The bees, especially the bumblebee, will tell the pollenation

story to us in the garden. The contrasting color of the petals and

sepals tells her where to alight; this she does accurately, and the

inconsequential lower petals seem made for her to grasp; she presses

them to her breast with her front and middle legs with a dramatic,

almost ecstatic, gesture that is comical to witness, and holds them

firmly while she thrusts her head into the opening between them; she

probes the spur twice, evidently finding there the two nectar-wells.

It is a fascinating pastime to follow her as she goes from flower

to flower like a Madam Pompadour, powdered with her white pollen.

In order that a bee may work on these flowers, it is necessary that

they hang vertically. The tips of the tall flower stalks are likely

to bend or curl over; but no matter what the direction the broken

or bent stem takes, the flowers will twist around on their pedicels

until they face the world and the bee, exactly as if they were on a

normally erect stem.

All the larkspurs have essentially the same pollen story, although

some have only two petals; in every case the anthers at first hang

down, and later rise up in the path to the nectar, in order to

discharge their pollen; after they wither, the stigmas arise in a

similar position.

The bee-larkspur has a very beautiful fruit. It consists of three

graceful capsules rising from the same base and flaring out into

pointed tips. The seeds are fastened to the curved side of each

capsule, which, when ripe, opens so that they may be shaken out by

the winds. When studying the bud, we notice two little bracts set at

its base and these remain with the fruit.

LESSON CLVIII

THE BEE-LARKSPUR

_Leading thought_--The bee-larkspur begins blossoming early in the

season, the blossom stalk elongating and developing new buds at its

tip until late in autumn. The flower has a very interesting way of

making the bees carry its pollen.

_Method_--Bring to the schoolroom a flower stalk of the bee-larkspur,

and there study the structure and mechanism of the flower. This

lesson should inspire the pupils to observe for themselves the

visiting bees and the maturing seeds. Ask them to write an account of

a bumblebee making morning calls on the larkspurs.

_Observations_--1. Which flowers of the larkspur open first--those

near the tip of the stem or those below?

2. Examine the buds toward the tip of the flower stalk. What color

are the sepals in these buds? Do the sepals change color as the

flower opens? Note the little green knobs which tip the closed sepals

that clasp the bud. What color are the sepals on the open flower? Is

there any green upon them when open?

3. Where is the nectar-spur? Which sepal forms this? How are the

other sepals arranged?

[Illustration: _The larkspur._

1, showing early stage with stigma deflected.

2, showing advanced stage with stigma raised.

]

4. Now that we know the flower gets its brilliant color from its

sepals, let us find the petals. Look straight into the flower, and

note what forms the contrasting color of the heart of the flower;

these are the petals. Can you see that two are joined above the

opening into the nectar-tube? How many guard the entrance from

below? How are these lower petals hinged about the upper one? Peel a

sepal-cover from the nectar-spur, and see if the upper petals extend

back within the spur, forming nectar-tubes.

5. Take a flower just opened, and describe what you see below the

petals. What is the color of the anthers? Of the filaments? Can you

see the stigma?

6. Take a flower farther down the stalk, which has therefore been

open longer, and describe the position of the anthers in this. Are

there any of them standing upright? Are they discharging their

pollen? What color is the pollen? Are these upright anthers in the

way of the bee, when she thrusts her tongue into the nectar-tube?

7. Take the oldest flower you can find. What has happened to the

anthers? Can you see the pistils in this? In what position now are

the stigmas?

8. Push aside the anthers in a freshly opened flower and see if you

can find the stigmas. What is their position? How do they change in

form and position after the pollen is shed? Do they arise in the

path of the bee before all the pollen from the anthers of their own

flower is shed? If so, how are they pollenated?

9. _Suggestions for Observation in the Garden_--Watch a bumblebee

working on the larkspur and answer the following questions: How does

she hold on to the flower? Where does she thrust her tongue? Can she

get the nectar without brushing the pollen from the anthers which are

lifting up at the opening of the nectar-tube? In probing the older

flowers, how would she come in contact with the lifted stigmas? How

do the petals contrast in color with the sepals? Does this tell the

bees where to look for nectar? Compare the common larkspur with the

bee-larkspur, and notice the likeness and difference. What kind of

fruit capsules has the bee-larkspur? Describe the seeds, and how they

are scattered.

THE BLUE FLAG, OR IRIS

_Teacher’s Story_

_Beautiful lily, dwelling by still rivers

Or solitary mere,

Or where the sluggish meadow brook delivers

Its waters to the weir!_

_The burnished dragon fly is thine attendant,

And tilts against the field,

And down the listed sunbeams rides resplendent

With steel-blue mail and shield._

--From “Flower-de-luce,” HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

The iris blossom has a strange appearance, and this is because

nothing in it is as it seems. The style of the pistil is divided

into three broad branches and they look like petals; and they have

formed a conspiracy with the sepals to make a tunnel for bees,

leaving the petals out of the plan entirely and the sepals “rise

to the occasion.” The petals stand up lonely between the three

strangely matched pairs, and all they accomplish by their purple

guiding lines, is to basely deceive the butterflies and other insects

which are in the habit of looking for nectar at the center of a

flower. If we look directly down into the flower of the blue flag,

there are ridges on the broad styles and purple veins on the petals,

all pointing plainly to the center of the flower, and any insect

alighting there would naturally seek for nectar-wells where all

these lines so plainly lead. But there is an “April fool” for the

insects which trust to these guides, for there is no nectar to be had

there. Dr. Needham, in his admirable study of this flower and its

visitors (American Naturalist, May, 1900), tells us that he has seen

the little butterflies called “skippers,” the flag weevils and the

flower beetles all made victims of this deceptive appearance; this

is evidence that the nectar guiding lines on flowers are noted and

followed by insects.

The blue flag is made for bees; the butterflies and beetles are

interlopers and thieves at best. The bees are never deceived into

seeking the nectar in the wrong place. They know to a certainty that

the sepal with its purple and yellow tip and many guiding lines

although far from the center of the flower, is the sure path to

the nectar. A bee alights on the lip of the sepal, presses forward

scraping her back against the down-hanging stigma, then scrapes along

the open anther which lies along the roof of the tunnel; and she here

finds a pair of guiding lines each leading to a nectar-well at the

very base of the sepal. The bees which Dr. Needham found doing the

greatest work as pollen-carriers were small solitary bees (_Clisodon

terminalis_ and _Osmia destructa_); each of these alighted with

precision on the threshold of the side door, pushed its way in, got

the nectar from both wells, came out and sought another side door

speedily. One might ask why the bee in coming out did not deposit the

pollen from its own anther upon the stigma; but the stigma avoids

this by hanging down, like a flap to a tent, above the entrance,

and its surface for receiving pollen is directed so that it gathers

pollen from the entering bee and turns its back to the bee that is

just making its exit.

[Illustration: _Iris in blossom._

Photo by Verne Morton.]

The arrangement of the flower parts of the iris may be described

briefly thus: three petals, three sepals, a style with three

branches; the latter being broad and flat and covering the bases

of the three sepals, making tubes which lead to the nectar; three

anthers lie along the under side of the styles. The wild yellow iris

is especially fitted for welcoming the bumblebee as a pollen-carrier,

since the door between the style and the sepal is large enough to

admit this larger insect. The bumblebees and the honey-bees work in

the different varieties of iris in gardens.

[Illustration: _Detail of the blossoms of the blue flag flower._

1, Side-view of the passage to the nectar.

2, Looking directly into the iris flowers. Note the deceiving

guide-lines in the petals.

]

In some varieties of iris there is a plush rug along the vestibule

floor over which the bee passes to get the nectar. Through a lens,

this plush is exquisite--the nap of white filaments standing up and

tipped with brilliant yellow. Various theories as to the use of this

plush have been advanced, the most plausible being that it is to

keep the ants out; but the ant could easily pass along either side

of it. While holding an iris in my hand, one day in the garden, a

bumblebee visited it eagerly, never noting me; after she had probed

the nectar-wells, she probed or nibbled among the plush, working it

thoroughly on her way out. Was she a foolish bee, or did she find

something there to eat? What child will find if other bees do this?

LESSON CLIX

THE BLUE FLAG OR IRIS

_Leading thought_--Each iris flower has three side doors leading to

the nectar-wells; and the bees, in order to get the nectar, must

brush off the pollen dust on their backs.

_Method_--While the blue flag is the most interesting of our wild

species of iris, yet the flower-de-luce, or the garden iris, is quite

as valuable for this lesson. The form of the flowers may be studied

in the schoolroom, but the pupils should watch the visiting insects

in the garden or field.

_Observations_--1. Look for the side doors of the iris blossom. Which

part of the flower forms the doorstep? How is it marked to show the

way in? Which part of the flower makes the arch above the door?

2. Find the anther, and describe how it is placed. Can you see two

nectar-wells? Explain how a bee will become dusted with pollen while

getting the nectar.

3. Where is the stigma? What is there very peculiar about the styles

of the iris? Can a bee, when backing out from the side door, dust the

stigma with the pollen she has just swept off? Why not? How does the

stigma of the next flower that the bee visits get some of the pollen

from her back?

4. Look straight down into an iris flower. Can you see the three

petals? How are they marked? How would these lines on the petals

mislead any insect that was searching for nectar?

5. Watch the insects visiting the iris. Do you know what they are?

What do they do?

6. Describe the way the iris flower-bud is enfolded in bracts. What

is there peculiar about the way the iris leaves join the stem?

7. How many kinds of flag, or iris, do you know?

8. Describe the seed-vessel and seeds of the iris.

[Illustration: _Fleur-de-lis._

Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]

* * * * *

_The fleur-de-lis is the national flower of France._

“_It is said that the Franks of old had a custom, at the

proclamation of a king, of elevating him upon a shield or

target, and placing in his hand a reed, or flag in blossom,

instead of a sceptre._”

--“Among the Flowers and Trees with the Poets”, WAIT AND LEONARD.

[Illustration:

_The sunflower. Next to the ray-flowers are the

florets in last stages of blossoming with stigmas

protruding; next within are rows in the earlier

stage with pollen bursting from anther-tubes,

while at center are the unopened buds._

]

THE SUNFLOWER

_Teacher’s Story_

Many of the most beautiful of the autumn flowers belong to the

_Compositæ_, a family of such complicated flower arrangement that

it is very difficult for the child or the beginner in botany to

comprehend it; and yet, when once understood, the composite scheme is

very simple and beautiful, and is repeated over and over in flowers

of very different appearance. It is a plan of flower cooperation;

there are many flowers associated to form a single flower-head. Some

of these, the “ray,” or “banner,” flowers, hold out bright pennants

to attract the attention of insects; while the disk-flowers, which

they surround, attend to the matter of the pollenation and production

of seed.

The large garden sunflower is the teacher’s ally to illustrate to the

children the story of the composites. Its florets are so large that

it is like a great wax model. And what could be more interesting than

to watch its beautiful inflorescence--that orderly march toward the

center in double lines of anther columns, with phalanxes bearing the

stigmas surrounding them; and outside all, the ranks of ray-flowers

flaunting their flags to herald to the world this peaceful conquest

of the sleeping, tented buds at the center?

Ordinarily, in nature-study we do not pull the flowers apart, as is

necessary in botany; in nature-study, all that we care to know of the

flower is what it does, and we can see that without dissection. But

with the compositæ the situation is quite different. Here we have an

assemblage of flowers, each individual doing its own work for the

community; and in order to make the pupils understand this fact it is

necessary to study the individual florets.

