A FEW FAMILIA ^ FLOWERS MARGARET -W- MORLEY LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. BIOLOGY Class LIBRARY G A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS HOW TO LOVE THEM AT HOME OR IN SCHOOL MARGARET WARNER MORLEY MORNING-GLORY JEWELWEED NASTURTIUM GERANIUM HYACINTH BOSTON, U.S.A., AND LONDON GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 3Ul)emTum 1903 BIOLOGY LIBRARY G COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY MARGARET WARNER MORLEY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS. PAGE A WORD TO THE TEACHER v THE MORNING-GLORY 1 NECTAR AND NECTARY 13 THE STAMENS 21 SOME HABITS OF THE FLOWER 27 THE PISTIL ..... ... 31 FERTILIZATION 38 THE PISTIL . . 54 THE BUD 58 LEAVES .... 63 SHAPE OF THE LEAF . . . . .' . .68 LEAF PARTS .- . 71 POSITION OF THE FLOWER IN RELATION TO THE LEAF . 74 THE BLADE . . . . . '. . . 76 THE GREEN PART OF THE LEAF . . . . . 79 NAMES OF THE PARTS OF THE BLADE .... 86 VERNATION . . 89 THE PLANT STEM . . . . ... . 90 THE ROOT 93 189765 iv CONTENTS. PAGE FRUITS .... .98 A GENERAL PLAN OF WORK FOR ANY FLOWERING PLANT -104 THE NASTURTIUM . 107 GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE FLOWER . 109 THE COROLLA ... 113 SHAPE AND COLOR OF THE PETALS . . . .117 THE CALYX 120 THE STAMENS .125 THE PISTIL 133 OVARY AND FRUIT 139 THE LEAF . 142 THE PETIOLE 145 THE LEAF BLADE 147 VERNATION 150 THE ROOT . . 151 IMPATIENS, JEWELWEED, TOUCH-ME-NOT, LADY'S EARDROP, BALSAM, SNAPWEED . . .153 GENERAL APPEARANCE 155 THE COROLLA 161 PISTIL AND STAMENS 168 OVARY AND FRUIT 172 THE LEAF 175 VENATION 177 THE PLANT STEM 178 THE ROOT 180 CONTENTS. v PAGE THE SCARLET GERANIUM . . . . . . 181 THE COROLLA ... 187 THE STAMENS 192 THE PISTIL 196 THE CALYX 199 THE BUD ~ . . .201 THE FRUIT 203 THE LEAF 207 THE PETIOLE - . 208 THE BLADE . . 211 VERNATION 213 THE STEM . . 214 THE ROOT 215 THE HYACINTH . . . . . . . .217 THE ROOT . . .229 THE LEAF . .232 THE FLOWER CLUSTER 238 THE FLOWER 246 STAMENS AND PERIANTH 247 THE PISTIL 250 THE BULB AND LEAVES '. 255 GLOSSARY 261 A WORD TO THE TEACHER. IT is with the hope of helping young teachers and those of more experience who are beginning to teach plant life that this little book is written. It does not make much difference where we begin in studying nature. If we start with the seed, we end with the flower, and vice versa. The best starting point depends upon the material at hand. Take whatever you have and make the most of it. Select what seems to you the most obvious fact in the story of the plant you have, and build from that. The bright flower, which first attracts attention and which is constantly being entered by winged messengers, is an admirable starting point in beginning the study of plant life, but it is not necessarily the only good one. Excellent results may be obtained by starting with the seed, the leaf, the stem, or, in fact, with any available part of the plant. The main thing is to make the work charming, and wake up the mind of the pupil to the beauty and the astonishing activity everywhere manifest in living things. 8 Yii viii A WORD TO THE TEACHER. In order to be clearly understood, the writer has been obliged to take some one starting point, and to proceed in a somewhat arbitrary, though not necessarily illogical, course. Also, to make a clear and vivid impression, the subject has been worked out in detail and partly in the form of dialogue between teacher and pupils. The object has not been to give exact instruction as to how to teach, but rather to give an inspiration towards teaching nature's truths lovingly. The method used is only one out of many methods that might have been adopted, and the flower as a starting point is only one out of many starting points that might have been chosen. The value of such a book as this lies in what it suggests, in Avhat activity it creates in other minds, rather than in the facts it states. The plants selected, the morning-glory, nasturtium, jewelweed, and geranium, were chosen because of their size, abundance, availability, lateness of blooming, and because of their development in relation to insect fertiliza- tion. All these plants have large and showy blossoms, modified in form and in other ways for the visits of insects. At the same time, they are not so complex and difficult to observe and understand as are certain other familiar flowers. The principal facts in flower life are thus in them easily discernible. While there are sentimental reasons for beginning flower A WORD TO THE TEACHER. ix work in the spring, there are also good reasons for taking up this work for the first time in the fall. Then the flowers are blooming out of doors, subject to more natural conditions, and are almost certain to be visited by insects, whose actions can be watched. The children, too, fresh from vacation, where in most cases they have lived more or less out of doors, are in sympathy with the wild life, and have unconsciously observed it. It takes the vacation into the schoolroom, in a sense. For these reasons, and because of the difficulty often found of getting flowers in early spring in our climate, fall work has been here presented, though where the teacher prefers to begin work in the spring, the nastur- tium and house geranium afford good material, as does also the hyacinth, which has been added purposely for spring work. The nasturtium can be planted in window boxes early in the winter, and the geranium can be obtained in full bloom in small pots for a small sum. Where possible, the schoolroom windows should be kept bright with flowers. Window boxes are not much trouble, and, where the schoolroom is warmed by furnace, may be a source of great pleasure to both teachers and children. Where the schoolroom is not warmed, window boxes can make bright the fall and spring weeks. Some will ask why the sweet pea, which is so common, so attractive, and which blooms so late, has not been selected as one of the flowers studied. x A WORD TO THE TEACHER. The pea and bean are rather difficult for beginners, although in many respects they present admirable features for study. Because of their complexity, the dahlia and other showy fall flowers were rejected. The object of studying flowers should be to present the great facts of plant life in a clear and interesting manner; not merely to attach labels to pieces of flowers, but to know of the life of the flower as a whole. There are certain interesting things about plant life that everybody wants to know: where the bees find the honey, how they get it, what they do with it, how the pollen reaches the ovule, how the plant protects its pollen and adapts its form to the insects that visit it, etc. These things are interesting. In a way they touch all life and elucidate it. These are the facts the child ought to have. The minimum of interest and knowledge comes from merely pulling a flower to pieces and attaching difficult and meaningless names to the different parts. The maximum of interest and knowledge comes from observing what use the flower makes of its parts and how the structure is related to the function. Having thus acquired a meaning, the flower parts become interesting and the descriptive terms are learned without difficulty. Study a plant as you would a person, not on the dis- secting table, but in its natural surroundings doing its life work. A WORD TO THE TEACHER. xi It is easy to learn the history of many flowers without pulling them to pieces at all, and it is much more beauti- ful and satisfactory to work thus with young people. Where children have had the care of flowers and love them, they do not like to tear them to pieces, and where they have not yet acquired this love, they are not helped to do so by treating the flower merely as a scientific " specimen." Let the children find more than mere technical terms and forms of organs in their botany work. Let them find nature beautiful as well as wonderful. No book can take the place of the teacher's individual planning. Children are not alike in different schools, nor in different classes of the same school; what might be admirable for one class of children might be unsuitable for another class. Each teacher should decide for herself how much to do and how to do it. This should be the test of her success: Do her children love the flowers, do they recognize in them a life akin to their own, have they an intelligent conception of the uses of the different flower parts? If the teacher does her work well, the latest researches made by naturalists into the secrets of plant life may become the property of the child. Curiously enough, modern discoveries concerning the flower parts are the facts which appeal most strongly to the child and are most readily understood by him. With a proper understanding of the fundamental facts xii A WORD TO THE TEACHER. of plant life the young student has open to him the doors of intelligent interest in what is going on in the scientific world. Of course, the more the teacher herself knows about plant life the better is she prepared to make the subject interesting to others. Information will come to her from many sources : the daily papers, the magazines and books, as well as from regular works on botany. Delightful truths about plant life are constantly being presented to the public, and, among other things, Grant Allen's books on plants are particularly interesting and charming. His " Flowers and their Pedigrees " and his " Falling in Love and other Essays " contain much infor- mation that every teacher ought to have, and which cannot so easily be obtained in any other way. Miss Newell's " Botany Readers," in two parts, Ginn & Co., are valuable aids to the teacher of botany, as they are mainly compilations from the great naturalists upon most of the interesting phenomena of plant life. Extracts from Darwin, for instance, give in a few para- graphs the gist of his discoveries about movements in plants, fertilization, etc., which the student unaided could obtain from the original source only by reading many technical books. In a similar manner, most of the great botanical scientists have been applied to for their best and most interesting facts, translations from the German adding to the wealth between the covers of these little books. A WORD TO THE TEACHER. xiii In "Leaves from Nature's Story Book," Educational Publishing Co., Vol. II, will be found some interesting chapters on bees and wasps. " Seaside and Wayside," D. C. Heath & Co., has in No. I some pretty bee stories for little folks, while No. Ill contains several interesting chapters on plant life. " Flowers and their Friends," Ginn & Co., is a little book written to accompany the present volume. It con- tains stories and added facts about the plants here treated, and is intended to increase the interest of the children by giving them something to read about their plants as they study. There is nothing in nature more delightful than the mutual helpfulness of plants and insects, and of the help- fulness of the different parts of plants to each other. Help the young people to feel this mutual helpfulness, and to know that it is as true and as important as the mutual "struggle for existence," about which so much has been written of late. In fact, so much stress has been laid upon the struggle that many people have come to hold the untrue and depressing view that all life is a carnage, as a result of their scientific study. This is but half the truth ; there is another side to life, and that is the side of mutual helpfulness. Finally, this book is intended for teachers, not for children, and some things are told for the benefit of the teacher which would not be appropriate for the younger pupils. The teacher is expected to use her xiv A WORD TO THE TEACHER. discretion concerning the information she conveys to the children. Use the plant work to brighten and elevate. Try to bring home to the developing mind a knowledge of the greatness and the beauty of life in all its forms. A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. THE MORNING-GLORY. OUR first friend is the pretty vine growing over roadside hedges and stone walls, which the botany calls bindweed, but which is more popularly known as the wild morning-glory. It bears a pink and white blossom about two inches long. Sometimes a wholly white variety is met with. The cultivated morning-glory can be used almost as well, and the differences between the two will be noticed from time to time. Both belong to the same family. THE FIRST THING TO NOTICE IN OUR PLANT IS THE LARGE AND SHOWY FLOWER. Suppose the teacher to have taken her little flock a short distance down the road on a sunny September day to where the flowers are blooming. They are less abundant than earlier in the season, yet there are several fine ones within reach. A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. It has been explained to the children that they are not to touch the flowers, only to look at them and get acquainted. Teacher: "Here are our little friends. Can you see them, Nellie ? " Nellie: "Yes. I see six or eight." Teacher : "Do you think you could see them from the turn in the road?" Nellie : " I know I could." Teacher: "What is the reason you can see them so far away, John ? " John : " They are so big." Fred: " They are light colored. If they were green like the leaves we could not see them." Teacher : " How they stand out in the sunlight ! Look down under the vine, John, and see if you can find any hiding away." - John : " No, I can't find any under the leaves." Kate: "Here is one partly under a leaf." Teacher: "Yes, that one is not quite as easily seen as the others. But which do you think THE MORNING-GLORY. 3 the morning-glories like better, to hide away or to stand out?" May : " I think they like to stand out." [All the children agree with this.] Teacher : " What holds them out in the light ? " Fred: "They have long stems." Teacher : "So they have. Are their stems all the same length ? " Kate : " No, here is one with a stem twice as long as that one next it." Teacher : "I wonder why." John: "Oh, I know. That long stem starts under the leaves, and grows and grows so the flower can get out. The short stem is near the top." Teacher: "Good, John. You know how to look." Kate : " Oh, Miss A, a bee went into mine ! " Ned: " One's gone into mine, too." Teacher: "What do you suppose the bees are after?" [Some of the children may know that the bee gets- honey from the flowers. If so, accept the fact with- out discussion ; if not, say you will try and find out another time what the bee is after, and proceed.] Teacher : " What shape is our morning-glory, Kate?" Kate does n't know. A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Anne thinks it is like a cornucopia. May says it is like a bell. George says it is something like a tumbler. Fred says it is like a funnel. " I think it is like a bell held up by the handle," Lucy says; "there is the clapper inside and all." Teacher : " What color is it ? " Several: " Pink and white." John: "There is a pink part and then a white part." Nellie : " The white parts run way down into the flower." Teacher: "Let us count these white parts. How many are there, May ? " May : " There are five." Teacher : " Are they the same size from top to bottom ?" Nellie: "No, they are narrow at the edge, and get wider as they go in." Kate: "They all run to- gether down in the flower." May: "The flower is all white at the bottom . ' ' Teacher: "Is the edge of the flower even ? " THE MORNING-GLORY. 