Because its vivid beauty cannot be hid, and few
withstand the temptation to pick it, its extermination goes on as
rapidly as its bird namesake's.
"Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Loved the wood rose and left it on its stalk?"
The easy cultivation from seed of this peerless wildflower - and
it is offered in many trade catalogues - might save it to those
regions in Nature's wide garden that now know it no more. The
ranks of floral missionaries need recruits.
Curious that the great blue lobelia should be the cardinal
flower's twin sister! Why this difference of color? Sir John
Lubbock proved by tireless experiment that the bees' favorite
color is blue, and the shorter-tubed blue lobelia elected to woo
them as her benefactors. Whoever has made a study of the
ruby-throated hummingbird's habits must have noticed how red
flowers entice him - columbines, painted cups, coral honeysuckle,
Oswego tea, trumpet flower, and cardinal in Nature's garden;
cannas, salvia, gladioli, pelargoniums, fuchsias, phloxes,
verbenas, and nasturtiums among others in ours.
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