We begin with the study of one of the buds at the center of the

flower-head; this shows the white, immature-seed below, and the

closed, yellow corolla-tube above. Within the corolla may be seen the

brown anther-tube, and on the upper part of the seed are two little,

white, earlike scales, to which especial notice should be directed,

since in other composites there are many of these scales and they

form the pappus--the balloon to carry the seed. The bud shows best

the protecting chaffy scale which enfolds the seed, its pointed,

spine-edged tip being folded over the young bud, as may be seen by

examining carefully the center of a freshly opened sunflower. In this

tubular bud (see Fig. p. 632), there is a telescopic arrangement

of the organs, and one after another is pushed out. First, the

corolla-tube opens, starlike, with five pointed lobes, very pretty

and graceful, with a bulblike base; from this corolla pushes out the

dark-brown tube, made up of five anthers grown together. By opening

the corolla, we see the filaments of the stamens below the joined

anthers. This anther tube, if examined through a lens, shows rows

of tiny points above and below, two to each anther, as if they had

been opened like a book to join edges with their neighbors. The

anther-tube is closed at the tip, making a five-sided cone; and

at the seams, the yellow pollen bulges out, in starlike rays. The

pollen bulges out for good reason, for behind it is the stigma, like

a ramrod, pushing all before it in the tube for it is its turn next

to greet the outer world. The two stigma-lobes are pressed together

like the halves of a sharpened pencil, and they protrude through the

anther-tube as soon as all the pollen is safely pushed out; then

the stigma-lobes separate, each curling backwards so as to offer a

receptive surface to welcome pollen grains from other florets, or

even other sunflowers. In the process of curling back, they press the

anther-tube down into the corolla, and thus make the floret shorter

than when in the pollen stage. The banner-flower differs in many

essentials from the perfect florets of the disk. If we remove one

from the flower-head, we find at its base a seedlike portion, which

is a mere pretense; it is shrunken, and never can be a seed because

it has connected with it no stigma to bring to it the pollen. Nor

does this flower have stamens nor a tubular corolla; instead it has

one great, petallike banner, many times longer and wider than the

corollas of the other flowers. All this flower has to do is to hold

its banner aloft as a sign to the world, especially the insect world,

that here is to be found pollen in plenty, and nectar for the probing.

[Illustration: _The flower of the sunflower-head enlarged._

1. A floret of the sunflower in the bud-stage as it appears at

the center of the sunflower. Note the protecting bract at the

right.

2. A floret in earliest stage of blossoming.

3. A floret in the latest stage of bloom with the parts named.

4. A ray or banner-flower.

]

But more wonderful than the perfection of each floret is their

arrangement in the flower-head. Around the edge of the disk the

banner-flowers, in double or treble rank, flare wide their long

petals like the rays of the sun, making the sunflower a most striking

object in the landscape. If the sunflower has been open for several

days, next to the ray-flowers will be seen a circle of star-mouthed

corollas from which both ripened pollen and stigmas have disappeared,

and the fertilized seeds below them are attaining their growth. Next

comes a two or three-ranked circle, where the split, coiled-back

stigma-lobes protrude from the anther-tubes; within this circle

may be two or three rows of florets, where pollen is being pushed

out in starry radiance; and within this ring there may be a circle

where the anther-tubes are still closed; while at the center lie the

buds, arranged in exquisite pattern of circling radii, cut by radii

circling in the opposite direction; and at the very center the buds

are covered with the green spear-points of their bracts. I never look

at the buds in the sunflower without wondering if the study of their

arrangement is not the basis of much of the most exquisite decoration

in Moorish architecture. To appreciate fully this procession of the

bloom of the sunflower from its rim to its center, we need to watch

it day by day--then only can its beauty become a part of us.

The great, green bracts, with their long pointed tips, which

“shingle” the house of every sunflower family, should be noted

with care, because these bracts have manifold forms in the great

_Compositæ_ family; and the pupil should learn to recognize this part

of the flower-head, merely from its position. In the burdocks, these

bracts form the hooks which fasten to the passer-by; in the thistle,

they form the prickly vase about the blossom; while in the pearly

everlasting, they make the beautiful, white, shell-like mass of the

flower which we treasure as immortal. In the sunflower, these bracts

are very ornamental, being feltlike outside and very smooth inside,

bordered with fringes of pretty hairs, which may be seen best through

a lens. They overlap each other regularly in circular rows, and each

bract is bent so as to fit around the disk.

In looking at a mass of garden sunflowers, we are convinced that

the heavy heads bend the stems, and this is probably true, in a

measure. But the stems are very solid and firm, and the bend is as

stiff as the elbow of a stovepipe; and after examining it, we are

sure that this bend is made with the connivance of the stem, rather

than despite it. Probably most people, the world over, believe that

sunflowers twist their stems so that their blossoms face the sun

all day. This belief shows the utter contentment of most people

with a pretty theory. If you believe it, you had best ask the first

sunflower you see if it is true, and she will answer you if you will

ask the question morning, noon and night. My own observations make me

believe that the sunflower, during the later weeks of its bloom, is

like the Mohammedan, keeping its face toward the east. True, I have

found many exceptions to this rule, although I have seen whole fields

of sunflowers facing eastward, when the setting sun was gilding the

backs of their great heads. If they do turn with the sun, it must be

in the period of earliest blossoming before they become heavy with

ripening seeds.

The sunflower seed is eagerly sought by many birds, and it is raised

extensively for chicken-feed. The inadequate little pappus falls

off, and the seeds are set, large end up, in the very ornamental

diamond-shaped sockets. They finally become loosened, and now we

see a reason for the bending flower-head; for, as the great stem is

assaulted by the winds of autumn, the bended heads shake out their

seed and scatter them far afield.

LESSON CLX

THE SUNFLOWER

_Leading thought_--The sunflower is not a single flower, but is a

large family of flowers living together; and each little flower,

or floret, as it is called, has its own work to do for the family

welfare.

_Method_--Early in September, when school first opens, is the time

for this lesson. If sunflowers are growing near by, they should be

studied where they stand; and their story may thus be more completely

told. Otherwise, a sunflower should be brought to the schoolroom and

placed in water. If one is selected which has just begun to blossom,

it will show, day by day, the advance of the blossoming ranks. I

have kept such a flower fourteen days, and it blossomed cheerfully

from its rim to its very center. A large sunflower that has only

partially blossomed is also needed for taking apart to show the

arrangement of this big flower-family. Take a bud from the center,

a floret showing anther-tube and another showing the curled pair of

stigmas, and a ray or banner-flower. (See Fig. p. 632). Each pupil

should be furnished with these four florets; and after they have

studied them, show them the other half of the sunflower, with each

floret in place. After this preliminary study, let them observe the

blossoming sunflower for several consecutive days.

_Observations_--1. A little flower which is part of a big

flower-family is called a floret. You have before you three florets

of a sunflower and a banner-flower. Study first the bud. Of how many

parts is it composed? What will the lower, white part develop into?

Can you see two little white points standing up from it on each side

of the bud? Note the shape and color of the unopened floret. Note

that there is a narrow, stiff, leaf-like bract, which at its base

clasps the young seed, while its pointed tip bends protectingly over

the top of the bud.

2. Take an open floret with the long, dark brown tube projecting from

it. Note that the young seed is somewhat larger than in the bud, and

that it still has its earlike projections at the top. Describe the

shape of the open corolla. Look at the brown tube with a lens. How

many sides has it? How many little points projecting at the top and

bottom on each side of the tube? How does the tube look at the tip,

through a lens? Can you see the pollen bursting out? If so, how does

it look? Do you think that there is just one tubular anther, or do

you think several anthers are joined together to make this tube?

Open the corolla-tube carefully, and see if you can answer this last

question. Open the anther-tube, and see if you can find the pistil

with its stigmas.

3. Take a floret with the two yellow horns of the stigma projecting.

Where is the brown anther-tube now? Is it as long as in the floret

you have just studied? What has happened to it? What did the stigmas

do to the pollen in the anther-tube? How do the two parts or lobes of

the stigma look when they first project? How later?

4. Make a banner-flower. How many parts are there to it? How does the

seedlike portion of the blossom look? Do you think it will ever be a

good seed? Describe the corolla of this flower. How much larger is it

than the corolla of the florets? Has the banner-flower any pistil or

stamens? Of what use is the banner-flower to the sunflower family?

Do you think that we would plant sunflowers in our gardens for their

beauty if they had no banner-flowers?

5. After studying the separate flowers, study a sunflower in blossom,

and note the following: Where are the banner-flowers placed? How

many rows are there? How are they set so that their banners make the

sunflower look like the sun? Do you see why the central portion of

the sunflower is called the disk, and the banner-flowers are called

the rays--in imitation of the sun?

6. Next to the banner-flowers, what sort of florets appear? How many

rows are there? What kind form the next circle, and in how many rows?

What stages of the florets do you find forming the inner circle, and

how many rows? What do you find at the center of the flower-head?

Note the beautiful pattern in which the buds are arranged. Can you

see the separate buds at the very center of the sunflower? If not,

why?

7. Make notes on a sunflower that has just opened, describing the

stages of the florets that are in blossom; continue these notes

every day for a week, describing, each day, what has happened. If

the sunflower you are observing is in garden or field, note how many

days elapse between the opening of the outer row of flowers and the

opening of the central buds.

8. Look below or behind the sunflower, and note the way it is

attached to the stem. What covers the disk? These green, overlapping,

leaflike structures are called bracts. What is the shape of one

of these bracts? What is its texture, outside and inside? Look at

it, with a lens, along the edges, and note what you see. How are

the bracts arranged? Do they not “shingle” the house in which the

sunflower-family lives? This covering of the disk, or the house where

the sunflower-family lives, is called the involucre.

9. Does the stem of the sunflower hold it upright? Some people

declare that it twists its stem so as to face the sun all day. Do you

think this is true?

10. Study a sunflower-head after the seeds are ripe. Do the little

ears which you saw at the top of the seeds still remain? How does the

sunflower scatter the seeds? Note how the disk looks after the seeds

are all gone. What birds are especially fond of sunflower seeds? Of

what use are the seeds commercially?

* * * * *

“_Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or

animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some

are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest, and

upright, like the broad-faced Sunflower, and the hollyhock._”

--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

* * * * *

“_Eagle of flowers! I see thee stand,

And on the sun’s noon-glory gaze;

With eye like his thy lids expand

And fringe their disk with golden rays;

Though fixed on earth, in darkness rooted there,

Light is thy element, thy dwelling air,

Thy prospect heaven._”

--“The Sunflower”, MONTGOMERY.

[Illustration: _A bachelor’s button. Note the trumpet-shape of the

ray-flowers._

Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]

THE BACHELOR’S BUTTON

_Teacher’s Story_

This beautiful garden flower gives a variation in form from other

composites when studied according to Lesson CXXXV. This valued garden

flower came to us from Europe and it sometimes escapes cultivation

and runs wild in a gentle way. We call it bachelor’s button; but in

Europe it is called the cornflower, and under this name it found its

way into literature. None of the flowers that live in families repays

close study better than does the bachelor’s button. The ray-flowers

are tubular but they do not have banners. Their tubes flare open like

trumpets, and they are indeed color trumpets heralding to the insect

world that there is nectar for the probing and pollen for exchange.