5 John : " No, it i$ sort of scalloped." Teacher : " How many scallops has it ? " John : " It has five scallops." Teacher : " Now let us see if the white goes down the middle of the scallop." Children: "It does, it does." John : " There 's another bee." Teacher: "Now we will go, and to-morrow we will come again and watch the bees go into the flowers, and see where they go and what they get. Perhaps we can play we are bees and so find out about it." [This finishes the general survey of the flower. The work may be done in one lesson or in two or three, according to the age and intelligence of the pupils. Encourage the children to talk freely about the flower; do not put set phrases in their mouths. Have a good time, teacher and children together., The main thing is to have a good time. Get acquainted with the morning-glory in a pleasant, friendly way, and the scientific facts will take care of themselves. If the children are able to write, have them write out what they have seen and talked about. It will be a good plan to have a blank book set A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. aside for the plant study. They^can thus keep all they have done on their plant together, making a pleasant record of the term's work. It will be convenient to refer to, to refresh the memory, and much pleasanter to go to a book they have made themselves than to consult a printed volume. The younger children will need help at first in sentence-making ; but as soon as they can express themselves cor- rectly in short sentences, let each child record his own thoughts, instead of copying from the black- board or from the teacher's dictation. A few short sentences at first may be very helpful in teaching the child the correct form of expression, but be careful not to carry arbitrary sentence-writing too far. Remember the object is to train children to think for themselves and express their thoughts without help. For young teachers who are having their first experience in the schoolroom, a few sentences ex- THE MORNING-GLORY. 1 pressive of what has been learned are appended. They are merely for illustration, and hundreds of others equally good can be formed. Suppose the children are ready to write.] Teacher : " Nellie, tell us one thing about our morning-glory." Nettie: "It is bright." Teacher: "What is bright?" Nellie: "The morning-glory is bright." Teacher: "I will write what Nellie has told us on the board." [Writes : " The morning-glory is bright." Several of the children now read the sentence and then all write it. Similar sentences, as The morning-glory stands up to be seen, The bees come to the morning-glory, The morning-glory likes the bees to come, The morning-glory has white lines, The morning-glory is pink and white, may be obtained as a result of observation, and written in the same way. As soon as possible, let the children write what they think, without copying. After the children have talked and written about the flower, calling the bright part by the familiar name of "flower bell," "flower cup," or whatever 8 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. they please, tell them it has a very pretty name with a very pleasant meaning. This name is "corolla/' and means "a little crown, or garland." Ask them who wear crowns. Kings and queens do, and May queens wear garlands of bright flowers. So our flower, with its pretty corolla, its " little crown," must be somebody very important; perhaps it is the queen of the whole plant. Do not insist upon the use of the new word "co- rolla" to the exclusion of the more familiar terms "flower cup," "flower bell," etc., but -add it to the other words. With a pleasant thought about the queen and her garland to help them, the children will soon find the new word as familiar as the old ones, and it will be adopted without any sense of strangeness, or any feeling that they are using a meaningless word. After a flower part has been thoroughly looked at and the children are acquainted with it, then give the special name that distinguishes it. Be sure, however, the new word is not given before the child is perfectly familiar with the part it applies to. THE MORNING-GLORY. 9 SUMMARY. 1. The flower is large and bright. 2. It stands up above the surrounding foliage. 3. Bees visit it. 4. It has a certain shape. 5. Its color is arranged in a certain way. These are the facts for the teacher to have in mind when the children begin to look at the flower. Every one of them is of vital importance in the life of the flower, as will appear later. Technical term, "corolla." If it is impossible for the teacher to go to the flower with the children, she can talk to them about it so as to arouse their interest, and have them look at it out of school hours and tell her next day whether it stands up or hides under the leaves, and about the length of the flower stems ; also about the form and color. Or, with a good deal of ceremony, as though it were an important and honorable mission, one or more of the children may be despatched to the flower to look up the answers to these questions. Have the rest of the children listen to the report they bring back, and then they themselves look to see if it is correct. In this way it is possible to arouse in the whole class curiosity concerning the 10 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. flowers, and cause the children to look at them with interest. If it is impossible for the teacher to go with the children to the flower, and impossible for many of the children to see the flowers growing, as in. the city, then the flowers can be taken to school. Each child should have a bottle or cup of water on the desk, in which the long stem of the flower can be put. Then let the teacher describe as vividly as pos- sible the vine growing over the hedges, or if it is the cultivated morning-glory, over the porch or fence. She can make the children fairly see the bright flowers growing up above the vine. Pictures are a help, too. The principal thing is to have the child feel that the flower is alive, that it does things, is an individ- ual like the rest of us. While in some respects the bindweed affords better material for study, the morning-glory is almost as good, and often will be more easily ob- tained. The colored lines on the morning-glory are sometimes not quite as conspicuous as the white ones on the pink bindweed, but they are sufficiently noticeable and should always be dwelt upon, as they are important in the history of the flower. THE MORNING-GLORY. 11 The beauty of this work depends upon the skill of the teacher in leading the children to discover the important truths for themselves. She should never tell them what they can find out for them- selves, but should help them to find it out. Besides talking and writing, the children should frequently try to draw a picture of their flower. At every point in the work have the children do as much talking and writing and drawing as pos- sible. Let them have a drawing book on purpose for their plant work; or a few pages of drawing paper can be sewed into the note book, which in this case should have large enough pages to admit of a good- sized picture, at least as large as the natural object itself. Let the drawing be as spontaneous as the talking and writing. Let the children try to make as good a picture of the. flower as they can without fussing over it. The pictures will be very crude; but in this case they are only used as another method of expression, and it does not matter how crude they are. Do not try to have them draw like the pictures in a book; let them draw just the way they want to. 12 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Nothing fixes the form of an object so firmly as to try to draw a picture of it. Here is a wild morning-glory drawja by a boy nine years old. While at first it may be well to talk of the " wild morning-glory," as that is its name to the child, as soon as it can be done easily and naturally, substi- tute the name " bindweed." Notice how the plant twines about the weeds and binds them together; for this reason it has its name.] NECTAR AND NECTARY. REVIEW what has already been learned, emphasizing the more important ^g facts. Then, if the work can be done out of doors, go and watch the bees enter the flowers. On what part of the corolla do they alight? Almost invariably upon the white lines. The children will soon discover this. In the morning-glory, of course, the lines leading to the bottom of the flower are not white, but are different in color from the rest of the corolla. Watch the bees go into the flowers. See where they go: down to the very bottom of the corolla. What do they go for? Look down one of the lines into the bottom of the corolla. At its foot is a round opening. 13 14 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Carefully insert the end of a slender, round, wooden toothpick into this opening. Turn it gently around once or twice. Then withdraw it and see a little moisture on the tip. Taste this; it is sweet. It is this sweet juice that the bee is after. She puts her long, slender tongue through the round opening and sucks out the juice; then she takes it home and makes honey of it. The children will discover five of these little honey wells at the bottom of each flower cup. They are more easily distinguished in the bindweed than in the morning-glory, for in the latter the open- ings are partly concealed by fine white hairs. Some of the children may know that the bees get honey from the flowers. If not, the teacher may say so. Do not tell the child what he can find out for himself ; on the other hand, do not fall into the absurdity of never telling him anything. Tell him as much as is necessary to his understanding of the matter in hand. Wise telling is as valuable in teaching as is expert u developing" or drawing in- formation from the child himself. If the child knows that the bee sucks honey from the flowers, proceed without dwelling upon the habits of the bee. If he does not know, and has never tasted honey, show him, if possible, a piece of honey- THE MORNING-GLORY. 15 comb and let him taste the honey, telling him how the bee thrusts in her tongue and gets the juice to make this delicious, sweet honey from the flower; then proceed. Since the insect is so essential to the life of the plant, this little digression is necessary : connect the insect life with the plant life at once. They will always remain associated in the child's mind, and this association will tend to the better compre- hension of both. A little later it will be well to study the bee more carefully, but at this point a due recognition of its honey-making habit may be sufficient. SUMMARY. 1. Bees visit the flower to get honey. 2. The honey is kept at the bottom of the corolla. 3. There are five openings through which the bee can put her tongue to get honey. 4. The white lines on the corolla guide the insect to the honey. The teacher should use her judgment as to how much to do in each lesson. The present book is divided into subjects, not lessons. One subject may require several lessons or it may be finished in one, according to circumstances. 16 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Have the children tell about the flower and the bees in their own words, and, if able to write, write the story in their own way in their flower books. If the children cannot go to the flowers, then pro- vide them in the schoolroom as before. Tell in as graphic a way as possible how the bees go to the flower. Ask the children where they think the bees would find the best landing-place, on the lines or between them. Touch the flower with the tip of the finger and find it is firmer on the lines and easily bends between. Find the honey wells with the toothpick as before, and see that the lines lead to them. Children's compositions tell perhaps better than anything else the kind of information they have been extracting from their work. The following efforts at expressing what has been seen are offered for examination. 1. "The morning-glory has a flower something like a bell. .Only it has five scallops. It is pink. There is a white path down the middle of each scallop. It gets wider as it goes in. At last they all run together. Then it is all white." With the exception of the omission of too many nouns, a scientist need not be ashamed of the descrip- THE MORNING-GLORY. 17 tion. Something had been seen and accurately ex- pressed in the child's own language. When she notes its scalloped state, and says there is a white path down the middle of each scallop, she has done better than any botany I ever read. Let us see what other children in the same class have written about the morning-glory. 2. "The morning-glory has white paths. It is pink, but the bees run in on the paths. I saw a big fly go down a path." 3. " The morning-glory has pink scallops. It is like a little bell, only it stands up. It has white paths down its scallops. Bees tumble down, and when they get to the end, their noses are in the honey pots." 4. " There are five wells of honey at the bottom. You can see them. The bees know it. The wells are at the end of the paths. They walk the paths and suck the honey through their noses." 5. "Bees go down the paths and suck out the honey. They put it in their combs. Then we eat it." 6. "Bees have little tongues to stick in the honey wells. They like to. They tumble all over the flower. The flower likes it." 7. "You can see five honey wells. Bees stick in their tongue. Teacher stuck in a toothpick. It 18 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. tasted sweet. Kate tasted it. Me and Tom did n't. She said it was sweet. She don't lie. It was there." 8. " The bees suck the honey. Flies suck the honey. Bugs suck the honey. Butterflies suck. Other things all suck. I pulled off a flower and sucked the end. It was sweet. It would be long to get enough." 9. " The bees like the honey. They can see the morning-glory. It is pink and stands up. It can't snuggle down; it sticks out so you can see. Its stem is short when it is on top. When it grows under bushes, stem is long. It must come up." 10. "The morning-glory stays on top. It climbs up the bushes. The flowers always stand out. It likes to be seen. It is pink to be seen. But has white. Bees run down to honey. It likes bees.'* Since the flower owes its beautiful showy cup to the visits of insects, the relation between insects and flowers cannot be ignored. Besides, it is one of the most interesting and delightful flower facts to watch. Who would not rather know that the bee goes down the paths to get honey out of the honey cups at the bottom of the flower than to know that the flower cup is called a "corolla" in the botanies, and that the corolla of the morning-glory is said to be monopetalous ? THE MORNING-GLORY. 19 After the facts are known about the flower, then, and not before, the technical terms may be . given without destroying the child's interest in the flower life. When the children are familar with the " honey " in the flowers, tell them this sweet flower juice is called " nectar." If they know anything about Jupiter and Venus and Minerva and Cupid and the other gods and goddesses, tell them nectar was the delicious drink of the gods on Mt. Olympus, and that it was passed around by the beautiful Hebe, goddess of youth and spring, until her place was taken by the beautiful boy Ganymede. The flower honey was named "nectar" after this drink of the gods. Wherever possible, relate the plant study to litera- ture and to other subjects of study. Impress upon the young minds the great truth that all knowledge and all life are interrelated ; that nothing exists by itself alone, but that each thing forms a part of one great whole. The little cups that hold the nectar are called " nectaries," which means " nectar holders." The lines or guides that show the bee the way to the nectar are the "nectar guides," or "pathfinders." 