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Wound the plant in any part, and there flows an
orange-red juice, which old-fashioned mothers used to drop on
lumps of sugar and administer when their children had coughs and
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.


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