And then how he grows! Up the poor weed he twines, a slender yellow stem that looks as much like yellow yarn as anything else. Around and around he turns; he has no leaves to make, only useless little scales that show where long ago his ancestors once had honest leaves. You will sometimes find the weeds in a damp place a perfect tangle of dodder vines, so that nothing else is to be seen. They cover the weeds, sucking out their juices and smothering them. And when the time comes the dodder breaks out into innumerable bunches of flowers, which grow at short distances along the yellow stems. These flowers are small and generally white, and clustered so close together that they form a sort of knot or rosette on the stem. You would never imagine to look at them that they belonged to our Morning-Glory Family. Their corollas are more or less cleft, being grown together only at the base. Sometimes the flowers are orange-colored or reddish, but they do not seem to attract the insects much. Nor do they care, for they can easily fertilize themselves, the anthers and stigmas being so close together. They have none of the ingenious arrangements for cross-fertilization that characterize their more fortunate relatives. They are thoroughly degraded plants. There lives a dodder in Europe which grows upon flax, and so does damage to the flax fields, and I am sorry to say this little pest has tramped his way across the ocean into _our_ flax fields. We do not thank Europe at all for sending us such an emigrant. As the dodders have nothing to do but suck the juices of other plants and make seeds out of them, you may be sure they set any quantity of seeds to keep up the disreputable race of dodders. Yet, in spite of the dodders, dear Convolvulus People, let us say to you, as our beloved old Rip Van Winkle says to us, “May you live long and prosper, and all your family!” [Illustration: [Convolvulus]] [Illustration: Stories About the Geranium Family] Stories About the Geranium Family TROPÆOLUM STORIES. TROPÆOLUM HONEY. [Illustration: [Tropæolum]] If you had a horn as red as a rose, And full to the brim with honey, If a bee came along and begged you for some, Now tell, would you give her any? [Illustration: [Tropæolum]] If I had a horn as red as a rose, And full to the brim with honey, If a bee came along I’d invite her in, And give her all she could carry! THE TROPÆOLUM. Like the morning-glory flower, the tropæolum, or nasturtium, as we usually call it, has several important organs. It has a pistil and stamens, and plenty of rich nectar. [Illustration: [Tropæolum]] Its corolla, as you know, is large and showy, but it is not in the form of a tube. It is divided, into several distinct pieces called petals. Its calyx, too, is not green, but is colored somewhat like the corolla. [Illustration: [Tropæolum]]