20 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Have the children write in their books not only the descriptions of the flowers, but any observations they choose to make about them. Encourage refer- ences to mythology or history, or anything else sug- gested by the plant study. Make the little book a literary effort as well as a scientific treatise. Have it illustrated by drawing, as far as possible, THE STAMENS. REVIEW the work already done. The review should precede each new lesson, as a rule, and should grow briefer each time. That is, the attention should be more and more concentrated upon the essential facts, until finally they alone are mentioned. In this way the principal points of the work from the very beginning can be kept fresh in the mind and by constant repetition fastened there. If the children have the privilege of watching the flowers out of doors they will not be long in dis- covering that the bees get something from them besides honey. If they do not see it, the teacher can ask them to watch closely and see if the bee gets anything else. They will soon discover the white powder which dusts the bee's breast and legs, and which she gets from what one of the children called the "clapper" in the flower bell. The bee can be watched as she climbs up the " clapper " and at the top,^^jti5l^^kite dust, which / 21 OF THE ' "\ f UNIVERSITY , 22 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. she rubs closely against the hairs of her breast or makes into little balls on her legs. What does she do with it ? She takes it home and makes it into beebread to feed the young bees. She eats beebread herself sometimes, and so do the other bees that live in the hive. So this white dust, is the bee's flour. We see that the bee gets both bread and honey from the flowers. Now let us see just where Lady Bee gets her flour. The children can watch her climb up the pillar in the middle of the blossom and at the top find the bags of flour. The bee does not carry off the bags, but with her feet scrapes out the flour.. How many of these flour bags are there ? There are |:.five, each placed at the top of a slender white stalk. These stalks, or poles, or stems, as the children may call them, are stacked about a central column, which is stouter and taller than they, and ends in a sort of roughish knob. It may be necessary to pick the flower from the vine in order to see these parts distinctly, though if the whole work can be done without picking it, that is by far the better way. The stamens can be studied in a corolla that has closed or fallen from the vine. THE MORNING-GLUEY. 23 When the children are familiar with the idea and appearance of the bee flour, the teacher may tell them its name is " pollen " and that " pollen " comes from a Greek word meaning " fine flour." When they are perfectly familiar with the little pollen bags, tell them they are called "anthers." The stalk which holds the anther is a "filament." It is something like a thread, and " filament " means " a thread." Anther and filament together form a " stamen." SUMMARY. 1. Bees find flour as well as honey in the blossom. 2. This flour, or "pollen," is kept in five little bags at the top of slender columns, or " filaments," which the bees climb. 3. There is a stouter, longer central column, use not yet known. If the children have the flowers in the schoolroom the teacher will have to work upon their imagina- tions to explain about the bee. She can " make believe" to good advantage here. 66 Make believe " can be a valuable friend in teach- ing children or anybody else. Make believe the end of the little finger is the bee. Gently rub it against the center of the flower. See the white dust adhering to it. Find out, as 24 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. before, where this white dust comes from. The teacher will have to tell how the dust clings to the hairy body of the bee and how some bees roll it up into little balls on their legs. Pictures of bees will be a help here. A short digression upon the habits of bees will be valuable at this point. It deepens the interest in both bee and flower. If the teacher can procure some honey and bee- bread to show the children, it will add greatly to their pleasure. Bees and flowers, let it be repeated, are so inti- mately related in reality that they should be closely united in the child's thought. The interdependence of bees and flowers is a very beautiful thought to give the child. The bee can- not live without the flowers; from them it gets its food. Later it will be seen that the flowers are almost as dependent upon the bees as the bees are upon them. They owe their lives to each other. Nothing in Nature is isolated. One form of life is always intimately connected with other forms and dependent upon them for existence. It helps others and others help it. This THE MORNING-GLORY. 25 great and important truth should be placed deep in the child's mind from the very beginning of his nature study. It cannot be too often insisted upon. The pollen and the bees make delightful subjects for the children to write about. It will not be necessary to interrupt the regular plant lessons very long at a time in order to do justice to the bee ; occasionally, as opportunity offers, read and talk about the bees. [Read "The Bee People."] When the parts of the flower are known it is a great help to the memory to place them in tabular form. Schedule-making may perform an important office hi education, but it should not be allowed to usurp the place of observation and description. It is a temptation to some minds to tabulate facts almost before they are learned; but with begin- ners, particularly with young children, the facts should not be memorized from the table, but the table should be formed from a knowledge of the facts. When the stamens have been studied and talked about, their parts can be arranged in a concise and orderly manner in the form of a little table, which will help fix them in the mind. 26 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. And so with each set of organs as they are stud- ied. But be careful not to do this too soon. f anther pollen. Stamen \ [ filament. SOME HABITS OF THE FLOWER. The way the flower does not stand. NOTICE the attitude of the flower. Does it stand upright, looking up to the sky? No, it does not look straight up to the sky. If it did, the bee could not^find so convenient a landing-place. Its face is turned a little to one side; thus the bee has a floor to light upon, and when it rains the water will be less likely to get into the flower. At what time of day is the flower open ? When does it close ? Does the same flower open twice ? The children will notice at once that the flower opens in the morning and closes towards night. They can easily dis- cover by marking several flowers that they do not reopen. If they cannot watch the growing flowers the teacher again will have to tell them. The flowers in their bottles will close The way it does stand. 27 28 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. and not reopen, and this makes a good starting-point for the teacher's story. She can tell them that the flowers on the vine close in the same way and soon wither and fall off. Let the children open some of these withered flowers. They will find the fine stamens attached by their filaments to the inside of the flower. The anthers are withered and empty. But what has become of the stout central column? That is not in the withered flower. Look on the vine and you will find it. When the rest of the flower fell off that remained on the vine. Or, in the case of the plucked flower, it will be found at- tached to the flower stem. In the bindweed two green leaves cover its lower part. Gently push these to one side and within you will see the bottom of the central column. In the morning-glory there are no green leaves to conceal it. MOKNlir - GLORT - THE MORNING-GLORY. 29 This bottom is roundish and keeps on growing. Look for different stages of these roundish objects. It soon becomes evident that they are nothing more nor less than the young seed-pods. Or this pod may be called the nest that holds the eggs, for the seeds are the eggs of the plant. Or it may be called the cradle that holds the seed- babies. The children like this view of it, and it is true and good. The seeds are the plant's babies, and they lie in this snug cradle rocked by the wind. 1 At first the seeds are very, very small. So small they can hardly be seen. They are soft, too, and white. These facts about the seeds the teacher can tell to the younger children instead of having them pull the flower to pieces to find the little seeds. The ovary is too small for little folks to work with to advantage, and all wanton or useless mutilation of the flower should be carefully avoided. Teach the children to respect the life of even a flower. 1 See "Seed-Babies." Ginn & Company. 30' A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The older pods can readily be examined, and at this season of the year there will be ripe ones split- ting open to let the seeds out. By examining these older pods the children can get at the principal fact of the ovary, that it is the receptacle of the seeds. SUMMARY. 1. Position of the flower. 2. The flower opens in the morning, closes in the afternoon, soon fades and falls, leaving the seed-pod on the vine to continue grow- ing. 3. The stamens are attached to the inside of the corolla, and fall when it does. If the children have the flowers in the schoolroom instead of seeing them in their natural position, the flowers can be left in the bottles of water until the cups fall off, when they can be examined as above. The teacher should then supply seed-pods in differ- ent stages of development for them to look at. Here, too, is charming material for the children to use in writing, and here is opportunity for profuse illustration. Do not neglect the drawing. Children become very skillful in expressing themselves by means of pictures, even when they are not taught how to draw. Possi- bly it is better not to teach them ; simply encourage them to try. THE PISTIL. WHEN the flower cup fell off there remained the central column with the seed-cradle at its base. What surrounds the seed-cradle ? The children will discover a little green cup with five divisions. This clings closely to the seed-cradle, as though to hide and protect it. Before the flower falls this green cup may be seen surrounding the lower end of the flower tube. In the morning-glory this green cup is very notice- able ; in the bindweed it is hidden by the two leaf- like "bracts " which have to be turned back to show it. This little green cup is called the "calyx." 1 The word " calyx " means to conceal, to cover, and this green calyx conceals or covers the seed-cradle very nicely. The five separate parts of the calyx are called " sepals." 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " The Morning-Glory Calyx." 31 32 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Here the teacher may call attention to the recur- rence of the number five in the flower parts. Ask the children what parts of the flower are in fives. They will remember there were five pathfinders or nectar guides leading down to five honey pots or nectaries, five stamens with their flour bags or an- thers, and now five parts to the calyx. The flower seems to like the number five. A great many flowers like it, as they will learn later. Look at the long column at whose base is the seed- cradle. This long white column has a sort of knob at the top. SUMMARY. 1. The seed-cradle is surrounded by a green cup of five divisions : Calyx-sepals. 2. The flower has five divisions in several of its parts. 3. The seed-cradle is surmounted by a long column bearing a knob at the top. A few lessons may now well be devoted to the beautiful care- the plant takes of its seed-children. In what part of the flower are the seeds ? They are right at the center, where they can best be surrounded and protected. The central part with the seed-case at its base is the mother part of the flower. THE MORNING-GLORY. 33 Do you think the flower is glad to have the little seed -children at its heart ? What beautiful object has it put about them? The bright corolla is there for the sake of the little seeds. The plant loves these seed-children so well, it wears this lovely bright crown for them. And when the pretty corolla falls off there remains the stout green calyx, which we scarcely noticed be- fore, to wrap them up. The seed-children must grow now and be left in peace and safety to do it, so the bright corolla that told the bees and everybody that the little seed- children were beginning to grow falls off. The seed- children do not want the bees or other insects to touch them. In their little green house one would pass them by and not notice them among the green leaves. After awhile their pods turn brown and look withered and dry, and nobody would think of pick- ing them, and few insects would think of eating such dry, juiceless, dead things. All this time the little seed-babies are laughing in their sleeves, for they know they are not dry and dead, but as alive as can be. The seed-pods in all their different stages can easily be procured in the fall of the year. 34 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The story of the mother part of the flower with her seed-babies should be told and retold with all the charm and ingenuity of detail the teacher is capable of giving to it. The children should tell it and write it until it is as familiar and dear to them as is the story of " Red Riding Hood" or of the " Sleeping Beauty." The teacher can make motherhood lovely and charming, and develop a reverence for it in the flower life which will have an effect upon the child's thought of maternity throughout his whole life. Here is offered to the wise teacher a beautiful possi- bility and a grave responsibility. With little children the facts of the plant's mater- nity can be given in the form of a story. 1 Stories can be composed by the teacher, and the children themselves will oftentimes write very pretty stories about the mother part of the flower, and the tender care and love she bestows upon her seed- babies. Sufficient time should be spent upon this subject to make it perfectly clear and familiar to the chil- dren. Probably it will require several talks. 1 See Flowers and their Friends: "The Morning-Glory's Seed- Babies." THE MORNING-GLORY. 35 When the children are quite familiar with the idea of the central column with its enlarged base being the mother part of the plant, and after they have talked about it and listened to stories so as to get a sweet sense of the motherhood of their pretty flower , tell them the mother part of the plant is called the " pistil." Be sure they get the idea of motherhood firmly established before giving them this name ; for, unfortunately, it conveys no pleasant meaning, the pistil being so named solely because of its external form, it being supposed to resemble in shape a pestle, or pistillum, as it is called in Latin, by which drugs are ground in a mortar. The technical name of the little undeveloped seeds is better chosen, for they are called "ovules," "ovule" meaning "little egg," and these seedlets or ovules are the starting-point of the seeds, the eggs of the plant, from which the young plants will some day hatch out. The cradle where the ovules lie is the " ovary." The stalk that goes up from the top of the ovary is the " style," and the knob at the top is the " stigma." f\ OVARY. Give these words one at a time, adding w 2 i v id l e e . 