THE FLOWER BABIES
The flower itself has many parts, just as there are many parts to your
body. When the flower is a little bud, or baby, rocked by the breezes,
it is closely wrapped in a little green cloak. We call this cloak the
calyx, because when it opens it looks like a cup, and the word calyx
means cup. After the bud is grown, it opens its cloak and throws it
back. Then we see the pretty dress underneath. We call this dress the
corolla. Sometimes it is all in one piece, but often it is divided into
several leaf-like parts which we call petals.
If we look within the dress or corolla, we find the real body of
the flower, which is called the pistil. Its shape varies greatly in
different plants, but it always consists of two or three distinct parts.
One of these is the cradle for the seeds, and is called the ovary.
At one end of the ovary is usually a little tube leading down into it.
This tube is called the style, and the opening at the other end is
called the stigma. Each ovary or cradle contains one or more ovules
which by and by will grow into seeds. Just outside the pistil of a
flower you usually will find a row of slender, thread-like stalks, each
bearing a soft, oblong body at the top, falling out of which you will
see a fine yellow powder called pollen. It is a peculiar fact that these
seeds never can grow into new plants unless they are fertilized, that
is, unless they receive some pollen. It is another peculiar fact that
although nearly every flower has this pollen growing right near the
little ovules, yet they cannot be fertilized with this pollen, but must
receive some from the flower of another plant family.
This pollen is carried from one plant to another by the wind or by the
bees and butterflies that come visiting in search of honey. In fact, the
flower coaxes the bees and butterflies to come so they may bring her the
pollen. Soon after the seed is fertilized it is ripe; that is, it is
ready to leave its cradle, the ovary. It is now ready to grow into a new
plant. But before it can grow it must be put into a little nest in the
ground. But the poor plant is so helpless that she is unable to prepare
this nest herself, so all she can do is to scatter her seed babies out
on the ground and hope some one will take pity on them and make a nice
nest for them. Sometimes the wind helps her by blowing some dirt and
dead leaves over them, for you know the seeds cannot grow unless they
are covered nice and warm. Sometimes the children and grown people help
her by preparing a nice flower-bed.
For a long time the tiny seed lies very quietly in its warm nest, and if
we could peek at it we could not see it move at all, but all the time it
is growing very slowly, until finally some bright day it will send up
its little sprouts, and then we will see that all the time the seed was
lying so quietly it was growing into a baby flower.
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"So the Bluebirds have contracted, have they, for a house?
And a nest is under way for little Mr. Wren?"
"Hush, dear, hush! Be quiet, dear! quiet as a mouse.
These are weighty secrets, and we must whisper them."
Susan Coolidge.
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