Looked at from above, the ray-flowers do not seem tubular; from the

sides, they show as uneven-mouthed trumpets with lobed edges; but

though we search each trumpet to its slender depths we can find no

pistils. These ray-flowers have no duty in the way of maturing seeds.

In some varieties the ray-flowers are white, and in others they are

blue and purple. They vary in number from 7 to 14, or more.

[Illustration:

_Stigma open and showing pollen-brush below. Enlarged._ ]

The disk-flowers have a long corolla-tube, which is white and

delicately lobed and is enlarged toward the upper end to a purple

bulb with five, long, slender lobes. The anther-tube is purplish

black, and is bent into almost a hook, the tip opening toward the

middle of the flower-head. The pollen is glistening white tinged

with yellow, and looks very pretty as it bursts out from the dark

tubes. The purple stigma first appears with its tips close together,

but with a pollen brush just below it; later it opens into a short

Y. The buds at the center of the flower are bent hook-shaped over

the center of the flower-head. The involucral bracts or “shingles”

are very pretty, each one ornamented with a scaly fringe; they form

a long, elegantly shaped base to the flower-head. After the flowers

have gone and the seeds have ripened, these bracts flare open,

making a wide-mouthed urn from which the ripened seeds are shaken

by the winds; and after the seeds are gone, the white fuzz of their

empty cases remains at the bottom of the urn. The seed is plump

and shining, with a short fringe of pappus around the top and a

contracted place at one side near the base where it grew fast to the

receptacle; for these seeds are not set on end, as are those of the

sunflower. The short pappus is hardly sufficient to buoy up the seed,

and yet undoubtedly aids it to make a flying jump with the passing

breeze.

LESSON CLXI

THE BACHELOR’S

BUTTON

_Leading thought_--Each bachelor’s button is made up of many little

flowers which may be studied by the outline given in Lesson CXXXV.

THE SALVIA, OR

SCARLET SAGE

_Teacher’s Story_

[Illustration: _The salvia, or scarlet sage, showing the bracts still

present above and falling as the flowers open._]

The flower story of the sage is so peculiar that Darwin has used

it to illustrate the mechanisms present in some flowers which the

visiting insects must work in order to get the nectar. The scarlet

sage, which gladdens our flower beds during the summer and autumn

with its brilliance, has as interesting a story as has any of its

family. Looking at it from the outside, we should say that its

nectar-wells lie too deep to be reached by any insect except a

moth or butterfly, or a humming bird; there is no platform for a

bee to alight upon, and the tube is too long to be fathomed by a

bee’s tongue; but the bees are very good business folk; they adapt

themselves to flowers that are not adapted to them, and in autumn the

glow of the salvia attracts the eye scarcely more than the hum of the

visiting bees attracts the ear.

The calyx of the salvia is as red as the corolla, and is somewhat

fuzzy while the corolla is smooth. The calyx is a three-lobed bulging

tube held stiff by rather strong veins; there is one large lobe above

and two small ones below the corolla. The corolla is a tube which is

more than twice the length of the calyx; it is prolonged above into

a projecting hood, which holds the anthers and the stigma; it has a

short, cuplike lower lip and two little turned-back, earlike lobes at

the side.

The special mechanism of the salvia is shown in the stamens; there

are two of these lying flat along the floor of the corolla-tube and

grown fast to it. Near the mouth of the tube, each of these lifts up

at a broad angle to the roof, and is more or less T-shaped, at the

tip of one of the arms of the T is an anther while the other arm is

longer and slants down and inward to the floor of the tube, as shown

at 2 in the figure.

[Illustration:

1. _Blossom of scarlet sage as seen from outside._

2. _The same flower with side removed showing the

arrangement of its parts._

3. _A bee working the stamen’s mechanism as she

seeks the nectar._

]

The bee visiting the flower and entering the corolla-tube, pushes

her head against the inner arms of the stamens, lifting them, and in

so doing causes the anthers on the front arms of the T to lower and

leave streaks of pollen along her fuzzy sides. The stigma is at first

concealed in the hood; but, when ripe, it projects and hangs down in

front of the opening of the corolla-tube, where it may be brushed

along one side or the other by the visiting insect, which has been

dusted with the pollen of some other flower. The stigma-lobes open

in such a manner that they do not catch the pollen from the insect

backing out of their own corolla. As the nectar is at the base of

the corolla-tube, the bees, in order to get it, crawl in almost out

of sight. Late in the season they seem to “go crazy” when gathering

this nectar; I have often seen them searching the bases of the

corolla-tubes which have fallen to the ground, in order to get what

is left of the sweet treasure.

But the pollen story is not all that is of interest in the salvia.

Some of the parts of the flower which are green in most blossoms, are

scarlet as a cardinal’s robe in this. If we glance at a flower stalk,

we see that at its tip it looks like a braided, flattened cone; this

appearance is caused by the scarlet, long-pointed bracts, each of

which covers, with its bulging base, the scarlet calyx which in turn

enfolds the scarlet flower bud. These bracts fall as the flowers

are ready to open, making a brilliant carpet about the plant. Each

flower stem continues to develop buds at its tip for a long season;

and this, taken together with its scarlet bracts and flowers, renders

the salvia a thing of beauty in our gardens, and makes it cry aloud

to pollen-carriers that here, even in late autumn, there is plenty of

nectar.

LESSON CLXII

SALVIA, OR SCARLET SAGE

_Leading thought_--This flower has the bracts and calyx scarlet

instead of green, and this makes it a brilliant mass of color to

please our eyes and attract the pollen-carrying insects. Its anthers

are arranged at the tip of two levers, which the insects push up and

down as they enter the flower, thus becoming dusted with pollen.

_Method_--The structure of this flower may be studied in the

schoolroom and its mechanism there understood; but the most important

part of the lesson is the observation out-of-doors upon the way the

bees work the stamen levers when seeking the nectar. This is best

observed during late September or October, after other flowers are

mostly gone, and when the bees are working with frantic haste to get

all the honey possible.

_Observations_--1. How does the calyx of the salvia differ from that

of other flowers in color? How does it differ from the corolla in

texture? How many lobes has it? How are they placed about the corolla?

2. What is the shape of the corolla? How does it make a hood over the

entrance to the tube? What does the hood hold? Is there any platform

made by the lower lip of the corolla for a visiting insect to alight

upon?

3. Cut open one side of the corolla and describe how the stamens are

arranged. Thrust your pencil into an uninjured flower and see if

the anthers in the hood are moved by it. How? Describe how a bee in

visiting this flower moves the anthers so as to become dusted with

pollen.

4. Where is the stigma? How does it receive pollen from visiting

insects? Would it be likely to get the pollen which has just been

scraped off from its own anthers by the bee? Why?

5. Experiment to find where the nectar is. Do you ever see bees

getting the nectar from fallen flowers? Do they get it from the

“front” or the “back door?”

6. What other parts of this flower are red, which in other flowers

are green? How does this make the budding portions of the flower stem

look? Why does this make the salvia a more beautiful plant for our

gardens?

7. Compare the mechanism of the stamens of the scarlet sage with the

mechanism of the stamens of the common garden sage.

PETUNIAS

_Teacher’s Story_

[Illustration: T

Drawn by Anna C. Stryke.]

These red-purple and white flowers, which, massed in borders and

beds, make gay our gardens and grounds in late summer and early

autumn, have an interesting history. Professor L. H. Bailey uses it

as an illustration in his thought-inspiring book, “The Survival of

the Unlike;” he says that our modern petunias are a strange compound

of two original species; the first one was found on the shores of the

La Plata in South America and was introduced into Europe in 1823. “It

is a plant of upright habit, thick sticky leaves and sticky stems,

and very long-tubed white flowers which exhale a strong perfume at

nightfall.” The second species of petunia came from seeds sent from

Argentina to the Glasgow Botanical Gardens in 1831. “This is a more

compact plant than the other, with a decumbent base, narrower leaves

and small, red-purple flowers which have a very broad or ventricose

tube, scarcely twice longer than the slender calyx lobes.” This plant

was called _Petunia violacea_ and it was easily hybridized with the

white species; it is now, strangely enough, lost to cultivation,

although the white species is found in some old gardens. The hybrids

of these two species are the ancestors of our garden petunias, which

show the purple-red and white of their progenitors. The petunias

are of the Nightshade family and are kin to the potato, tomato,

egg-plant, tobacco and Jimson-weed, and, like the latter, the flowers

are especially adapted to give nectar to the long-tongued sphinx or

hummingbird moths.

The petunia corolla is tubular, and the five lobes open out in

salver-shape; each lobe is slightly notched at its middle, from

which point a marked midrib extends to the base of the tube. In some

varieties the edges of the lobes are ruffled. Within the throat of

the tube may be seen a network of darker veins, and in some varieties

this network spreads out over the corolla-lobes. Although many colors

have been developed in petunias, the red-purple and white still

predominate; when the two colors combine in one flower, the pattern

may be symmetrical, but is often broken and blotchy.

When a flower-bud is nearly ready to open the long, bristly tube of

the corolla lies with its narrow base set in the calyx, the long,

fuzzy lobes of which flare out in bell-shape; the tube is marked by

lengthwise lines made by the five midribs; the lobes of the corolla

are folded along the outer portions of these midribs, and these

folded tips are twisted together much as if some one had given them a

half turn with the thumb and finger. It is a pleasing experience to

watch one of these flowers unfold. When a flower first opens, there

lies near the bottom of the throat of the tube the green stigma, with

two anthers snuggled up in front of it and two behind it, the latter

being not quite so advanced in age as the former. As the filaments

of the front pair of anthers are longer than those of the rear pair,

the little group lies at a low angle offering a dusty doormat for

entering insects. If we open a flower at this stage, we find another

anther, as yet unopened, and which is on the shortest stamen of the

five. This seems to be a little pollen-reserve, perhaps for its own

use later in the season. There is an interesting mechanism connected

with these stamens; each is attached to the corolla-tube at the base

for about half its length, and at the point of attachment curves

suddenly inward so as to “cuddle up” to the pistil, the base of

which is set in the nectar-well at the bottom of the flower. If we

introduce a slender pencil or a toothpick into the flower tube along

the path which the moth’s tongue must follow to reach the nectar,

we can see that the stamens, pressing against it at the point where

they curve inward, cause the anthers to move about so as to discharge

their pollen upon it; and as the toothpick is withdrawn they close

upon it cogently so that it carries off all the pollen with which it

is brought in contact.

If we look at the stigma at the center of its anther-guard, it has

a certain close-fisted appearance, although its outer edges may be

dusted with the pollen; as the flower grows older, the stigma stands

above the empty anthers at the throat of the flower tube and opens

out into two distinct lobes. Even though it may have accepted some of

its own pollen, it apparently opens up a new stigmatic surface for

the pollen brought from other flowers by visiting insects.

[Illustration:

_A petunia blossom cut open on the upper side, showing the

pistil surrounded by the incurved stamens and the partially

opened stigma surrounded by the anthers. Note the short stamen

below the pistil._

]

Dr. James G. Needham says that at Lake Forest he has been attracted

to the petunia beds in the twilight by the whirring of the wings of

countless numbers of sphinx, or hummingbird moths which were visiting

these flowers. We also may find these moths hovering over petunia

beds in almost any region if we visit them on the warmer evenings.