8 a new one only after the children are perfectly STTLB. 36 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. familiar with those they already have, and use them as readily as they use their own everyday words. Do not as a rule insist upon the use of the new words, but gradually and naturally substitute them for the old ones. Learned in this way, scientific terms lose all their ugliness and difficulty. Wherever possible, give the derivation of the new word used and its literal meaning. Make the botany lesson a language lesson as well. Where the derivation is uninteresting or obscure, pass on without noticing it, merely giving the name arbitrarily. For instance, "pollen" means "fine flour." This is interesting, and to know it helps fix the word in the memory. On the other hand, the literal meaning of " pistil " is not particularly in- teresting, and does not fix in the mind an image of anything vital to the flower ; so it would be as well, particularly with the younger children, not to notice its derivation. The teacher herself should know the exact mean- ing of every word used. Most of them will be found in the glossary at the end of this book, or, failing that, in any good dictionary. THE MORNING-GLORY. 37 SUMMARY. 1. The seed-children : Their position at the center of the flower. 2. The mother part of the plant : a. The care she takes of the seed-children, b. The things she does for them. 3. Stories about the mother and the seed-children : Pistil ovary, style, stigma. SCHEDULE OF FLOWER PARTS. Corolla. Calyx sepals. {anther pollen, filament. f stigma. Pistil J style. I ovary ovules. The stem of the flower is called the "peduncle." It comes from the Latin pedunculus, a little foot, and forms the "foot" or support of the flower. Introduce this word, not at the first lessons per- haps, but later when the children have grown familiar with the use of technical terms, and when occasion arises to speak of the flower stem. FERTILIZATION. THE children are now ready to be told the use the flower makes of the pollen it so generously bestows upon the bees for their beebread. Review particularly at this point the story of the pollen, where the bees get it and how they get it. Have the children notice again that the anthers are below the stigma. The flower does not make the pollen for the bees alone. It makes it for its seed-children or ovules as well. The ovules need the pollen. If they did not get it they would not be able to change into true seeds. For at first they are not perfect seeds, and without the pollen they would never come to be perfect, but would wither and die and soon fall from the vine. The pollen wants to get to the ovules quite as much as they want to have it. Pollen is made up of very small grains. These grains are so small that they can only be seen by means of a magnifying glass. But these tiny grains are alive. If a pollen grain can join an ovule, both THE MORNING-GLORY. 39 of them will live and form a seed. But if the pollen grain cannot join an ovule, both must die. There is only one pathway'from the outside world to the ovary where the ovule lies. The entrance to this path is in the stigma. The style is hollow, or at least of such loose material that an object if small enough can pass through it. So the first thing the pollen grain has to do is to find its way to the stigma. How can it do this when it is placed beloiv the stigma ? It cannot walk nor fly nor climb. If it were above the stigma it might drop down upon it. But as it is below the stigma, if it fell it would drop into the bottom of the flower cup and be farther away than before. What is it to do ? The anther ripens and opens and the pollen grains cover the outside like fine white dust. A bee enters the flower, and in doing so brushes her hairy body against the floury anther, and the pollen grains are rubbed off and carried about by her. In passing from flower to flower the bee very often touches her body against the stigmas. 40 . A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. When the pistil is ripe the stigma is sticky, and when a pollen grain on the bee's body touches this sticky stigma it sticks fast. This is just what both pistil and pollen grain want. Once on the pistil, the substance of the pollen grain passes down through the style to the ovary, where it unites with an ovule, thus giving it, as we may say, extra vitality. When the pollen has joined the ovule, the ovule begins to change into a seed. The ovule could not become a seed without it. The union of pollen and ovule is called " fertiliza- tion." When a flower has been "fertilized " it is able to perfect its seeds, and not otherwise. 1 So now we understand why the flower loves the bee. She carries pollen to the stigma and so makes fertilization possible. In order to entice the bee the flower makes a great deal of pollen that she may have food. It also secretes honey to coax her to visit it. Even the bright corolla was made by the flower to attract the attention of flying insects. Bees are not the only insects that visit the morn- ing-glory, but they are the ones that come oftenest and do it the most good. If the morning-glories are 1 See Flowers and their Friends. THE MORNING-GLORY. 41 watched, many kinds of bees will be seen coming to them, some being too small to dust the stigma as they pass in and out of the flower. Large flies, too, will be found visiting the flower for both honey and pollen, and fertilizing it the same as the bees do. Some kinds, of small flies light on the stigma and crawl down to the anthers to eat the pollen. They of course aid in fertilization, as they carry the pollen of one flower to the stigma of another. Beetles, too, are sometimes seen in the morning- glories, eating the pollen and even the anthers. It will be found that many insects visit our flower in the course of a day. Only a few grains of pollen are needed by the flower itself, but to insure the contact of a few with the stigma, it is necessary for the flower to produce a great many; so thousands of grains are formed in order that the insect may not fail to give the flower what it needs. Sometimes the insect enters and leaves a flower without touching the stigma at all; but as many insects visit the same flower in the course of a day, some of them will be sure to fertilize it, since there is such an abundance of pollen that even the last comer will be sure to get dusted by it. 42 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. SUMMARY. 1. The pollen is necessary to the formation of seed. 2. Its method of getting to the ovule. 3. Its abundance. In connection with this work the teacher may add that the flower prefers the pollen of a stranger plant ; that is why the anthers are below the stigma. It is not desirable that the pollen fall upon and fertilize its own stigma. It is better for pollen to be brought from another flower. The insect in flying from flower to flower is very apt to dust the stigma with pollen from another morning-glory. This kind of fertilization is called " cross-fertilization," and makes stronger seeds than those that result from the fer- tilization of a plant by its own pollen, a process known by the name of "self-fertilization." It is not impossible for the morning-glory to fertilize itself, as the uppermost stamen reaches nearly to the stigma sometimes, and the moving of the flower in the wind may lodge grains of pollen upon the stigma. In some cultivated flowers the stamens reach above the stigma, or sometimes enclose it. Also when the corolla falls it may happen that a few grains of pollen will touch the stigma and so fertilize it ; but this happens only THE MORNING-GLORY. 43 when the flower has not already been cross-fertilized, for after it is once fertilized, pollen has no further effect upon it. You see this flower has a chance to become ferti- lized in case the insects fail it, for no matter how much it may desire cross-fertilization, it is better for it to be self-fertilized than not fertilized at all. At her discretion the teacher may tell the children that the stamen is the father part of the plant, just as the pistil is the mother part. The stamens help care for the seed-children so they can become strong seeds. If skillfully done, there is no such beautiful in- troduction to sex life a.s is offered by the world of flowers. The teacher can impress upon the young minds a sense of beauty and reverence for motherhood and fatherhood that will tend to keep the heart pure and the mind rightly attuned to understand the great and beautiful mysteries of sex life that are later to unfold. Make the birth of these seed-children a beautiful mystery. Right here among the flowers lay the foundation for right thinking in regard to the most important function of life. 44 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The subject of inheritance may here be discussed. If the seeds grow on a vine bearing purple flowers and round leaves, the vines that come from these seeds will probably have round leaves and purple flowers. That is, the children of the vine will resemble the parent vine. The seeds remember and make new vines just like the parent vines. But sometimes the seeds from a round-leaved, purple-flowered vine may grow into a vine having leaves of another shape and flowers of another color. How can you account for this ? You must know that the seed-children inherit their nature from father as well as from mother. Now if the pollen or father part came from another vine with different leaves and flowers, the seeds would be partly like the father and partly like the mother ; just as the children in a family take after the mother sometimes, and sometimes after the father. Reproduction and inheritance are the two most important factors in the development of life. Every one now knows that plants as well as ani- mals increase by sexual reproduction. THE MORNING-GLORY. 45 Flowers contain both male and female organs, and have a sort of family life. The stamens are the male part of the flowers and the pistil the female part. The stamens and pistil in the same flower stand in the relation of brothers and sisters to each other. Just as it is not desirable for brothers and sisters in the higher life to intermarry, so it is not desirable in plants, and they, as a rule, employ some device to prevent it. In the case of our morning-glory, the position of the stamens with regard to the pistil is the plan used. Most plants will accept their own pollen rather than not set seeds at all, and for a few generations self-fertilization, or intermarriage as it would be called in the higher life, in many plants seems to do no harm. A few plants are so constructed that they cannot possibly fertilize themselves, and others again are so formed that they cannot be fertilized except by their own pollen. Cross-fertilization, however, seems necessary at least occasionally, in most species, to preserve the vigor of the plant. Suppose a flower were to receive pollen from a different species, what then would happen ? 46 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. If a lily were dusted with rose pollen, for instance, we might expect as a result seeds which would grow into strange lily-rose plants. But this, as we know, does not occur. A flower cannot be fertilized by the pollen from a flower of a different family. It affects it no more than if it were so much dust. The subject of reproduction is one of the most important facts of plant life, and too much skill can- not be exercised in conveying it to the child. Of course he will not understand it fully, nor is it necessary he should. Let him get clearly fixed the idea that the pollen unites with the ovule to form the seeds ; that both pollen and ovules are alive and anxious to grow; that they cannot grow without union with each other ; that both have the power of transmitting the characteristics of the plant they came from. Here are involved the two greatest factors in the development of life, reproduction and inheritance.. Since sexual reproduction is the method of all the higher life, whether plant or animal, that it be rightly understood and reverenced is one of the most important matters in the life of every individual. Where more beautifully, simply, and easily can this great subject be introduced to the child than through his study of flowers ? THE MORNING-GLORY. 47 Later, when it becomes necessary to explain to him certain facts in animal life, reference to the flower life with which he is already familiar will make vastly more easy the more difficult subject. So, although the child cannot yet understand fully the meaning of the relation of the pollen to the ovule, make him familiar with the general facts, for the sake of the future. At this point a general review of all the flower parts is valuable. They are now seen from a new and valuable point of view. The bright corolla is a signal to the bees. It also folds about and protects the pollen from the wind and rain, and little crawling insects that might creep in and steal the honey without fertilizing the plant. Only large insects would be likely to rub off the pollen and brush it against the stigma. So the corolla is unfolded for the sake of the seed- children. The pollen is liked by the bees, but the plant pro- duces it primarily to help the seed-children to grow. The nectar is made to attract the bees, that they may come and do a service to the seed-children by carrying pollen to the stigma. So really the flower makes nectar for the sake of its dear seeds. 48 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The pistil holds the seed-children and takes care of them. The calyx surrounds and protects the ovary where the seed-children lie. Thus every part of the flower is made for the sake of the dear little seed-children. We enjoy the beauty of the flower, and enjoy it all the more because we know about it and its beautiful love for the helpless little seeds. The flower is the way it is for its own sake. It was not made beautiful to please us. But we have the power to see that the flower is beautiful and to love it because it is. That is one of the greatest powers there is. 1 The work so far has been chiefly for beginners in plant study, and to give information to the young teacher. It can be adapted to the youngest children, or, following the same method, can be amplified to suit older pupils. Just how much it is wise to teach a class of chil- dren about one flower should be decided by the teacher. Do not weary the child with an accumula- tion of facts he cannot understand. On the other 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " This is the Flower so Bright and Gay." THE MORNING-GLORY. 