Another flower, exactly like the
first, now expands, and the bloom continues for weeks. Why does
only one blossom open at a time? Because the whole aim of the
showy flowers is to set cross-fertilized seed, and when only one
at a time appears, pollination not only between distinct blossoms
but between distinct plants insures the healthiest, most vigorous
offspring - a wise precaution against degeneracy, in view of the
quantities of self-fertilized seed that will be set late in
summer by the tiny apetalous flowers that never open (see white
wood sorrel). Surely two kinds of blossoms should be enough for
any species; but why call this the frost-flower when its bloom is
ended by autumn? Only the witch-hazel may be said to flower for
the first time after frost. When the stubble in the dry fields is
white some cold November morning, comparatively few notice the
ice crystals, like specks of glistening quartz, at the base of
the stems of this plant. The similar HOARY FROST-WEED (H. majus),
whose showy flowers appear in clusters at the hoary stein's
summit, in June and July, also bears them.
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