And it is a safe guess that the remote white ancestor of our petunias

had some special species of sphinx moth which it depended upon for

carrying its pollen; and the strong perfume it exhaled at nightfall

was an odor signal to its moth friends to come and feast.

But even though the petunia flowers are especially adapted to the

delectation of hummingbird moths, our bees which--like man--have

claimed all the earth, will work industriously in the petunias,

scrambling into the blossoms, with much remonstrating, high-pitched

buzzing because of the tight fit, and thus rifle the nectar-wells

that were meant for insects of quite different build.

The leaves of the petunia are so broadly ovate as to be almost

lozenge-shape, especially the lower ones; they are soft, and have

prominent veins on the lower side; they are without stipules, and

have short flat petioles. The stems are soft and fuzzy and are

usually decumbent at the base, except the central stems of a stool or

clump which, though surrounded by kneeling sisters, seem to prefer to

stand up straight.

The flower stems come off at the axils of the leaves, the lower

flowers open first. The blossoms remain open about two days; at the

first sign of fading, the lobes of the corolla droop dejectedly like

a frill that has lost its starch, and finally the corolla--tube and

all--drops off, leaving a little conical seed-capsule nestled snugly

in the heart of the bell-shaped calyx. At this time, if this peaked

cap of the seed-capsule be removed, the many seeds look like tiny

white pearls set upon the fleshy, conical placenta. As the capsule

ripens, it grows brown and glossy like glazed manila paper and it is

nearly as thin; then it cracks precisely down its middle, and the

seeds are spilled out at any stirring of the stems. The ripe seeds

are dark brown, almost as fine as dust, and yet, when examined with a

lens, they are seen to be exquisitely netted and pitted.

_References_--The Survival of the Unlike, L. H. Bailey; The

Encyclopedia of Horticulture, Bailey; Our Garden Flowers, Harriet

Keeler.

LESSON CLXIII

THE PETUNIA

_Leading thought_--The petunias have an interesting history being

native to South America. Their flowers are fitted by form and

mechanism to entice the hummingbird moths as visitors, and to use

them for carrying pollen.

_Method_--The petunias are such determined bloomers that they give

us flowers up to the time of killing frosts, and they are therefore

good material for nature lessons. Each pupil should have a flower in

hand to observe during the lesson, and should also have access to a

petunia bed for observations on the habits of the plant.

_Observations_--1. What colors do you find in the petunia flowers? If

striped or otherwise marked, what are the colors? Are the markings

symmetrical and regular?

2. Sketch or describe a flower, looking into it. What is the shape

of the corolla-lobes? How many lobes are there? How are they veined?

What peculiar markings are at the throat of the flower?

3. What are the color and position of the stigma? How are the stamens

arranged? How many anthers do you see? What is the color of the

anthers? Of the pollen?

4. Sketch or describe the flower from the side. What is the shape of

the corolla-tube? Is it smooth or fuzzy? How is it marked? What are

the number and shape of the sepals, or lobes, of the calyx?

5. Study a freshly opened flower, and describe the position and

appearance of the anthers and stigma. Do they remain in these

relative positions after the flower is old?

6. Cut open a flower, slitting it along the upper side. Describe the

stamens and how they are attached. Is the pistil attached in the same

manner? Where is the nectar? Thrust a slender pencil or a toothpick

into the tube of a fresh flower. Does this spread the anthers apart

and move them around? When it is withdrawn, is there pollen on it?

Can you see in your open flower the mechanism by which the pollen is

dusted on the object thrust into the flower?

7. What insects have tongues sufficiently long to reach the

nectar-well at the bottom of the petunia flower? At what time do

these insects fly? At what time of day do most of the petunia flowers

open? Visit the petunia beds in the twilight, and note whether there

are any insects visiting them. What insects do you find visiting

these flowers during the day?

8. Sketch or describe the leaves of the petunia. How do the leaves

feel? Look at a leaf with a lens and note the fringe of hair along

its edges. Describe the veining of the leaf.

9. Describe the petunia stems. Are they stout or slender? How do they

feel? With what are they covered? Where do the flower stems come off

the main stalk?

10. Describe or sketch a flower-bud just ready to open. How are the

tips of the lobes folded? How long does the flower remain in bloom?

What is the first sign of its fading?

11. Describe the seed-capsule. Where does it open? Are the seeds many

or few, large or small? What is their color when ripe? When examined

with a lens, have they any pits or markings?

THE HORSESHOE GERANIUM

_Teacher’s Story_

The geraniums perhaps do more to brighten the world than almost any

other cultivated flowers. They will grow for every one, whether

for the gardener in the conservatory of the rich, or in a tin can

on the windowsill of the crowded tenement of the poor. And it is

interesting to know that this common plant has a cultivated ancestry

of two hundred years’ standing. These geraniums, which are really

not geraniums botanically but are _pelargoniums_, originally came

from southern Africa, and the two ancestors of our common bedding

geraniums were introduced into England in 1710 and 1714.

The geranium is of special value to the teacher, since it is

available for study at any season of the year, and has a most

interesting blossom. The single-flowered varieties should be used

for this lesson, since the blossoms that are double have lost their

original form. Moreover, the geranium’s blossom is so simple that it

is of special value as a subject for a beginning lesson in teaching

the parts of a flower; and its leaves and stems may likewise be used

for the first lessons in plant structure.

The stem is thick and fleshy, and is downy on the new growth; there

is much food stored in these stems, which accounts for the readiness

with which cuttings from them will grow. Wherever a leaf comes off

the stem, it is guarded by two stipules at the base; these stipules

often remain after the leaves have fallen, thus giving the stem

an unkempt look. The leaves are of various shapes, although of one

general pattern; they are circular and beautifully scalloped and

lobed, with veins for every lobe radiating from the petiole; they are

velvety above and of quite different texture beneath, and many show

the dark horseshoe which gives the name to this variety. The petiole

is usually long and stiff and the leaves are set alternately upon the

stem.

[Illustration: _Horseshoe Geranium._

Photo by Sheldon.

Note the positions of the opened flowers and the buds. Note

the shape of the two upper petals with their guide-lines,

showing the position of the nectar-gland. The flower at the

left, seen in profile, shows that these upper petals project

farther forward than those below. Note the cluster of young

buds set in a circlet of bracts just below this flower.

]

The flower has five petals, and at first glance they seem of much the

same shape and position; but if we look at them carefully, we see

that the upper two are much narrower at the base and project farther

forward than do the lower three. Moreover, there are certain lines

on these upper petals all pointing toward the center of the flower;

these are the nectar guide-lines, and if we follow them we find a

deep nectar-well just at the base of these upper petals and situated

above the ovary of the flower. No other flower shows a prettier plan

for guiding insects to the hidden sweets, and in none is there a more

obvious and easily seen well of nectar. It extends almost the whole

length of the flower stem, the nectar gland forming a hump near the

base of the stem. If we thrust a needle down the whole length of this

nectar tube we can see that this bright flower developed its nectar

especially for some long-tongued insect, probably a butterfly. It is

interesting to note that in the double geranium where the stamens

have been all changed to petals and where, therefore, no seeds are

formed, this nectar-well has been lost.

[Illustration: _Diagram, flower of the horseshoe geranium._

S, sepals; P, petals; A, anther; F, filament; m, pistil; St., stigma;

N, opening to nectar tube.]

There are five sepals, the lower one being the largest. But the

geranium is careless about the number of its stamens; most flowers

are very good mathematicians, and if they have five sepals and five

petals they are likely to have five or ten stamens. The geranium

often shows seven anthers, but if we look carefully we may find ten

stamens, three of them without anthers. But this is not always true;

there are sometimes five anthers and two or three filaments without

anthers. The color of the anthers differs with the variety of the

flower. The stamens broaden below, and their bases are joined making

a cup around the lower part of the ovary. The pistil is at the center

of the flower and has no style, but at the summit divides into five

long, curving stigmas; but again the geranium cannot be trusted to

count, for sometimes there are seven or eight stigmas. Although many

of our common varieties of geraniums have been bred so long that

they have almost lost the habit of producing seed, yet we may often

find in these single blossoms the ovary changed into the peculiar,

long, beaklike pod, which shows the relationship of this plant to the

cranesbill or wild geranium.

When the buds of the geranium first appear, all of them are nestled

in a nest of protecting bracts, each bud being enclosed in its own

protecting sepals. But soon each flower stem grows longer and droops

and often the bracts at its base fall off; from this mass of drooping

buds, the ones at the center of the cluster lift up and open their

blossoms first. Often, when the outside flowers are in bloom, those

at the center have withered petals but are hidden by their fresher

sisters.

It would be well to say something to the pupils about those plants

which have depended upon man so long for their planting that they

do not develop any more seed for themselves. In connection with the

geraniums, there should be a lesson on how to make cuttings and start

their growth. The small side branches or the tips of the main stems

may be used as cuttings. With a sharp knife make a cut straight

across. Fill shallow boxes with sand, place them in a cool room

and keep them constantly moist; plant the cuttings in these boxes,

putting the stems for one-third of their length in the sand. After

about a month the plants may be repotted in fertile soil. The fall is

the best time to make cuttings.

[Illustration]

LESSON CLXIV

THE HORSESHOE GERANIUM

_Leading thought_--The geraniums are very much prized as flowers for

ornamental beds. Let us see why they are so valued.

_Method_--A variety of geranium with single flowers should be chosen

for this purpose, and it may be studied in the schoolhouse window

or in the garden. As the parts of this flower are of a very general

type, it is an excellent one with which to teach the names and

purposes of the flower parts. Each child can make a little drawing

of the sepals, petals, stamens and pistil, and label them with the

proper names.

_Observations_--1. What sort of a stem has the geranium? Is it smooth

or downy? What makes the geranium stem look so rough and untidy?

2. Study the leaf. Show by description or drawing its shape, its

wings, its veins. What are its colors and texture above? Beneath?

Is the petiole long or short? What grows at the base of the petiole

where it joins the stem? What marking is there on the leaf, which

makes us call this a “horseshoe geranium?” Are there other geraniums

with leaves of similar shape that have no horseshoe mark?

3. Study the flower. Are the petals all the same size and shape? How

many of them are broad? How many narrow? Do the narrow ones project

in front of the others? Do these have guide-lines upon them? Where

do these lines point? Find the nectar-well, how deep is it? Does it

extend almost the entire length of the flower stem? For what insects

must it have been developed? Are there nectar-tubes in the stems of

the geraniums with double flowers? Why?

4. How many sepals are there? Are they all the same size? Where is

the largest?

5. How many stamens can you see? What is the color of the filaments

and of the anthers? How are the stamens joined at their bases? Can

you find any stamens without anthers?

6. Where is the pistil situated? Can you see the ovary, or seed-box?

How many stigmas? Describe their color and shape.

7. In what part of the flower will the seeds be developed? How does

the geranium fruit look? Sketch the pod. Do the geraniums develop

many seeds? Why not? Do you know the seed-pod of the wild geranium?

If so, compare it with the pod of this plant.

8. Take a flower cluster when the flowers are all in the bud, and

note the following: When the buds first appear, what protects them?

What becomes of these bracts later? How do the sepals protect the

bud? Are the bud stems upright and stiff or drooping? How many buds

are there in a cluster?