49 hand, give him enough to stimulate curiosity and hold his interest. Let all, old and young, begin plant study alike, with the life story of some one plant. Is it not much better at the beginning to study carefully and at length one object, and so become acquainted with it, than to pass hurriedly over a number ? It may take the whole fall to study the morning- glory properly, including leaf, root, and stem. But if that is done, many of the essential facts of plant life are known and understood, and any other plant will be more easily and quickly understood in consequence. With pupils over twelve the teacher, if she desires, can go more into detail in the structure of the flower. But she should always, as far as possible, relate the structure to the function. Never study structure as an end. It is always a means to an end, or else a survival of something that was useful to the object in some past period of its life. Let us continue with our flower and see what still remains for the older pupils to learn from it. The nectary is at the bottom of the corolla; the 50 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. nectar is secreted by a yellow gland which forms a band about the ovary in the bindweed, and is in the form of a less conspicuous greenish band in the morning-glory. A gland is a growth which has the power to select out certain things from the sap of the plant. The nectar gland separates out from the rest of the sap the sugary juice which forms the nectar. The five openings to the nectary are formed by the way the filaments are shaped and placed. Let the pupils examine carefully to see how the filament, attached near the base of the corolla by its back, flares out in an over-arching edge on either side, and how the edges of two filaments just touch, leav- ing a little channel below them. Notice what a clever and efficient method this is of forming the tubes that open into the nectary. In the morning-glory the openings to these tubes are more or less obscured by fine white hairs. What is the use of these hairs ? Certainly they prevent ants and other small insects from crawling in to steal the honey. If possible, have the children see both the bind- weed and the morning-glory all through the work. They are so nearly identical that they will not con- THE MORNING-GLORY. 51 fuse the mind, and the slight differences only add to the zest of examining them. Why is the entrance to the nectary reduced to five small holes ? Why would it not be as well for the filaments to grow flat against the corolla, and so leave an open space all around, instead of humping up and filling the opening all but these little holes ? Some of the pupils will see that the desire of the flower is to keep its honey for the larger insects which have a proboscis long enough to enter through the holes into the nectar-filled space below, and who because of their size can scarcely enter a flower with- out brushing the stigma and the stamens, and so fertilizing the plant. Insects too small to fertilize the flower only do it harm if they enter ; for they steal the honey, and so prevent visits from larger insects able to effect ferti- lization. Where there is a protection against them, as in the case of the fringe of hairs, they will not be tempted to enter it as a rule, as they cannot reach the honey through the small openings. The proboscis of the larger insects is strong enough to push these hairs aside. In the morning-glory small bees often take the honey without fertilizing the flower, but the morning-glory cannot hope to pro- tect itself against all misfortunes. 52 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The anther is placed at the very end of the fila- ment. Such an attachment of anther to filament is called " innate," meaning " born on." Examine the anther and find the two bags or boxes where the pollen is stored. Each of these bags forms a little dark room or " cell," like a prison cell. The word " cell " comes from the Latin cella, and means a " small, close room." There is another meaning to the word "cell" which of late has assumed great importance, but the original meaning of a small, dark room is the one here referred to. The pupils will discover that each anther cell opens by a lengthwise slit. Notice that the anthers open on the side looking away from the pistil. Such opening is called " ex- trorse," meaning " turned to the outside." Why is the opening to the anthers extrorse ? It will be seen that opening thus the insect which is obliged to* pass between them and the corolla on its way to the nectary cannot do so without rubbing off the pollen. The opening of an anther is called its " dehiscence." " Dehiscence " comes from the Latin word dehiscere, meaning " to gape," and any one noticing how the UNIVERSITY ] OF RNING- GL OR Y. 53 open anthers gape apart will acknowledge the name to be appropriate. The line along which the anther opens or " dehisces " is the " line of dehiscence." Notice that the line of dehiscence in the morning- glory anther is on the back. The stamens and stigma are placed low in the corolla. They do not stand out beyond it ; they are said to be " included." What is the advantage of this position ? The pollen is protected by the corolla from the rain, and from being blown away by the wind. Water spoils the pollen of most plants. From youngest to oldest the pupils should be drilled in recording their observations and reflec- tions. The material for compositions increases in abundance and attractiveness as the subject expands, and the older pupils no less than the younger should keep their written records of the plant study. Have as much drawing as circumstances permit, and see that circumstances permit a good deal ! THE PISTIL. THE stigma of the bindweed will be seen to con- sist of two oblong divisions or " lobes." These slender lobes are thought to resemble lines, and for this reason are called " linear." The stigma of the morning-glory has three round lobes bunched to- gether into a little head. Such a stigma is called " capitate." " Capitate " comes from the Latin caput, a head, and means " head-like." We remember that the little boxes or bags in the anther that held the pollen were called "cells," and that the word " cell " comes from the Latin cella, and means a small, close room. A prison room is a cell, an anther room is a cell, and if we cut across the ovary of a morning-glory, we shall find it composed of from three to six little seed-rooms, or cells, with one ovule in each cell, while in the bindweed there are only two or three cells, each containing two ovules. Because the ovary is thus composed of three parts, it is " compound." The stigma is also compound, because it has more than one lobe. THE MORNING-GLORY. 55 The pistil as a whole is called compound when any of its parts are. Con or com in Latin means " together," and " com- pound" comes from a Latin word componere meaning " to place together." Where a flower part is made up of two or more parts placed together, that part is said to be compound. Notice the way the flower parts are attached to the stem or peduncle. The top of the peduncle where the flower parts are attached is called the "receptacle." It receives the flower, so receptacle is a good name for it. " Receptacle " means " some- thing that receives." See whether the calyx and corolla are attached to the receptacle above the ovary or below it. Careful looking will show the corolla attached below the ovary, although the stamens grow forward about the style and conceal the ovary when one looks down into the flower cup. It is plainly seen that the calyx is attached to the receptacle below the ovary. Receptacle. 56 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. So the ovary is attached above the calyx and corolla. The one that is above is the superior. So the ovary is said to be " superior " because it is attached above the calyx and corolla. This position of the ovary is important in classification. It is readily seen that many of the so-called " tech- nical terms " of botany are only common words very accurately used, and a knowledge of the exact mean- ing of these words adds to the general vocabulary of the pupil, and tends to encourage accuracy in the use of words. For obvious reasons, the calyx and corolla are called "floral envelopes," while stamens and pistil are called " essential organs." The morning-glory, as well as the bindweed, is a " perfect " flower because it has both kinds of essen- tial organs, and so can perfect its seed. It is " complete " because it has everything a flower can have : calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil. Sometimes the calyx and corolla are called the "perianth"; this comes from a Greek word, mean- ing "with flowers all around." Either the calyx or the corolla may also be called a perianth. A perianth, then, is any floral envelope, THE MORNING-GLORY. 57 whether calyx or corolla, or both together. It is a good word to become familiar with for future use. A circle of flower parts is called a " whorl." The sepals form a whorl, the petals form another whorl, and the stamens yet another. A whorl means a circle of like parts about a center, and comes from the old English word whorvil, meaning " the whirl of a spindle." When a spindle is whirled rapidly about, it describes a circle that looks a little like a circle of flower parts. It may not be necessary to give all the technical terms above given. The ones most essential to the understanding of books on botany have been selected, but many of them may be introduced later if desir- able in connection with flowers hereafter studied, the amount of work done with the first plant studied depending upon the age and development of the children. THE BUD. HAVE the children look at the buds in different stages of growth. In the bindweed the two leaves, or bracts, below r the calyx entirely cover up and hide the bud when it is small. Finally it peeps out. In the morning-glory there are no bracts ; the calyx alone conceals and protects the bud. Notice how the bud is rolled or twisted shut. A flower rolled up this way is said to be " convo- lute " in the bud. " Convolute " means " rolled together." The calyx, too, is not yet open. It is tightly closed about the bud. But it is not convolute. Instead of being rolled shut, the sepals overlap each other like the shingles on a roof. In this way they are able thoroughly to protect the tender bud. What name do you think is given to flower parts that overlap in this way ? They are said to be " im- bricated " in the bud. 58 THE MORNING-GLORY. 59 " Imbricated " is a very interesting word. It comes from the Latin word imber, meaning " rain." Now why should they use a word made from one meaning rain to describe the overlapping of the sepals ? Let us examine this. There is another Latin word derived from imber. It is imbrex, and means " a hollow tile," " a gutter tile," to carry off the rain from a roof. But there is another Latin word imbricatw, which means " covered with tiles." So we see how a word meaning rain gives rise to one meaning a pro- tection from rain. And because the sepals are over- lapped like the tiles on a roof, and protect, they are said to be imbricated. Draw the buds and write about them. Let the older pupils see which way the bud twists It always twists from left to right. Twist it that way, and you shut it tighter. Twist 'it from right to left, and you loosen and partly open it. Why should all the morning-glory buds twist from left to right? It is the result of inheritance, though why the original plant formed this habit we do not know. Doubtless there was some good reason for it, and some day we may find out what it is. Look at a bud which is partly unfolded; notice 60 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. the position of the nectar guides about the bud. The nectar guides, we remember, are stiff er and stronger than the rest of the corolla. See that the flower is folded so as to bring the firm part or nectar guides - on the outside of the bud. They are wound about the more delicate part of the corolla which is folded up inside, and so form a protection to the bud. Thus they serve two purposes. We will now leave the morning-glory flower, though we have by no means exhausted it. We have become acquainted with the most obvious facts of its life, and found them interesting. The older pupils are just as interested in the life of the flower as are the younger ones. They find the mere naming of parts just as tire- some, and, in the end, it is as barren of results. If the structure and meaning of the flower are learned first and the names afterwards, the interest continues. There is pleasure in thinking about the flower and what it does -and how it does it. The new names, given with their meaning, one at a time as they are needed, are remembered without difficulty. This is the natural way of learning new words. It is the way the child begins to talk. He sees a, THE MORNING-GLORY. 61 horse and calls it a horse. He learns the name of the cow, the cat, the dog. He learns by looking at them that a cow has ears, eyes, legs, and horns. When he knows about the legs of a cow he recog- nizes legs in any other animal. Nobody thinks of putting before him a cow, a bird, a bat, a monkey, and telling him to compare and classify the positions of their legs. After a while, when he knows a bird, a bat, and a monkey, he delights in comparing their legs, and finding the forelegs of the bird are its wings, of the monkey its arms, etc. Just so in studying a flower. Let the young student thoroughly learn some one flower with the words descriptive of its parts, as a result of actual looking and knowing. When the pupil is thoroughly familiar with this flower, let him take another and study that, finding many parts like those in the first one and some new facts. It will not be long before he will have become acquainted with the ordinary forms of plant life. For instance, he finds innate anthers in his morning- glory. In another flower he will find the anthers fastened along their whole length, or "adnate." In another he will find them fastened in the middle and swinging in the breeze, or " versatile." 62 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. After he has become acquainted with flowers con- taining the different kinds of attachments of anthers, then let him classify anthers as innate, adnate, and versatile, not before. In other words, do not study anthers, as is so often done, but study whole flowers. Let the child learn to know his flowers little by little, as he knows the rest of the world about him. Keep the flower intact. Do not try to classify before the pupil has the facts in his possession necessary to classification. LEAVES. Go to the growing vine if pos- sible. One growing against a wall or over a thicket of weeds or low bushes gives the best results. Teacher: " See how the leaves stand. Do they try to hide under each other?" John: "No, they all try to come on top." Teacher: " Do they crowd over each other?" Nellie: " No ? they stand side by side. They give each other room." Kate: "One does not stand above the others." Frank: " They make a roof." Teacher: " Look under the vine and see if they do. There is a place at the other side where you can pull the bushes apart and get your head in." 63 64 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Fred: " Oh, Miss A, there is nothing but stems under the bushes no leaves at all ! " Kate: " Let me look. That 's so. And the leaves of the bindweed and all the other leaves on the weeds are on top." Nellie: "I see some little bits of plants down below and a few leaves, but they are most all on top." Teacher: "What holds the leaves up in the air?" Fred: " The stems do." Teacher: "Are the stems all the same length? " May: " Oh, no; some are long and some are short. The long ones start underneath and grow till they get to the top. The short ones start near the top and do not have to grow so long." Teacher: "Bravo, May ! You could not have told it better. Why do you suppose the leaves all want to be on top?" Ned: " They want to be seen." Teacher: " Whom do they want to have see them? " Ned (laughing): "I don't know. The flowers stood up to be seen, so I thought at first the leaves did." Teacher: "What made you change your mind?" Ned: " It would n't do the leaves any good to have the bees come." THE MORNING-GLORY. 