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Pretty masses of this flower, that look like borders of garden
candy-tuft planted beside some trickling brook, are visited and
cross-fertilized by small bees, of the Andrena and Halictus clans
chiefly. How well the butterflies understand scientific
classification with instinct for their sure guide! The
caterpillar of that exquisite little white butterfly with a dark
yellow triangular spot across his wings, the fulcate orange-tip
(Euchloe genutia), a first-cousin of the common small white
cabbage butterfly, feeds on this plant and several of its kin,
knowing better than if the books had told it so, that all belong
to the same cross-bearing family. The watery, biting juice in the
Cruciferae - the radishes, nasturtiums, cabbage, peppergrass,
water-cress, mustards, and horseradish - by no means protects
them from preying worms and caterpillars; but ants, the worst
pilferers of nectar extant, let them alone. Authorities declare
that the chloride of potassium and iodine these plants contain
increase their food value to mankind.


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