9. Take notes on successive days as follows: What happens to the stem

as the bud gets ready to bloom? Is it a central or an outside blossom

that opens first? How many new blossoms are there each day? How long

is it from the time that the first bud opens until the last bud of

the cluster blossoms? What has this to do with making the geranium a

valuable ornamental plant?

10. Make some geranium cuttings, and note how they develop into new

plants. Place one of the cuttings in a bottle of water and describe

how its roots appear and grow.

* * * * *

“_God made the flowers to beautify

The earth, and cheer man’s careful mood;

And he is happiest who hath power

To gather wisdom from a flower,

And wake his heart in every hour

To pleasant gratitude._”

--WORDSWORTH.

[Illustration: _Sweet Peas._

“_Here are sweet peas on tip for a flight,

With wings of delicate flush o’er delicate white,

And taper fingers catching at all things,

To bind them all about with tiny rings._”

--KEATS.

]

THE SWEET PEA

_Teacher’s Story_

[Illustration: A]

Among the most attractive of the seeds which make up the treasure of

the children’s seed packets, the sweet peas are of the prettiest.

They are smooth, little white or brown globules, marked with a scar

on the side, showing where they were attached to the pod. One of

these peas divides readily into two sections; and after it has been

soaked in water for twenty-four hours, the germ of the future plant

may, with the aid of a lens, be seen within it. After planting, the

sprout pushes through the seed-coat at a point very near the scar,

and leaf shoots emerge from the same place; but the two act very

differently. The leaf lifts upward toward the light, and the root

plunges down into the soil. As the plant grows, it absorbs the food

stored in the seed; but the seed remains below ground and does not

lift itself into the air, as happens with the bean. The root forms

many slender branches, near the tips of which may be seen the fringe

of feeding roots, which take up the food and water from the soil. The

first leaves of the pea seedling put forth no tendrils, but otherwise

look like the later ones. The leaves grow alternately on the stalk,

and they are compound, each having from three to seven leaflets. The

petiole is winged, as is also the stem of the plant. There is a pair

of large, clasping stipules at the base of each leaf. If we compare

one of these leaves with a spray of tendrils, we can see that they

resemble each other in the following points: The basal leaflets of

the petiole are similar and the stipules are present in each case;

but the leaflets nearest the tip are marvelously changed to little,

stiff stems with a quirl at the tip of each ready to reach out and

hook upon any object that offers surface to cling to. Sometimes we

find a leaflet paired with a tendril. The sweet pea could not thrive

without a support outside of itself.

[Illustration: _Blossom sweet pea with parts labelled._]

Of course, the great upper petal of the sweet pea blossom is called

the banner! It stands aloft and proclaims the sweet pea as open;

but before this occurs, it tenderly enfolds all the inner part of

the flower in the unopened bud, and when the flower fades it again

performs this duty. The wings are also well named; for these two

petals which hang like a peaked roof above the keel, seem like wings

just ready to open in flight. The two lower petals are sewed together

in one of Nature’s invisible seams, making a long, curved treasure

chest resembling the keel of a boat, and it has thus been called.

Within the keel are hidden the pistil and stamens. The ovary is long,

pod-shaped and downy; from its tip the style projects, as strong as

a wire, curving upwards, and covered with a brush of fine, white

hairs; at the very tip of the style, and often projecting slightly

from the keel, is the stigma. Around the sides and below the ovary

and style, are nine stamens, their filaments broadening and uniting

to make a white, silken tube about the ovary, or young pod. From

the tip of this stamen-tube, each of the nine filaments disengages

itself, and lying close to the style thrusts its anther up into the

point of the keel, below the stigma. But strange to say, one lone,

lorn stamen “flocks by itself” above the pistil, curving its anther

up stigma-ward. If we touch the point of the keel with the finger, up

fly--like a jack-in-the-box--the anthers splashing the finger with

pollen; and if a bee, in her search for nectar, alights on the wings

at the very base of the petals, up flies the pollen brush and daubs

her with the yellow dust, which she may deposit on the stigma of

another flower. The interesting part of this mechanism is the brush

near the tip of the style below the stigma--a veritable broom, with

splints all directed upward. As the pollen is discharged around it,

the brush lifts it up when the keel is pressed down, and the stiff

petals forming the keel, in springing back to place, scrape off the

pollen and plaster it upon the visitor. But for all this elaborate

mechanism, sweet peas, of all flowers, are the most difficult to

cross-pollenate, since they are so likely to receive some of their

own pollen during this process.

[Illustration: _Sweet pea pod bursting in spiral._]

The sweet-pea bud droops, a tubular calyx with its five-pointed lobes

forming a bell to protect it. Within the bud the banner petal clasps

all in its protecting embrace.

After the petals fall, the young pod stands out from the calyx, the

five lobes of which are recurved and remain until the pod is well

grown. As the sweet pea ripens, all the moisture is lost and the

pod becomes dry and hard; through the dampness of dews at night and

the sun’s heat which warps it by day, finally each side of the pod

suddenly coils into a spiral, flinging the seed many feet distant in

different directions.

LESSON CLXV

THE SWEET PEA

_Leading thought_--The sweet pea has its leaflets changed to

tendrils, which hold it to the trellis. Its flower is like that of

the clover, the upper petal forming the banner, the two side petals

the wings, and the two united lower petals the keel which protects

the stamens and pistil.

_Method_--This should be a garden lesson. A study should be made of

the peas before they are planted, and their germination carefully

watched. Later, the method of climbing, the flower and the fruit

should each be the subject of a lesson.

_Observations on germination_--1. Soak some sweet peas over night;

split them the next morning. Can you see the little plant within?

2. Plant some of the soaked peas in cotton batting, which may be kept

moist. At what point does the sprout break through the seed covering?

Do the root and leaf-shoot emerge at the same place, or at different

points? Which is the first to appear?

3. Plant some of the soaked peas in the garden. How do the young

plants look when they first appear? Does the fleshy part of the seed

remain a part of the plant and appear above the ground, as is the

case with the bean? What becomes of the meat of the seed after growth

has started?

4. Do the first leaves which unfold from the seed pea look like the

later ones? Are the leaves simple or compound? Do they grow opposite

each other or alternately?

5. Take a leaf and also a spray of the tendrils. How many leaflets

are there in a compound leaf? Describe the petiole and the basal

leaves. How far apart are the leaflets on the mid-stem? Compare

the stem on which the tendrils grow with this leaf. Are the basal

leaflets like those of the leaf? Is the petiole like that of the

leaf? Do you think that the leaflets toward the tip of the stem often

change to tendrils? Why do you think so? Why must the sweet pea have

tendrils? Do you see the earlike stipules at the base of the leaf?

Are there similar stipules at the base of the tendril stem?

_Observations on the flower and fruit_--1. Take the sweet pea in

blossom. Why is the large upper petal called the banner? How does it

compare in size with the other petals? What is its purpose when the

flower is open? Why do you think the side petals are called wings?

What is their position when the flower is open?

2. Describe that part of the flower below the wings. Do you think

that it is made of two petals grown together? Why is it called the

keel of the flower? Press down with your finger on the tip of the

keel. What happens? Is your finger splashed with pollen? Where is the

nectar in the sweet pea? Would an insect getting the nectar press

down upon the keel and receive a splash of pollen?

3. Open the keel. How many stamens do you find within it? How many

have their filaments joined together? Is there one separate from the

others? Against what are the anthers pressed by the keel?

4. Remove the stamens and describe the pistil. Which part of this

will make the pod in which the new peas will develop? Describe how

the style is curved. How is the style covered near its tip? What is

this brush for? Can you find the stigma with the help of the lens?

When the bee is seeking for nectar and pushes down on the keel, does

the stigma push out at the same point as the pollen? Does this enable

the stigma sometimes to receive pollen which the bees bring from

other flowers?

5. Describe an unopened flower bud. What is its position? How many

lobes to the calyx? What is their shape, and how do they protect the

bud? Which petal is folded over all the others? How does the position

of the open flower differ from that of the bud?

6. How does the young pod look when the petals fall? How does it look

when ripe? How does it open to scatter little, ripe sweet peas? Do

the lobes of the sepals still remain with the pod?

THE CLOVERS

_Teacher’s Story_

“_Sweet by the roadside, sweet by the rills,

Sweet in the meadows, sweet on the hills,

Sweet in its wine, sweet in its red,

Oh, half of its sweetness cannot be said;

Sweet in its every living breath,

Sweetest, perhaps, at last, in death._”

--“A Song of Clover”, HELEN HUNT JACKSON.

[Illustration: Drawn by Ida Baker.]

Clover has for centuries been a most valuable forage crop; and for

eons it has been the special partner of the bees, giving them honey

for their service in carrying its pollen; and in recent years it has

been discovered that it has also formed a mysterious and undoubtedly

an ancient partnership with bacteria below ground, which, moreover,

brings fertility to the soil. The making of a collection of the

clovers of a region is a sure way of enlisting the pupils’ interest

in these valuable plants. The species have some similarities and

differences, which give opportunity for much observation in comparing

them. There may be found in most localities the white and yellow

sweet clovers, the black and spotted medics and their relative the

alfalfa; while of the true clovers there are the red, the zigzag, the

buffalo, the rabbit’s foot, the white, the alsike, the crimson, and

two yellow or hop clovers.

[Illustration: _Crimson clover; just beginning to blossom at the

left, more advanced at the middle, and at the end of its bloom at the

right._

Photo by G. F. Morgan.]

In all the clovers, those blossoms which are lowest, or on the

outside of the head, blossom first, and all of them have upon their

roots the little swellings, or nodules, which are the houses in which

the beneficent bacteria grow.

[Illustration: _Alfalfa showing root-tubercles._]

If we pull up or dig out the roots of alfalfa, or of the true clovers

or vetches, we find upon the rootlets little swellings which are

called nodules, or root-tubercles. Although these tubercles look so

uninteresting, no fairy story was ever more wonderful than is theirs.

They are, in fact, the home of the clover brownies, which help the

plants to do their work. Each nodule is a nestful of living beings,

so small that it would take twenty-five thousand of them end to end

to reach an inch; therefore, even a little swelling can hold many of

these minute organisms, which are called bacteria. For many years

people thought that these swellings were injurious to the roots of

the clover, but now we know that the bacteria which live in them are

simply underground partners of these plants. The clover roots give

the bacteria homes and place to grow, and in return these are able

to extract a very valuable chemical fertilizer from the air, and to

change its form so that the clovers can absorb it. The name of this

substance is nitrogen, and it makes up more than three-fourths of the

air we breathe. Other plants are unable to take the nitrogen from the

air and use it for food, but these little bacteria extract it from

the air which fills every little space between every two grains of

soil and then change it to a form which the clovers can use. After

the clover crop is harvested, the roots remain in the ground, their

little storehouses filled with this precious substance, and the soil

falls heir to it.

[Illustration:

_Yellow or hop clover. Buffalo clover. Rabbit-foot or pussy

clover._]

Nitrogen in the form of commercial fertilizer is the most expensive

which the farmer has to buy. So when he plants clover or alfalfa on

his land, he is bringing to the soil this expensive element of plant

growth, and it costs him nothing. This is why a good farmer practices

the rotation of crops and puts clover upon his land every three or

four years.