65 Nellie: a I think they like to be in the sun." Teacher: " Let us see what happens to leaves that are not in the sun." [They hunt in the dark corners under the bushes and find a few pale specimens. The teacher then shows them some plants or branches she has found in the cellar or under the porch in the dark.] Teacher: "What is the difference between these and the leaves that get plenty of light? " Frank: " These are not so green." May: "Those cellar plants are not green at all; they are yellow." Teacher: " Nearly all plants need light. They cannot grow green and strong without it. They also need air. They cannot live without air any more than we could. Look about? some time and see how all the leaves on all the plants grow so as to be in the light. They do not crowd each other ; they grow in such a way as to help each other. Look at our vine again. Which way do the leaves point?" John: " They point down." May: " Not exactly down, but a little to one side." Teacher: "How much do they overlap each other?" Fred: " They do not overlap very much. A good many do not overlap a bit." 66 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Teacher: " Why do you suppose they turn to one side as they do?" Fred: "I think they do not want to overlap each other." Nellie: " They wish to help each other." Teacher: " What helps the leaves to get in the right place?" May: "The stems do. They grow long or short to put the leaves in the right place." SUMMARY. 1. The leaves stand up in the light and air. 2. The stems grow different lengths, so as to bring the leaves all on about the same level. 3. The leaves stand side by side. 4. They point down and do not overlap. 5. Their position gives them the greatest amount of light and air. Why do people train morning-glory vines over their porches? Because of the pretty flowers and because of the fine screen they make to the front of the porch. They make a good awning. Draw pictures of the leaves as they are grouped, and write about them. Of course, if it is impossible to go to the vine, the vine will have to be taken to the schoolroom. THE MORNING-GLORY. 67 Detach it close to the ground, and let it lie in water for some time ; it will not then wilt so quickly. Place the cut end in water, and pin the vine against the wall as nearly as possible in the position in which it grew. The teacher may now describe in a graphic way the appearance of the vine in its natural state until the children form a picture of it in their minds. Have specimens of leaves or plants grown in the dark. SHAPE OF THE LEAF. SEE how the leaves stand so as to fill up all the vacant spaces. What makes the leaves all point the way they do, not directly down, but a little sideways generally ? Why do they not all lie side by side pointing the same way ? They would then overlap each other. They do not want to do this, for they like all the air and light they can get. Why would they overlap? Because they / are broader at the top. Has the shape of the leaf, then, something to do with. its position on the vine ? It evidently has a great deal to do with it. What is the shape of the bindweed leaf ? Try to draw it. Such a leaf is said to be " hal- berd-shaped/' or " hastate." "Hastate" comes from the Latin hasta, which means " a spear." The leaf is thought to resemble the head of a spear or halberd. The halberd is an old-time battle- axe, with a head shaped a little like this leaf. THE MORNING-GLORY. 69 Is the leaf flat? No, its two halves slightly approach each other, forming a channel, or gutter, down the middle. What is the use of this gutter when it rains ? If sand be poured over the growing vine, or water out of a watering- pot, it will be seen to run down the channel and drip off the point of one leaf to another. Finally it is all shed on the ground a short distance away from the stem of the plant. In this way the rain is collected in one place instead of being scattered over a larger space. This is an advantage when only a little rain falls in the summer, for then the roots get more. SUMMARY. 1. The shape of the leaf decides the way it shall grow so as to get the most air and light and rain. 2. The shape of the leaf is described. In the morning-glory the leaf is rounder, and is heart-shaped, or "cordate," at the base. But it stands so as to fit in the vacant spaces in the same way, and is shaped so as to shed the rain. 70 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The position of leaves to each other and to the plant stem is an important and interesting subject, and the teacher will find a chapter upon it in Bal- four's little book entitled u Flower, Fruit, and Leaf." LEAF PARTS. IF the children cannot examine the growing plant, each child should have a piece of the stem, with a leaf attached, in a glass of water on the desk. Do not pull the leaves off, but cut the vine into short pieces, with a leaf at- tached to each piece. Let us look at a leaf. We find it is made up of an expanded green por- tion, or "blade," and a stem, or "petiole." Draw the leaf. " Petiole " comes from the Latin petiolus, meaning " a little foot." " Petiole," meaning " leaf stem," and " peduncle," meaning "flower stem," both come from the Latin word which means a foot, or support. What is the use of the petiole ? It supports the blade of the leaf and holds it out in the air and light. 71 72 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. What shape is this petiole ? It is rounded beneath and flat above, with a little channel along the flat upper side. What is this channel for ? Does it help convey the rain to the leaf ? See how the petiole is attached to the vine. The place where the leaf comes out is called the " node." " Node " means " knot," or " swelling," and the stem of our plant is usually a little thicker at the place where a leaf comes out. The morning-glory and bindweed vines have but one leaf at each node. The space between two nodes is an " internode." "Inter" means "between." Where there is but one leaf at a node, the arrange- ment is said to be "alternate," because one leaf comes, and then after a space another. "Alternate " means " one and then another." The petioles of the leaves do not all grow on the same side of the vine. Then how do the leaves manage to stand side by side on the same plane ? If they are not faced the right way when they start from the vine, the petiole turns, so as to bring its leaf on the upper side. The bindweed generally grows against a wall or THE MORNING-GLORY. 73 a fence or over bushes, and so only one side of it is towards the light. All the leaves turn to this side. The petiole not only grows the right length to hold the leaf up to the light and air, but it turns about in such a way that the leaf is brought into the right- position for its best good. SUMMARY. 1. Parts of the leaf: Blade, petiole. 2. The petiole: Its shape, position on stem. 3. Node. 4. Internode. 5. Alternate arrangement of leaves. Draw the leaf in its right position on the stem. Write about it. POSITION OF THE FLOWER IN RELATION TO THE LEAF. LOOK at the place where the petiole joins the vine. The flower starts from the same node, or a little green bud is there. Oftentimes both flower stem and green bud start from the place where the petiole is attached. Where is the green bud ? It is between the petiole and the vine, close to the upper side of the petiole. This little niche between the petiole and the vine where the flower stem and the green bud come out is the " axil " of the leaf. "Axil " comes from a word meaning " shoulder- joint," and here is used to mean the " arm- pit," or under side of the shoulder-joint. The bud comes out of the axil, or arm- pit, of the leaf. A bud or flower growing from an axil is said to be " axillary." 74 THE MORNING-GLORY. 75 SUMMARY. 1. Axil. 2. Axillary growths. The flower bud likes to grow near the leaf. It is able to get food easier there. The sap that goes into the leaf can easily flow into the parts that lie in the axil of the leaf. So we find flower buds and new branches starting from the axils of the leaves. The little green bud will probably grow into a short branch. Such branches may be seen on the lower and older part of the vine. Draw the leaf with the bud in its axil. Write about it. THE BLADE. LET each child have a leaf. What is the use of the petiole ? It is to hold the leaf up in the air and turn it towards the light. What is the use of the leaf blade ? Let us first see how it is made. Is it all alike? No, it has a softer green part and a stiffer framework. The petiole seems to run through the blade 01 the leaf clear to the tip. It branches as soon as it enters the blade, and sends the branches along the sides. Hold the leaf against the light, and see how the branches keep on branch- ing until a fine network is formed. When a man builds a house he makes a frame- work of strong beams to fasten the walls to. A ship has stout ribs to keep it firm. A person has bones for the same purpose. THE MORNING-GLORY. 77 The stiff branches which are given off from the petiole and form the framework of the leaf are called "ribs." If a leaf had no ribs it would be blown to pieces by the wind and broken by being jostled against things. So the petiole runs into the leaf blade and branches out to hold it firm. A " skeletonized " leaf shows beautifully the branching of the framework. Such leaves are often seen on the sidewalks in the fall, and in the woods. The more delicate parts have disappeared, and only the tougher woody part remains. The rib that runs through the middle of the leaf blade from the petiole to the opposite point is called a "mid-rib." The rest are "side ribs." All the large ribs in the morning-glory start from the same place, the point where the petiole enters the leaf blade. They branch off something as the fingers do from the palm of the hand ; so our leaf is said to be "palmately ribbed," or "palmately veined." Some- times the branches of the petiole that form the framework of the leaf are called "veins" instead of ribs. In fact, they are a combination of ribs and veins, 78 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. for they give firmness to the leaf, and also help con- vey the juices of the plant through the leaf. Because the small branches of the veins cross in all directions, forming a network, our leaf is said to be " net-veined." The way a leaf is veined, or ribbed, is called its " venation." SUMMARY. 1. The leaf blade: ( framework. Its parts 4. J softer green part. 12. The framework: ( mid-rib, or vein. Ribs, or veins { V side ribs, or veins. 3. Palmately veined. 4. Net-veined. Draw the leaf with its veins. Write about it. THE GREEN PART OF THE LEAF. THE space between the ribs is filled by the green part of the leaf. This is softer and more delicate than the framework. It is called the " parenchyma " of the leaf. Why do you suppose it has this long name ? There is a somewhat funny meaning attached to it. " Parenchyma " comes from a Greek word mean- ing " to pour in beside." It is just as if the framework of the leaf had been laid flat on something, and the green part poured in all around it ! The parenchyma is a very important part of the leaf. It absorbs food from the air, and so enables the plant to grow. It does some of the eating for the plant, and the roots do the rest. So the leaves and roots work together to supply food for the growth of their plant. The leaves cannot stay green unless they have sunlight. If they are kept in a dark place we know they turn white, and the plant finally dies. 79 -- 80 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The leaves breathe as well as eat. They are the lungs of the plant. They take in pure air just as we do and breathe out impure air. 1 The leaves eat for the plant, they breathe for it, they shed the rain down on the roots, and they make a shade to prevent the ground below from drying up too fast. The plant cannot grow without leaves. If it loses its leaves it cannot eat, and so dies. SUMMARY. The green part (parenchyma) of the leaf and its work. Write as much as possible about the work done by the leaf. The older pupils will be interested in the exact work done by the parenchyma. It contains the green coloring matter of the plant as well as other valuable plant materials. The green coloring matter is called " chlorophyll." The word " chlorophyll " comes from the Greek, and means " leaf -green." It is the chlorophyll which does the eating for the plant. It consists of little green grains lying close together, and has the power to eat only when under the influence of sunlight. 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " Chlorophyll " THE MORNING-GLORY. 81 There is a very curious story connected with the food the chlorophyll eats. This food is carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid as it used to be called. Carbon dioxide, like many other gases, is invisible. It is always found in the air we breathe. It is an impurity, and if it collected in too large quantities, would destroy us. If it were not for our friends the plants, it is probable the carbon dioxide would smother us, we are constantly breathing it out in such large quantities. But this gas which would become injurious to us if not removed from the air is just what the plants need to live on. By eating it they purify the air for us to breathe. But this is only one chapter in the story of how leaves eat. Carbon dioxide is composed of carbon and oxygen. Carbon in itself is a solid, and oxygen is a gas which is necessary to our lives. We breathe it in with every breath we draw, and without it could not live at all. Thus, free oxygen is necessary to our lives, while oxygen combined with carbon in the form of carbon dioxide is harmful to them. Now see what our friends the plants do for us. They take up the carbon dioxide out of the air and 82 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. pull it to pieces. They separate it into carbon and oxygen. They do not care for the oxygen, so they return that to the air for us to breathe. Thus we have to thank the plants for taking the impure carbon dioxide out of the air and giving pure oxygen back to the air. Since all animals breathe out carbon dioxide and breathe in and use pure oxygen, a great quantity of impurity is constantly being thrown into the air and a vast amount of oxygen taken from it. So the plants make animal life possible by keeping the air pure. But animal life repays the plants by giving them the carbon dioxide they need and without which they would starve. The plant gets its chief supply of carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air, and carbon is the principal element in the composition of the plant. Most of its hard parts are made of carbon. So you see the plant has its friend the animal to thank for the food it eats. Animal could not live without plant, nor plant without animal. SUMMARY. 1. The plant needs carbon as food; this it gets from the carbon dioxide in the air. THE MORNING-GLORY. 83 2. The chlorophyll of the plant breaks up the carbon dioxide, takes the carbon, and sets free the oxygen. 3. Carbon dioxide is injurious to animal life, while oxygen is necessary to it. 4. Hence, men and all animals are dependent upon the plant life for the air they breathe, and consequently for their existence. 5. But, on the other hand, animals breathe out carbon dioxide, which the plant needs as food. 6. Hence, the plant is dependent upon the animal for its existence. 1 Since nearly all of the hard part of the plant is made of carbon, the leaves have to work very hard to supply it. The plant cannot use pure carbon. It combines the carbon with hydrogen and oxygen to form starch and other substances. But, curiously enough, it cannot use the oxygen it separates from the carbon dioxide. That it sends back to the air, and takes water which the roots have sucked up and breaks it up into hydrogen and oxygen, for water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. The plant makes over the starch into stems and leaves and wood and bark. It needs a few other things, such as potash, soda, magnesia, silica, and iron, which it gets from the earth through its roots, but it is largely 1 See Flowers and their Friends: "Skin Cells, Chlorophyll." This subject furnishes fine material for composition. 