are oblong linear, about half an inch long (sometimes an inch long when cultivated), with revolute edges and clothed with hoary tomentum on both surfaces; the spike is tetragonal, compact, with a tuft of purple leaves at the top; the calyces are ovate and slightly shorter than the tube of the corolla. The whole plant has a strong aromatic and agreeable flavor. There is a variety of this species (L. macrost
As early as the beginning of January this Witch Hazel may be found in bloom, the bare branches being studded here and there with the curious-shaped flowers, these having bright yellow, twisted petals and reddish calyces. H.j. Zuccarinianais a very desirable free-flowering variety, with pale yellow petals and a greenish-brown calyx. H. VIRGINICA. Virginian Witch Hazel. North America, 1736.
She is ruled by nourishment given her; for she does not take her own food, but is fed like a child by the very workers whom her fecundity harasses. And the food these workers deal out is nicely proportioned to the abundance of flowers, to the spoil brought back by those who visit the calyces.
He lives on small mammals and birds, eggs and fruits, but before he swallows his food he cleans it well, generally in water. There is a perpetual gloom under the crowns of the foliaged trees and palms. It is the home of shadows. Only lianas, these parasites of the vegetable kingdom, raise their stems above the dusky vault to open their calyces in the sun.
When the rhododendrons are in flower, these birds partake very freely of the nectar enclosed within their crimson calyces.
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