[Illustration: _Alfalfa in leaf and blossom._]

Alfalfa is so dependent on its little underground partners, that it

cannot grow without them; and so the farmer plants, with the alfalfa

seed, some of the soil from an old alfalfa field, which is rich in

these bacteria. On a farm I know, the bacterial soil gave out before

all of the seed was planted; and when the crop was ready to cut it

was easy to see just where the seed without the inoculated soil had

been planted, for the plants that grew there were small and poor,

while the remainder of the field showed a luxurious growth.

It is because of the great quantity of nitrogen absorbed from the

air through the bacteria on its roots that the alfalfa is such a

valuable fodder; for it contains the nitrogen which otherwise would

have to be furnished to cattle in expensive grain or cotton-seed

meal. The farmer who gives his stock alfalfa does not need to pay

such large bills for grain. Other plants belonging to the same family

as the clovers--like the vetches and cow-peas--also have bacteria

on their roots. But each species of legume has its own species of

bacteria; although in some cases soil inoculated with bacteria from

one species of legume will grow it on roots of another species. Thus,

the bacteria on the roots of sweet clover will grow on the roots of

alfalfa and many farmers use the soil inoculated by sweet clover to

start their alfalfa crops.

[Illustration: _Red clover blossom._]

In addition to the enriching of the soil, clover roots, which

penetrate very deeply, protect land from being washed away by

freshets and heavy rains; and since clover foliage makes a thick

carpet over the surface of the soil, it prevents evaporation and

thus keeps the soil moist. Crimson clover is used extensively as a

cover crop; it is sowed in the fall, especially where clean culture

is practiced in orchards, and spreads its leaves above and its roots

within the soil, keeping out weeds and protecting the land. In the

spring it may be plowed under, and thus add again to the fertility.

This is also an aesthetic crop, for a field of crimson clover in

bloom is one of the most beautiful sights in our rural landscape.

[Illustration: _Spotted medic._]

Red clover has such deep florets that, of all our bees; only the

bumblebees have sufficiently long tongues to reach the nectar. It

is, therefore, dependent upon this bee for developing its seed, and

the enlightened farmer of to-day looks upon the bumblebees as his

best friends. The export of clover seed from the United States has

sometimes reached the value of two million dollars per year, and this

great industry can only be carried on with the aid of the bumblebee.

There are sections of New York State where the growing of clover seed

was once a most profitable business, but where now, owing to the

dearth of bumblebees, no clover seed whatever is produced.

LESSON CLXVI

THE CLOVERS

_Leading thought_--The clovers enrich with nitrogen the soil in which

they are planted. They are very valuable as food for stock; and their

flowers are pollenated by bees.

_Method_--Each pupil should dig up a root of red clover or alfalfa to

use for the lesson on the nodules. The flowers should be studied in

the field, and also in detail in the schoolroom.

_Observations_--1. How many kinds of clover do you know? How many of

the medics?

2. In all clovers, which flowers of the head blossom first, those on

the lower or outside, or those on the upper or inside?

3. Take up a root of red clover or alfalfa, noting how deep it grows.

Wash the root free from soil, and find the little swellings on it.

Write the story of what these swellings do for the clover, and

incidentally for the soil.

4. How must the soil be prepared so that alfalfa may grow

successfully? What does the farmer gain by feeding alfalfa, and why?

5. How do clover roots protect the land from being washed by heavy

rains?

6. How do clovers keep the soil moist? How does this aid the farmer?

7. What is a cover crop, and what are its uses?

8. Upon what insects does the red clover depend for carrying pollen?

Can it produce seed without the aid of these valuable bees? Why not?

SWEET CLOVER

_Teacher’s Story_

In passing along the country roads, especially those which have

suffered upheaval from the road machines, suddenly we are conscious

of a perfume so sweet, so suggestive of honey and other delicate

things, that we involuntarily stop to find its source. Close at hand

we find this perfume laboratory in the blossoms of the sweet clover.

It may be the species with white blossoms, or the one with yellow

flowers, but the fragrance is the same. There stands the plant,

lifting its beautiful blue-green foliage and its spikes of flowers

for the enjoyment of the passer-by, while its roots are feeling

their way down deep in the poor, hard soil, taking air and drainage

with them and building, with the aid of their underground partners,

nitrogen factories which will enrich the poverty-stricken earth, so

that other plants may find nourishment in it.

[Illustration: _White sweet clover._]

Never was there such another beneficent weed as the sweet

clover--beneficent alike to man, bee and soil. Usually we see it

growing on soil so poor that it can only attain a height of from two

to four feet; but if it once gets foothold on a generous soil, it

rises majestically ten feet tall.

Like the true clover, its leaf has three leaflets, the middle one

being longer and larger than the other two and separated from them by

a naked midrib; the leaflets are long, oval in shape, with narrow,

toothed edges, and they are dull, velvety green; the two stipules at

the base of the leaf are little and pointed.

The blossoming of the sweet clover is a pretty story. The blossom

stem, which comes from the axil of the leaf, is at first an inch or

so long, packed closely with little, green buds having pointed tips.

But as soon as the blossoming begins, the stem elongates, bringing

the flowers farther apart--just as if the buds had been fastened to a

rubber cord which had been stretched. The buds lower down open first;

each day some of the flowers bloom, while those of the day before

linger, and thus the blossom tide rises, little by little up the

stalk. But the growing tip develops more and more buds, and thus the

blossom story continues until long after the frosts have killed most

other plants; finally the tip is white with blossoms, while the seeds

developed from the first flowers on the plant have been perfected and

scattered.

[Illustration: _Yellow sweet clover._]

The blossom is very much like a diminutive sweet pea; the calyx

is like a cup with five points to its rim, and is attached to the

stalk by a short stem. The banner petal is larger than the wings and

the keel. A lens shows the stamens united into two groups, with a

threadlike pistil pushing out between; both stamens and pistil are

covered by the keel, as in the pea blossom.

The flowers are beloved by bees and many other insects, which are

attracted to them by their fragrance as well as by the white radiance

of their blossoms. The ripened pod is well encased in the calyx at

its base. The foliage of the sweet clover is fragrant, especially so

when drying; it has been used for fodder. The sweet clovers came to

us from Europe and are, in a measure, compensation for some of the

other emigrant weeds which we wish had remained at home.

LESSON CLXVII

SWEET CLOVER

_Leading thought_--This beneficent plant grows in soil too poor for

other plants to thrive in. It brings nitrogen and air into the soil,

and thus makes it fertile so that other plants soon find in its

vicinity nourishment for growth.

_Method_--Plants of the sweet clover with their roots may be brought

to the schoolroom for study. The children should observe sweet clover

in the field; its method of inflorescence, and the insects which

visit it, should be noted.

_Observations_--1. What first makes you aware that you are near sweet

clover? On what kinds of soil, and in what localities, does sweet

clover abound?

2. Do you know how sweet clover growing in poor soils and waste

places acts as a pioneer for other plants?

3. Dig up a sweet clover plant, and see how far its stems go into the

soil.

4. How high does the plant grow? What is the color of its foliage?

5. Compare one of the leaves with the leaf of a red clover, and

describe the likeness and the difference. Note especially the edges

of the upper and the lower leaves, and also the stipules.

6. Describe the way the sweet clover blossoms. Do the lower or upper

flowers open first? How does the flower stem look before it begins

to blossom? What happens to it after the blossoming begins? How long

will it continue to blossom?

7. Take a blossom and compare it with that of a sweet pea. Can you

see the banner? The wings? The keel? Can you see if the stamens are

united into two sets? Can you see the pistil? Note the shape of the

calyx.

8. How many flowers are in blossom at a time? Does it make a mass of

white to attract insects? In what other way does it attract insects?

What insects do you find visiting it?

9. How do the ripened pods look?

* * * * *

“_The blooming wilds His gardens are; some cheering

Earth’s ugliest waste has felt that flowers bequeath,

And all the winds o’er summer hills careering

Sound softer for the sweetness that they breathe._”

--THERON BROWN.

THE WHITE CLOVER

_Teacher’s Story_

[Illustration: T]

The sweet clover should be studied first, for after making this study

it is easier to understand the blossoming of the white and the red

clover. In the sweet clovers, the flowers are strung along the stalk

but in the red, the white, and many others, it is as if the blossom

stalk were telescoped, so that the flowers are all in one bunch,

the tip of the stalk making the center of the clover head. We use

the white clover in our lawns because of a peculiarity of its stem,

which, instead of standing erect, lies flat on the ground, sending

leaves and blossoms upward and thus making a thick carpet over the

ground. The leaves are very pretty; and although they grow upon the

stems alternately, they always manage to twist around so as to lift

their three leaflets upward to the light. The three leaflets are

nearly equal in size, with fine, even veins and toothed edges; and

each has upon it, near the middle a pale, angular spot. The white

clover, in common with other clovers, has the pretty habit of going

to sleep at night. Botanists may object to this human term, but the

great Linnæus first called it sleep, and we may be permitted to

follow his example. Certainly the way the clover leaves fold at the

middle, the three drawing near each other, looks like going to sleep,

and is one of the things which even the little child will enjoy

observing.

The clover head is made up of many little flowers; each one has a

tubular calyx with five delicate points and a little stem to hold it

up into the world. In shape, the corolla is much like that of the

sweet pea, and each secretes nectar at its base. The outside blossoms

open first; and as soon as open, the honey bees, which eagerly visit

white clover wherever it is growing, begin at once their work of

gathering nectar and carrying pollen; as soon as the florets are

pollenated they wither and droop below the flower-head.

“Where I made One, turn down an empty Glass.”

Sings old Omar, and I always think of it when I see the turned-down

florets of the white-clover blossom. But in this case the glass is

not empty, but holds the maturing seed. This habit of the white

clover flowers saves the bees much time, since only those which need

pollenating are lifted upward to receive their visits. The length of

time the little clover head requires for the maturing of its blossoms

depends much upon the weather and upon the insect visitors.

White clover honey is in the opinion of many the most delicious honey

made from any flowers except, perhaps, from orange blossoms. So

valuable is the white clover as a honey plant, that apiarists often

grow acres of it for their bees.

LESSON CLXVIII

THE WHITE CLOVER

_Leading thought_--The white clover has creeping stems. Its flowers

depend upon the bees for their pollination, and the bees depend upon

the white clover blossoms for honey.

_Method_--The plant may be brought into the schoolroom while in

blossom, and its form be studied there. Observations as to the

fertilization of the flowers should be made out-of-doors.

_Observations_--1. Where does the white clover grow? Why is it so

valuable in lawns?

2. Note carefully the clover leaf, the shape of the three leaflets,

stems, and edges. Is part of the leaflet lighter colored than the

rest? If so, describe the shape. Are the leaflets unequal or equal

in size? Does each leaf come directly from the root? Are they

alternately arranged? Why do they seem to come from the upper side of

the stem?

3. Note the behavior of the clover leaves at night. How do the two

side leaflets act? The central leaflet? Do you think that this is

because the plant is sleepy?

4. Take a white clover head, and note that it is made up of many

little flowers. How many? Study one of the little flowers with a

lens. Can you see its calyx? Its petals? Its stem? In what way is it

similar to the blossom of the sweet pea?

5. Take a head of white clover which has not yet blossomed. Tie a

string about its stem so that you may be sure you are observing the

same flower and make the following observations during several days:

Which blossoms begin to open first--those outside or inside? How many

buds open each day? What happens to the blossoms as they fade? Of

what use is this to the plant? How many days pass from the time the

flowers begin to blossom until the last flower at the center opens?