84 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. made from the materials it finds in the air and in water. The animal cannot feed upon earth and air and water. Only the plant can do that. So in order to get food the animal eats the plant. If it were not for the plant the animal world would die of starva- tion. So man is dependent upon the plant for food also. He eats the plant itself, or else he eats animals which have obtained their food from the vegetable kingdom. Leaves breathe as well as eat for the plant. The chlorophyll is not necessary to the breathing power of the plant. It breathes by means of any and every part of its living structure. It takes in the air from all living parts of its sur- face, uses the oxygen and gives out the carbon diox- ide, just as we do when we take air into our lungs and give it out again. Thus two processes are always going on in a living plant, eating and breathing. The green part of the plant eats, and so destroys carbon dioxide. It uses the carbon and returns the oxygen to the air. Other tissues in the plant take up oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. These contradictory processes are going on side by side all the time. THE MORNING-GLORY. 85 If the plant breathes out carbon dioxide the same as animals do, why does it not make the air impure ? In so far as it breathes out carbon dioxide, it does make the air impure. But the quantity of carbon dioxide it eats is so much greater than the amount it breathes out that the result on the whole is to purify the air. SUMMARY. ("The plant takes in carbon dioxide. 1. Eating -j Uses the carbon. (^ Gives off the oxygen. ( The plant takes in oxygen from the air. 2. Breathing J J Gives off carbon dioxide. 3. The plant also gives off water and other wastes. Excellent composition material resides in the sub- jects just treated. 1 1 See Flowers and their Friends. NAMES OF THE PARTS OF THE BLADE. DRAW a picture of a morning-glory or bind- weed leaf. In order to talk about the different parts of our leaf blade, it will be convenient to name them. Let us call the part next the petiole the " base " of the leaf. The base of the morning-glory leaf is cordate. / . The bindweed leaf is halberd-shaped. ^r* The point of the leaf opposite the petiole is the " apex." The apex of the morning-glory leaf is sharp or pointed, and so we call it "acute." The apex of the bindweed leaf is long, pointed, and tapering. It is a sort of long-acute apex, so we call it '"acuminate." The edge of our leaf we will call its " margin." Look at the margin of the morning-glory or bind- weed leaf and see if itis toothed or cut or jagged; if not, if it is smooth and unbroken, we will say it is an " entire " margin. THE MORNING-GLORY. 87 SUMMARY. 1. Base : Halberd-shaped, hastate, or cordate. 2. Apex : Acuminate, acute. 3. Margin : Entire. We see how the leaves of closely related plants take different forms. Sometimes we find different forms of leaves on the same plant. In our bindweed we remember the two leaf-like bracts that covered the calyx. These are leaves changed in form in order the better to do their work. Such a small changed leaf is called a " bract," and this particular kind of bindweed there are several kinds which bears bracts to protect the seed-pod is called the " bracted bindweed." When we want to be very accurate in speaking of our bindweed, we must call it the bracted bindweed. Is the leaf the same color on both sides ? It is much darker on the upper side. This is probably because the sun shines more directly upon it and makes its green matter (chloro- phyll) more active. The leaf has a very fine down on both sides. This can be seen by holding it to the light and look- ing across it. This down would help protect it from cold, just as the animal is protected by its 88 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. coat of fur or hair. It also protects it from too great evaporation. The water cannot escape so readily from the interior of the plant through this coating of hairs. It also keeps the leaf from getting wet by rain or dew, and so having its breathing pores stopped up. SUMMARY. 1. Color of the leaf. 2. Covering of down. Composition work. VERNATION. HAVE the pupils look at the growing end of a morning-glory or bindweed vine. Find the young leaves which have not yet opened. See how they are folded together. They are folded along the mid-rib with the faces of the two halves touching each other. The young leaves are very tender. Being folded close in this way is a protection against both cold and heat, and also prevents the water from evapo- rating too rapidly from the tender tissues. The way the leaves are folded in the bud is called their " vernation. " "Vernation" is a Latin word, meaning " renewing of youth." The vernation of the morning-glory and bindweed is " conduplicate," which means "doubled" or "folded together," from the Latin con, " together," and duplicare, " to double." THE PLANT STEM. NOTICE how weak and slender it is. It cannot stand alone. But it can twine about a support. See if you can determine in which direction it twines. Why do you suppose it always twines from left to right ? Tell the children how, almost as soon as it 'comes out of the seed, the plant begins to look for something to hold to. How does it do this ? The slender tip of the vine moves about in a circle from left to right. It keeps on moving in a wider circle as long as it can stand up or until it touches something it can twine about. If it cannot find any- thing it lies down on the ground, but its growing tip stands up and keeps on circling about. It will grow quite long sometimes before it finally reaches a support. When it does, up it goes, twining around and around, and always from left to right. Look at the growing vines and see how they have found their support. Trace a THE MORNING-GLORY. 91 vine back to its root. You will have to go several yards sometimes to find the root end of a bindweed. The bindweed often twines about the weeds in its way and binds them closely together, and for this reason it has received its name. Encourage the older pupils to watch the tip of a growing vine put of school and note the rapidity with which it turns about its support. It takes too long to do this in class, and, of course, where the plants have to be studied in the schoolroom, it is impossible except in the case of living plants in window boxes. Both bindweed and morning-glory belong to the Convolvulus family, and this family gets its name from the twining habit of the stems of its members, " convolvulus " coming from the Latin word convol- vere, meaning "to roll around." The stem of the plant is a very important part. It contains the channels through which the sap passes, and also the long, strong, woody fibres that give stiffness and strength to the whole structure. The petiole is but a branch of the stem ; fibres of delicate wood run from the stem into the petiole ; from that they pass on into the blade, where they branch and branch again to form the framework of the leaf. This framework, as we know, is filled in with a softer tissue, the parenchyma, which, among other things, 92 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. contains the chlorophyll grains. So we may look upon a leaf as a part of the stem which has under- gone certain changes. The vine knows how to twine and look for a sup- port. The petiole also knows how to turn about. We have seen it turn to bring the leaf blade up to the light and air. The peduncle, like the petiole, is also a branch from the stem. In some morning-glories it bears a pair of diminutive transformed leaves, or bracts. It, too, knows how to turn so as to bring the flower out into the sun- light, where the insects can see it. It always stands, too, so as to hold the open mouth of the flower a little to one side in- stead of holding it up to the sky. The morning-glory peduncle makes yet another turn for the sake of the seed-children. After the corolla has fallen off, the peduncle, which still bears the ovary, turns down so that the seeds are partly hidden under the leaves and are out of the way. So we see how even the stem does something to help care for the seed-children. Draw and write. THE ROOT. THE best time to procure the root is after the plant has been withered by frost. Its work as a plant is done. It has matured the seed so that new plants for next season are provided for, and now that the winter is at hand the plant fades and changes. Emphasize the fact that it changes. Do not say it dies. Tell the children how the material in the plant undergoes changes ; that the morning-glory vine will soon disappear, but it is not lost, and it has not stopped being useful. All the good materials that made the vine will soon alter their form ; some of them will escape into the air in the form of gases, and some will sink into the earth in the form of rich juices and minerals. All these things, gases, min- erals, and juices, will finally find their way into new plants and help make them. If some plants did not change in this way there could be no new plants growing. The new plants need the materials of the old ones. So our morning-glory grows, bears seeds, changes into gases, minerals, and fluids, and becomes a part 93 94 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. of some other plant. ^^ Perhaps part of the mother vine goes to help its\ own seeds grow next year. 1 Plants that grow seed, bear disappear called " annu- yearly plants, from the seed from the fruit, and all in one season ) are -*-*""{ als" ; that means "X' (\^ They come V up anew H each year. If the root of the bindweed is studied, the underground portion of the plant will be found to run a long distance, as though it were an underground stem, which is what it really is. Examine this underground portion. See that the long, slender stem is divided into nodes. There are no leaves at the nodes, only x small, undeveloped buds. The color of this long under- ground portion is white instead of green. It is in reality an underground stem. You know it is a stem because it has nodes. The roots grow out of this stem. They are small and have tiny branches. You can see them scattered along the underground stem. 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " What becomes of the Flowers ? THE MORNING-GLORY. 95 Thus we see that roots sometimes grow out of stems. Underground stems are not green because the sun cannot get to them. The roots usually start from the nodes. They are small and give off tiny rootlets which suck up food from the earth. The morning-glory has no underground stem. If you pull it up you find the root going down into ground. This root branches again and again, and is surrounded by tiny root- lets. It is the rootlets of a plant that suck up water and food from the earth. The main part of the root or underground stem does not suck up nourishment at all. It is a support 96 f A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. for the rootlets, a storehouse for food materials, and an anchor to the plant. The roots have to be strong and firmly fastened in the earth, or the plant would be blown away or torn up by passing animals. The main roots anchor the plant and keep it in one place, so the rootlets can have quiet to do their work in. The little rootlets do all the underground eating for the plant. 1 The roots of our two plants look like threads or "fibres," and for this reason are called "fibrous" roots. The rootlets suck up water, and the older pupils will remember that water contains hydrogen and oxygen which the plant separates, joining the hydro- gen and oxygen to the carbon the leaves take in, and thus forming starch. Starch, as we know, is a combination of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. The hydrogen and oxygen come from the water by way of the roots, the carbon from the air* by way of the leaves. The leaves do not, as a rule, absorb water. The roots do that. So it is better to moisten the earth around our plants than to pour the water over the leaves, though it is good to do both. 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " Root Cells." THE MORNING-GLORY. 97 Moisture is given off by the leaves, although they do not usually take it in. If the leaves are wet and the air about them moist, they do not part with their moisture so readily. So wetting the leaves of a plant keeps it fresh be- cause it prevents the leaves from parting with their moisture. Evaporation takes place slowly in moist air. On a hot, dry day leaves often wilt and hang down because they have parted with so much moisture. Evaporation takes place rapidly in dry air, particu- larly if the air is also warm. All parts of the morning-glory and bindweed plants contain a milky juice which has a bitter taste. Is this to prevent its being eaten by insects and animals ? Draw the roots and underground stems, and write about them. FRUITS. WATCH the ovary after the corolla has fallen. Draw it. Notice how it enlarges and how the calyx persists. Find the seed-pods in several different stages, from the little green body left when the corolla falls, to the ripe seed-case. Draw them. In the bindweed the two bracts that cover the lower end of the flower and the calyx turn brown and look dead and withered. You have to look closely to find the seed-pods at all. In the morning-glory the pods turn down after the corolla falls. Sometimes there are three or four pods in a cluster, where the flowers have bloomed one after the other. These turn down out of the way, and are not as obscure as those of the bindweed. You can readily see their clean-cut outlines with the calyx lobes standing out from them. As they ripen the calyx lobes turn back and expose the smooth brown pod. This pod with its seeds is the " fruit" of the plant. THE MORNING-GLORY. 99 The developed ovary of any plant is its " fruit." Children think only of apples and pears and other edible and juicy seed-cases as fruits. The seed-bear- ing part of a plant is a fruit, no matter what its shape or consistency. The morning-glory fruit splits open, the outer case falls off and lets out the black seeds. There remain on the vine the inner partitions to the ovary. They divided the fruit into three or more little rooms. There were one or two seeds in each room. Because the fruit contains several rooms or cells, we know it is compound. The fruit of a morning-glory is a " pod." The splitting open of the pod is its "dehi- scence." " Dehiscence," we remember, comes from dehiscere, "to gape." Any dry, dehiscent fruit is called a pod. The seeds are shaped like the "quarters" of an orange, so that they may fit into the space. The partitions between the cells of the ovary are trans- parent. One can look through them as though they were little windows. The seeds are shaped like little wedges. They are 100 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. the shape that best enables them to fill up all the space in the ovary. There is a little mark at one end where they grew to the ovary cell. One division of an ovary is often called a " carpel." So our morning-glory fruit has three carpels. When the fruits are thoroughly ripe they split open, or dehisce, in three places, the outside falls off, and the seed-children fall to the ground, where they lie all winter, kept warm and safe under the dead leaves that cover the ground. Draw the fruits and seeds, and write about them. The children should gather a quantity of seeds and put them away in boxes or bottles with labels, for winter use. *Y.' While thus concentrating the attention upon one flower and becoming acquainted with its life and structure, it is not necessary to ignore all other flowers. The children will bring other flowers to school, will notice them in their walks, and will ask about them. Encourage this interest as much as possible. Be interested in the corollas and stamens and pistils of all the flowers the children bring. Wonder with them about the coming of the insect, and try THE MORNING-GLORY. 