6. What insects do you see working on the white clover blossoms?

How does the bee act when collecting nectar? Can you see where she

thrusts her tongue? What does the bee do for the clover blossom? What

sort of honey does the white clover give to the bee?

7. Tie little bags of cheesecloth over two or three heads of white

clover and see if they produce any seed.

* * * * *

“_Little flower; but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is._”

--TENNYSON.

* * * * *

“_To me the meanest flower that blows, can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears._”

--WORDSWORTH.

* * * * *

“_I know a place where the sun is like gold,

And the cherry blooms burst with snow,

And down underneath is the loveliest nook

Where the four leaf clovers grow._”

--ELLA HIGGINSON.

[Illustration: _Seneca Indian women husking corn for braiding._

Photo by Arthur C. Parker. From Bulletin 144 of New York State

Museum, “Iroquois uses of Maize and other Food Plants” by Arthur C.

Parker.]

THE MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN

_Teacher’s Story_

“_Hail! Ha-wen-ni-yu! Listen with open ears to the words of

thy people. Continue to listen. We thank our mother earth

which sustains us. We thank the winds which have banished

disease. We thank He-no for rain. We thank the moon and stars

which give us light when the sun has gone to rest. We thank

the sun for warmth and light by day. Keep us from evil ways

that the sun may never hide his face from us for shame and

leave us in darkness. We thank thee that thou hast made our

corn to grow. Thou art our creator and our good ruler, thou

canst do no evil. Everything thou doest is for our happiness._”

[Illustration: T]

Thus prayed the Iroquois Indians when the corn had ripened on the

hills and valleys of New York State long before it was a state, and

even before Columbus had turned his ambitious prows westward in quest

of the Indies. Had he found the Indies with their wealth of fabrics

and spices, he would have found there nothing so valuable to the

world as has proved this golden treasure of ripened corn.

The origin of Indian corn, or maize, is shrouded in mystery. There is

a plant which grows on the table-lands of Mexico, which is possibly

the original species; but so long had maize been cultivated by the

American Indians that it was thoroughly domesticated when America was

first discovered. In those early days of American colonization, it

is doubtful, says Professor John Fiske, if our forefathers could have

remained here had it not been for Indian corn. No plowing, nor even

clearing, was necessary for the successful raising of this grain. The

trees were girdled, thus killing their tops to let in the sunlight;

the rich earth was scratched a little with a primitive tool, and

the seed put in and covered; and the plants that grew therefrom

took care of themselves. If the pioneers had been obliged to depend

alone upon the wheat and rye of Europe, which only grows under good

tillage, they might have starved before they gained a foothold on our

forest-covered shores.

THE CORN PLANT

In studying the maize it is well to keep in mind that a heavy wind is

its worst enemy; such a wind will lay it low, and from such an injury

it is difficult for the corn to recover and perfect its seed. Thus,

the mechanism of the corn-stalk and leaf is adapted for prevention

of this disaster. The corn-stalk is, practically, a strong cylinder

with a pithy center, the fibres of the stalks are very strong, and at

short intervals the stalk is strengthened by hard nodes, or joints,

if the whole stalk were as hard as the nodes, it would be inelastic

and break instead of bend; as it is, the stalk is very elastic and

will bend far over before it breaks. The nodes are nearer each other

at the bottom, thus giving strength to the base; they are farther

apart at the top, where the wind strikes, and where the bending and

bowing of the stalk is necessary.

[Illustration: _Stalk of corn with ear and tassel._]

The leaf comes off at a node and clasps the stalk for a considerable

distance, thus making it stronger, especially toward the base. Just

where the leaf starts away from the stem there is a little growth

called a rain-guard; if water should seep between the stalk and the

clasping leaf, it would afford harbor for destructive fungi. The

structure of the corn leaf is especially adapted to escape injury

from the wind; the strong veins are parallel with a strong but

flexible midrib at the center; often, after the wind has whipped the

leaves severely, only the tips are split and injured. The edges

of the corn leaf are ruffled and, where the leaf leaves the stalk,

there is a wide fold in the edge at either side; this arrangement

gives play for a sidewise movement without breaking the leaf margins.

The leaf is thus protected from the wind, whether it is struck from

above or horizontally. The true roots of the corn plant go quite

deep into the soil, but are hardly adequate to the holding of such

a tall, slender stalk upright in a wind storm; therefore, all about

the base of the plant are brace-roots, which serve to hold the stalk

erect--like the stay-ropes about a flagpole.

THE EAR OF CORN

[Illustration: _The pollen-bearing flowers of corn._]

The ears of corn are borne at the joints or nodes; and the stalk,

where the ear presses against it, is hollowed out so as to hold it

snugly; this is very suggestive of a mother holding a baby in her

arms. In the following ways, the husks show plainly that they are

modified leaves: The husk has the same structure as the leaf, having

parallel veins; it comes off the stem like a leaf; it is often green,

and therefore does the work of a leaf; it changes to leaf shape at

the tip of the ear, thus showing that the husk is really that part

of the leaf which usually clasps the stem. If a husk tipped with a

leaf is examined, the rain-guard will be found at the place where

the two join. As a matter of fact, the ear of corn is on a branch

stalk which has been very much shortened, so that the nodes are very

close together, and therefore the leaves come off close together. By

stripping the husks back one by one, the change from the outside,

stiff, green leaf structure to the inner delicate, papery wrapping

for the seed, may be seen in all its stages. This is a beautiful

lesson in showing how the maize protects its seed, and the husk may

well be compared to the clothing of a baby. The pistillate flowers of

the corn, which finally develop into the kernels, grow in pairs along

the sides of the end portion of the shortened stalk, which is what we

call the “cob.” Therefore, the ear will show an even number of rows,

and the cob shows distinctly that the rows are paired. The corn-silk

is the style of the pistillate flowers; and therefore, in order to

secure pollen, it must extend from the ovule, which later develops

into a kernel, to the tip of the ear, where it protrudes from the end

of the husk. A computation of the number of kernels in a row and on

the ear makes a very good arithmetic lesson for the primary pupils,

especially as the kernels occur in pairs.

THE GROWTH OF THE CORN

[Illustration:

_1, The anthers of corn_; _2, The tip of the corn-silk showing

the stigma_; _3, The pistillate flower, which will develop

into the kernel_.

]

If we cut a kernel of corn crosswise we can see, near the point

where it joins the cob, the little plant and the root. Corn should

be germinated between wet blotters, in a seed-testing experiment,

before observations are made on the growing corn of the fields. When

the corn first appears, the corn leaves are in a pointed roll which

pierces the soil. Soon they spread apart, but it may be some time

before the corn-stalk proper appears. Then it stretches up rapidly,

and very soon will be tipped with beautiful pale brown tassels. These

tassels merit careful study for they are the staminate flowers. Each

floret has two anthers hanging down from it, and each half of each

anther is a little bag of pollen-grains; and in order that they shall

be shaken down upon the waiting corn-silk below, the bottom of each

bag opens wide when the pollen is ripe. The corn-silk, at this stage,

is branched at the tip and clothed with fine hairs, so that it may

catch a grain of the precious pollen. Then occurs one of the most

wonderful pollen stories in all nature, for the pollen-tube must

push down through the center of the corn-silk for its whole length,

in order to reach the waiting ovule and thus enable it to become a

kernel of corn. These young, unfertilized kernels are pretty objects,

looking like seed-pearls, each wrapped in furry bracts. If the silk

from one of these young flowers does not receive its grain of pollen,

then the kernel will not develop and the ear will be imperfect. On

the other hand if the pollen from another variety of corn falls upon

the waiting stigmas of the silk, we shall find the ear will have upon

it a mixture of the two varieties. This is best exemplified when we

have the black and white varieties of sweet corn growing near each

other.

[Illustration: _Corn ears with braided husks as the Indians used to

carry them._]

One reason why corn is such a valuable plant to us is that its growth

is so rapid. It is usually not planted until late spring, yet, with

some varieties, by September the stalks are twenty feet high. The

secret of this is that the corn, unlike many other plants, has many

points of growth. While young, the lower part of the stalk lying

between every two nodes is a growing center and the tip of the stalk

also grows; in most plants, the tip of the stems is the only center

of growth. The first two experiments suggested will demonstrate

this. When blown down by the wind, the corn has a wonderful way of

lifting itself, by inserting growing wedges in the lower sides of

the nodes. A corn-stalk blown down by the wind will often show this

wedge-shape at every joint, and the result will be an upward curve

of the whole stalk. Of course, this cannot be seen unless the stalk

is cut lengthwise through the center. Experiment 3 is suggested to

demonstrate this.

During drought the corn leaves check the transpiration of water by

rolling together lengthwise in tubes, thus offering less surface

to the sun and air. The farmer calls this the curling of the corn,

and it is always a sign of lack of moisture. If a corn plant with

leaves thus curled, be given plenty of water, the leaves will soon

straighten out again into their normal shape.

_References_: Corn Plants, Sargent; Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets,

Vol. 1; Elements of Agriculture, Warren; The First Book of Farming,

Goodrich; Agriculture, Jackson and Dougherty; Rural School

Agriculture, Hays; Columbia’s Emblem, Houghton, Mifflin and Co.

[Illustration: _Corn in the shock._]

LESSON CLXIX

THE MAIZE

_Leading thought_--The Indian corn, or maize, is a plant of much

beauty and dignity. It has wonderful adaptations for the development

of its seed and for resisting its arch-enemy, the wind.

_Method_--The study may begin in spring when the corn is planted,

giving the pupils the outline for observations to be filled out in

their note-books during the summer, when they have opportunities for

observing the plant; or it may be studied in the autumn as a matured

plant. It may be studied in the school room or in the field, or both.

_Observations on the corn plant_--1. Describe the central stem. How

many joints, or nodes, has it? Of what use to the plant are these

nodes? Are the joints nearer each other at the bottom or the top of

the plant?

2. Where do the leaves come off the stem? Describe the relation of

the bases of the leaves to the stem. Of what use is this to the plant?

3. Note the little growth on the leaf where it leaves the stalk.

Describe how this prevents the rain from seeping down between the

stalk and the clasping leaf. What danger would there be to the plant

if the water could get into this narrow space?

4. What is the shape of the leaf? Describe the veins. Does the leaf

tear easily across? Does it tear easily lengthwise? Of what use to

the leaf is this condition?

5. Are the edges of the corn leaf straight or ruffled? How does this

ruffled edge permit the leaf to turn without breaking? Describe at

length the benefit the corn plant derives from having leaves which

cannot be broken across and that can bend readily sidewise as well as

up and down.

6. Describe the roots of the corn plant. Describe the brace-roots.

Explain their use.

7. Describe all the ways in which the corn plant is strengthened

against its enemy, the wind.

_Observation on the ear of corn_--8. Where on the corn plant are the

ears borne? Are two ears borne on the same side of the stalk? Remove

an ear, and see how the stalk is changed to give it room.

9. Where do the ears come off the stalk in relation to the leaves?

10. Examine the outside husks, and compare them with the green

leaves. What is there to suggest that the corn-husk is a leaf changed

to protect the seed? Do you think that the husk represents that

portion of the leaf which clasps the stalk? Why? Describe how the

inner husk differs from the outer in color and texture. Describe how

this is a special protection to the growing kernels.

11. After carefully removing the husk, examine the silk and see if

there is a thread for every kernel. Is there an equal amount of silk

lying between every two rows? Do you know what part of the corn

flower is the cornsilk? What part is the kernel?

12. How many rows of kernels are there on an ear? How many kernels

in a row? How many on the whole ear? Do any of the rows disappear

toward the tip of the ear? If so, do they disappear in pairs? Do you

know why? Are the kernels on the tip of the ear and near the base

as perfect as those along the middle? Do you know whether they will

germinate as quickly and vigorously as the middle ones?

13. Study a cob with no corn on it and note if the rows of

kernel-sockets are in distinct pairs. This will, perhaps show best if

you break the cob across.

14. Break an ear of corn in two, and sketch the broken end showing

the relation of the cob to the kernels.

15. Are there any places on the ear you are studying, where the

kernels did not grow or are blasted? What happened to cause this?

16. Describe the requisites for a perfect ear of seed-corn. Why

should the plant from which the seed-ear is taken be vigorous and

perfect?

_Observations on the growth of corn--Work for the Summer

Vacation_--17. How does the corn look when it first comes up? How

many leaves are there in the pointed roll which first appears above

the ground? How long before the central stalk appears?

18. When do the tassels first appear? What kind of flowers are the

corn tassels? Describe the anthers. How many on each flower? Where do

the anthers open to discharge their pollen?

19. How large are the ears when the pollen is being shed? Study an

ear of corn at this period. Note that the kernel is the ovule, the

silk is attached to it and is the long style extending out beyond the

husks. Note that the tip, or stigma is branched.

20. What carries the pollen for the corn plant? If you have rows of

popcorn and sweet corn or of sweet corn and field corn next to each

other why is it that the ears will show a mixture of both kinds?

EXPERIMENT 1

Compare the growth of the corn plant with that of the pigweed. When

the corn-stalk first appears above ground, tie two strings upon

it, one just above a joint and one below it. Tie two strings the

same distance apart on the stem of a pigweed. Measure carefully the

distance between these two strings on the two plants. Two weeks later

measure the distance between the strings again. What is the result?

EXPERIMENT 2

Measure the distance between two of the nodes or joints near the tip

of a certain corn-stalk. Two weeks later measure this distance again

and compare the two.

EXPERIMENT 3

When a stalk of corn is still green in August, bend it down and place

a stick across it at about half its length. Describe how it tries

to lift itself to an erect attitude after two or three weeks. Cut

lengthwise across one of the nodes, beyond the point held down by the

stick, and see the wedge-shaped growth within the joint which helps

to raise the stalk to an upright position.

EXPERIMENT 4

During the August drought, note that the corn leaves are rolled.

Give a corn plant with rolled leaves plenty of water and note what

happens. Why?

THE COTTON PLANT

_Teacher’s Story_

There are some plants which have made great chapters in the histories

of nations, and cotton is one of them. The fibre of cotton was used

for making clothing so long ago, that its discovery is shrouded in

the myths of prehistoric times. But we believe it first came into use

in India, for in this land we find certain laws concerning cotton

which were codified 800 B. C.; and allusions to the fine, white

raiment of the peoples of India are frequent in ancient history.

Cotton was introduced into Egypt from India at an early date; it

was in common use there 150 B. C. But not until our Civil War laid

fallow the cotton fields of the United States, did Egypt realize

the value of its crop; and although much money was lost there in

agricultural speculation after our own product was again put on the

market, yet cotton has remained since that time one of Egypt’s most

valuable exports.

When Columbus discovered America he found cotton growing in the West

Indies, and the chief articles of clothing of the native Mexicans

were made of cotton. Cloths of cotton were also found in ancient

tombs of Peru, proving it was used there long before the white man

set his foot upon those shores. When Magellan made his famous voyage

around the world in 1500, he found the cotton fibre in use in Brazil.

[Illustration: _The cotton in blossom._]

It is a strange fact that the only region of the world between the

parallels of 40° north and 40° south latitude, where cotton did not

grow as a native or cultivated plant when America was discovered,

was the region of our Gulf States, which now produces more cotton

than any other. The first mention of cotton as a crop in the American

colonies is in the report published in 1666. At the time of the

Revolutionary War the cotton industry was thoroughly established. It

is one of the significant facts of history that the invention of the

cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, which revolutionized the cotton

industry and brought it to a much more profitable basis, wrought

great evil to the United States, since it revived the profits of

slave-holding. The institution of slavery was sinking out of sight by

its own weight; Washington showed that it was the most expensive way

to work land, and Jefferson failed to liberate his own slaves simply

because he believed that liberty would come to all slaves inevitably,

since slave-holding was such an expense to the plantation owners. But

the cotton gin, which removed the seeds rapidly--theretofore done by

slow and laborious hand process--suddenly made the raising of cotton

so profitable that slaves were again employed in its production with

great financial benefits. And thus it came about that the cotton

plant innocently wielded a great influence in the political, as well

as the industrial life of our country.

The cotton plant has a taproot, with branches which go deep into the

soil. The stem is nearly cylindrical, the branches often spreading

and sometimes irregular; the bark is dark and reddish; the wood is

white. In Egypt, and probably in other arid countries, the stalks are

gathered for fuel in winter.

The leaves are alternate, with long petioles. The upper leaves are

deeply cut, some having five, some seven, some three, and some even

nine lobes; strong veins extend from the petiole along the center of

each lobe; the leaves near the ground may not be lobed at all. Where

the petiole joins the stem, there is a pair of long, slender, pointed

stipules, but they often fall off early. A strange characteristic

of the cotton leaves is that they bear nectar-glands; these may be

seen on the under side and along the main ribs of the leaf; they

appear as little pits in the rib; some leaves may have none, while

others may have from one to five. It has been thought that perhaps

these glands might attract bees, wasps or ants, which would attack

the caterpillars eating the leaves, but this has not been proved.

However, many friendly insects get their nectar at these leaf-wells,

and here is an opportunity for some young naturalist of the South

to investigate this matter and discover what insects come to these

glands at all times of day and what they do.

The flower bud is partially hidden beneath the clasping bracts of the

involucre. These bracts are three or four in number, and they have

the edges so deeply lobed that they seem branched. By pushing back

the bracts we can find the calyx, which is a shallow cup with five

shallow notches in its rim. The petals are rolled in the bud like a

shut umbrella. The open flower has five broadly spreading petals;

when the bud first opens in the morning, the petals are whitish or

pale yellow with a purplish spot at the base, by noon they are pale

pink, by the next day they are a deep purplish red and they fall at

the end of the second day. There are nectar-glands also in the flower

at the base of the calyx, and the insects are obliged to thrust their

tongues between the bases of the petals to reach the nectar, only

long-tongued bees, moths and butterflies are able to attain it.

[Illustration:

_1, The cotton flower cut in half, showing the stamen-tube at

the center, up through which extends the style of the pistil.

Note the bracts and calyx._

_2, A young boll, with calyx at its base and set in the

involucral bracts._

]

There are many stamens which have their filaments united in a tube

extending up into the middle of the flower and enlarging a little

at the tip; below the enlarged base of this tube is the ovary

which later develops into the cotton-boll; within the stamen-tube

extends the long style, and from its tip are thrust out from three

to five stigmas like little pennants from the top of a chimney; and

sometimes they are more or less twisted together. The young boll is

covered and protected by the fringed bracts, which cover the bud

and remain attached to the ripened boll. The calyx, looking like a

little saucer, also remains at the base of the boll. The boll soon

assumes an elongated, oval shape, with long, pointed tip, it is green

outside and covered with little pits, as large as pin points. There

are, extending back from the pointed tip, three to five creases or

sutures, which show where the bell will open. If we open a nearly

ripened boll, we find that half way between each two sutures where

the boll will open, there is a partition extending into the boll

dividing it into compartments. These are really carpels, as in the

core of an apple, and their leaf origin may be plainly seen in the

venation. The seeds are fastened by their pointed ends along each

side of the central edge of the partition, from which they break away

very easily. The number of seeds varies, usually two or three along

each side; the young seeds are wrapped in the young cotton, which is

a stringy, soft white mass. The cotton fibres are attached to the

covering of the seed around the blunt end, and usually the pointed

end is bare. When the boll opens, the cotton becomes very fluffy and

if not picked will blow away; for this cotton fibre is a device of

the wild cotton for disseminating its seeds by sending them off on

the wings of the wind. Heavy winds at the cotton-picking time, are a

menace to the crop and often occasion serious loss.

The mechanism of the opening of the cotton-boll is very interesting;

along the central edge of each partition and extending up like

beaks into the point of the boll, is a stiff ridge, about the basal

portion of which the seeds are attached; as the boll becomes dry,

this ridged margin becomes as stiff as wire and warps outward; at

the same time, the outside of the boll is shriveling. This action

tears the boll apart along the sutures and exposes the seeds with

their fluffy balloons to the action of the wind. The ripe, open,

empty boll is worth looking at; the sections are wide apart and each

white, delicate, parchment-like partition, or carpel, has its wire

edge curved back gracefully. The outside of the boll is brown and

shriveled, but inside it is still white and shows that it had a soft

lining for its “seed babies.”

The amount of the cotton crop per acre varies with the soil and

climate; the amount that can be picked per day also depends upon the

cotton as well as the picker. Children have been known to pick one

hundred pounds per day, and a first-class picker from five hundred

to six hundred pounds, or even eight hundred; one man has made a

record of picking sixty pounds in an hour. Cotton is one of the most

important crops grown in America, and there are listed more than one

hundred and thirty varieties which have originated in our country.

_References_--The various bulletins of the United States Department

of Agriculture and of the experiment stations of the Southern States.

The most complete of these is Bulletin No. 33, Office of Experiment

Stations, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, published in 1896.

LESSON CLXX

COTTON

[Illustration: _A donkey laden with cotton stalks in Cairo, Egypt,

the bundles to be sold for fuel._

Photo by J. H. Comstock.]

_Leading thought_--Cotton has had a great influence upon our country

politically as well as industrially. Its fibre was used by the

ancients, and it is to-day one of the most important crops in the

regions where it is grown.

_Method_--A cotton plant with blossoms and ripe bolls upon it may be

brought into the schoolroom or studied in the field.

_Observations_--1. How many varieties of cotton do you know? Which

kind is it you are studying?

2. What sort of root has the cotton plant? Does it go deep into the

soil?

3. How high does the plant grow? Are the stems tough or brittle? What

is the color of the bark? Of the wood? Do you know of a country where

cotton stalks are used for fuel? Do the stem and branches grow erect

or very spreading?

4. Are the leaves opposite or alternate? Are the petioles as long as

the leaves? Are there any stipules where the petioles join the main

stem? How many forms of leaves can you find on the same stem? How do

the upper differ from the lower leaves? Describe or sketch one of the

large upper leaves, paying especial attention to the veins and the

shape of the lobes.

5. Look at the lower side of a leaf and find, if you can, a little

pit on the midrib near its base. How many of these pits can you find

on the veins of one leaf? What is the fluid in these pits? Taste it

and see if it is sweet. Watch carefully a growing plant and describe

what insects you find feeding on this nectar. Note if the wasps and

ants, feeding on this nectar, attack the caterpillars of the cotton

worm which destroy the leaf. Where are the nectar-glands of plants

usually situated?

6. Study the flower bud; what covers it? How many of these bracts

cover the flower bud? What is their shape and how do their edges

look? Push back the bracts and find and describe the calyx. How are

the petals folded in the bud?