101 to discover where it finds the honey. But do not let this interfere with the regular work of the class. Keep to one plant until as much has been learned about it as circumstances permit. In giving technical terms explain the literal mean- ing of the words as far as the children are able to comprehend. The older pupils will be interested in the Latin words and prefixes from which the technical words are derived. As much attention as possible should be paid to the meaning and the right use of words. Train the child to speak and write with accuracy concerning the things he* sees. This does not mean that he is to be confined to conventional methods of expression. Encourage him to tell about the plants in his own words, and to use such words as best express exactly what he means. Nature study should be one of the best aids to language work. It can be used as nothing else can to develop accuracy, freedom, and beauty of expres- sion. A good unabridged dictionary is indispensable to every schoolroom. The teacher should consult the dictionary for the meaning of every word, technical 102 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. or otherwise, with which she is not familiar. She should implant in the older pupils a genuine love for the dictionary ! The teacher and her pupils will constantly discover new and interesting things about the flowers studied, which will not be mentioned in this or any other book. The beauty of this work is that it never comes to an end. New vistas are always opening. No one knows all there is to know about even our little morning-glory. There is opportunity for every one to make dis- coveries. Life, too, is constantly changing. The details which are true of morning-glories in Rhode Island may not be true of morning-glories in Illinois nor of Rhode Island morning-glories at some future time. So the teacher must not be discouraged if her morning-glories are not exactly like those described in flower, leaf, stem, root, or seed ; and she must not try to make her specimen fit into anybody's description. * Let her frankly say, " My plant is not like that," and accept it the way it is. What the teacher herself discovers in plant life is just as true and just as good as what the books say. Each teacher should be at heart an original inves- tigator. THE MORNING-GLORY. 103 As many schools are not equipped with magnify- ing glasses, only such facts as can be discovered from simply watching the plant have been used. A vast amount of valuable information can be gleaned from the plant world by means of the instru- ments with which nature has provided every one. Having studied one plant carefully and somewhat in detail, the same general plan may be followed for any plant. A GENERAL PLAN OF WORK FOR ANY FLOWERING PLANT. IN blooming plants the bright flower is the first thing one naturally notices. Therefore it is a good plan to begin with that. 1. Notice the conspicuousness of the flower, con- spicuous generally from color and position. It wants to be seen. 2. The visit of the insect coines next in order. It sees the flower and goes to it. Why does it visit the flower ? Most people know it goes for honey. Find the nectar and the nectary, if there are any. 3. How do the shape and color of the corolla favor the insect's visit ? This leads to a preliminary study of petals and sepals and their markings. 4. The insect goes for something besides nectar. Notice the fine flour, or pollen. This leads to the study of the stamens. 5. Examine flowers that are fully opened or that have withered on the plant, and also that which is left after the flower falls. This leads to the study of the pistil. THE MORNING-GLORY. '* 105 6. Reconsider stamens, petals, sepals, in relation to the pistil. In studying the leaf notice : 1. The general arrangement of leaves with regard to each other. 2. The value of the petiole in holding and keep- ing the leaf in the right position. 3. Shape of leaf and influence this has upon its position in regard to other leaves. 4. Position of leaf on stem. 5. Venation. 6. Work done by leaves. 7. Vernation. In studying the plant stem consider : 1. The work done by the stem and its adaptability to this work. 2. Any peculiarity in color, shape, or in its cover- ing of down, hairs, etc. In studying the root consider : 1. Its size and shape in regard to the work it has to do. 2. Any peculiarities which it may show. In studying the fruit consider : 1. Form, structure, and position of fruit as related to the development of seeds. 2. Seed-coverings. 106 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. 3. Dehiscence or other methods of freeing seeds. In this way the different parts of the plant become infinitely better known than if they were merely pulled to pieces and the different organs labeled. Each organ is seen to have a distinct duty to per- form in the interest of the plant. There are order and reason in the structure of the flower and in every part of the plant. Everything in it means something. There has been a foundation laid for intelligent interest in the scientific discoveries and problems of the day. Even the little child can understand the vital facts of plant life, a knowledge of which is the result of modern scientific investigation. Treat flower, leaf, stem, and fruit alike from the point of view of function. Everything is the way it is because of the work it has to do. Set the child to inquiring of everything in nature why it is as it is. What is the meaning of the differ- ent forms living things assume ? THE NASTURTIUM, OUR next plant is the garden nasturtium, or Tropceolum, as it is called in the botany. It may not be possible for all to get the morning-glory. The nasturtium has become such a favor- ite it can be obtained almost anywhere, and is easy to raise as a house plant. It blooms until the coming of frost, and if grown in boxes can be taken in and kept as long as necessary. If the seeds are planted early in the winter the plants can. be in bloom for spring work. In this case the bee and its work will have to be described by the teacher and imagined by the children, as it will be in any case where the work is done in the house. Where the morning-glory has been studied first, the nasturtium should be compared with it at every step. 107 108 A FEW FAMILIAL FLO WEBS. This will make a good deal of the work on the nasturtium merely a rapid review, as many essentials are alike in all flowers, and thoroughly to know one is to know a good deal about all. The nasturtium will be treated, as a rule, as though the morning-glory had already been studied. Where it has not been, it will be advisable for the teacher to read the chapters on the morning-glory, so that she may use the same method in knowing and naming the organs of the nasturtium. For the sake of brevity, the word " morning-glory " will be used, meaning both morning-glory proper and bindweed, unless reference should be made to differences between the two, when the one meant will be designated. GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE FLOWER. SUPPOSE the teacher to stand before the bed of nasturtiums with the children about her. They have come to look at the flowers, but are not to pick them. The teacher questions, as in the morning-glory, about the appearance of the flowers. It is decided that they can be seen a long way off because they are so large and bright, and because they stand up on long stems. Teacher: "Do they all stand up away from the leaves?" Kate: "No, but they are so bright you can see them under the leaves." John: "The leaves are not so very thick. You can see between them." Teacher: " What other flower do we know about that stands up so as to be easily seen?" Children : "The morning-glory." Ned: "This is brighter than the morning-glory." John: " It does n't stand out so far, I think." Nellie: "It doesn't need to. You can see it easier, it is so red." 109 110 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Teacher: "Why do you suppose it is so bright ?" [This question will not be asked here if the morn- ing-glory has not been studied. See chapter on Morning-Glory.] Kate: "It is bright because it wants the bees to see it and come." Teacher : " Do the bees come ? " Ned: " Yes, here 's one in my flower." Teacher: " Is it a big bee or a little one ? " Kate: " It 's a big bumblebee." Teacher: "Watch it, and see where it goes." John: "It has gone clear in as far as it could crowd." Teacher: " What do you suppose it is after? " Children: "Nectar." Teacher: "Let us see if we can find where the nectar is kept." John: "There is a round hole way back in my flower." Teacher: "Put a toothpick gently in .-and see where it goes." John : " It goes down into that long horn at the back of the flower." Teacher : " Now take it out and look at the point." John: "It is quite wet." THE NASTURTIUM 111 Teacher: " Taste it." John: "It is sweet." Teacher: " What, then, do you think it is ? " e/o^ft : " I think it is nectar." Teacher : " How does it compare in quantity with the nectar of the morning-glory?" Nellie: " There is a great deal more." Teacher: " What is the long horn ? " Jennie: "It is the nectary." Teacher: " What a cunning place to store the nectar!" Nellie: "It is like a cornucopia." Teacher: "' Cornucopia ' means 6 horn of plenty/ so I think that a pretty good name for it. Sometime we will read the story of the cornucopia. 1 Where do we see cornucopias, James?" James: " On the Christmas tree, full of candy." Nellie: " The flower is the bee's Christmas tree." Teacher: " The cornucopia on our flower is called a ' spur,' because it sticks out like the spur on a horseman's heel or on the leg of a rooster. I do not think that is as pretty a name as cornucopia." John: " Let us call it cornucopia." Teacher: " So you may ; only let us sometimes say 6 spur,' so we may not forget that is also its name." 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " The Tropaeolum." 112 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Teacher: "How many openings are there to the nectary of the nasturtium?" Kate: " Only one." Teacher: "Who remembers how many the morn- ing-glory has ? " Children: "It has five." May : " I think I know why the nasturtium has so much more nectar. It is because it is all in one place. In the morning-glory it is in five places." Let the children try to draw the flower. Also have them write about it, or, if they cannot write, have them tell the story of the flower over and over. Take as much time as is necessary to make the work easy and pleasant; do not crowd too much into one lesson. Have a separate writing book for the plant study. [See Morning-Glory chapter.] SUMMARY. 1. The bright and conspicuously placed flower. 2. Its general shape. 3. Entrance of the bee. 4. Finding of the nectar. 5. The nectary, its position, shape, and opening. THE COROLLA. REVIEW previous lessons. As a rule, the review should precede each new lesson. The necessity for constant review cannot be too strongly insisted upon. The review naturally grows briefer as time goes on, until only the principal facts are mentioned. Have the review sometimes given in the form of a story. Spare no pains to make the children love the work. Let one child tell all he can about the flower cup, another about the bee, etc. After the review let the teacher ask the children if they like to look at the flower, and why. They will say they do, because it is pretty, bright, like sunshine, etc. Ask them to smell of it. It smells sweet. How do the bees find the flowers ? They see them because of their bright color, and probably they smell them as well. Teacher : " Watch a bee go into the flower. See what a fine little room it makes for Madam Bee. Look at the roof of this flower house ; of how many pieces is it made ? 113 114 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Tom: " It is made of two pieces." Teacher: " Shall I tell you what these pieces are called? They are called 'petals.' How many petals make the floor ? " John: "Three." Kate: "One, and the other two make the sides." Teacher: "How many petals are there altogether?" Children: " There are five." Nellie : " There are five big ones. There are some little ones between the big ones." Teacher: "Turn the flower around and look at the back of it. You see what you call the little petals are on the outside." John: " They cover the cracks between the petals." Teacher: "So they do. Look at this bud, John. What do the outside parts do for it?" John: "They cover it all up. You can just see the end of the flower sticking out." Teacher: " Who remembers what this outside covering to the morning-glory bud is called ? " Children: " The calyx." Teacher: " What is the difference between this and the morning-glory calyx?" THE NASTURTIUM. 115 [The children will remember that that was green, and see that this is colored a little like the flower. Also that this is larger than that, and not so regular in shape. They will also notice that, like the morning-glory calyx, it has five sepals. The nasturtium calyx is large and bright to help the petals make the flower showy. But, like the morning-glory calyx, it is less deli- cate than the corolla. It is tough and strong to protect the corolla. The teacher now asks what they will call the bright part of the flower as a whole. They tell her the corolla, and that " corolla " means "little garland," or "crown."] Teacher : " Is the corolla all grown into one piece here ? " Children: "No, it is separated into five petals." Because it has several distinct petals this corolla is said to be " polypetalous." " Poly-" means " many," so " polypetalous " literally means " many petals." Does this polypetalous flower make as good a place for the bee as the morning-glory? Almost as good, because the petals overlap and are stiff, and so make a sort of cup for the bee to go into. 116 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. If the morning-glory has been studied, ask if its corolla is divided into several petals. It is not. All of the corolla is grown together into a tube. Such a corolla is said to be " gamopetalous," because " gamo-" means "union," and there is here a close union of the corolla into one piece, with no separate petals. What do both calyx and corolla do for the flower ? They protect the tender essential organs, and they make the flower conspicuous. They are the floral envelopes. They may also be called the perianth. SUMMARY. 1. Flowers fragrant to attract bees. 2. Corolla composed of petals; terms, polypetalous and gamo- petalous. 3. Colored calyx. 4. Floral envelopes, or perianth. Do not forget to have as much writing and draw- ing in connection with the flower study as possible. If the children have studied the morning-glory, or are old enough to do so intelligently, have them form a schedule of the flower parts at this point. Floral envelopes, ( calyx sepals, or perianth ( corolla petals. SHAPE AND COLOR OF THE PETALS. ARE the petals all the same shape ? It will readily be noticed that the two upper ones are broader, and the three lower ones have long, slender stems. We call the stem of a petal a " claw." Let us see how the two upper petals come to make such a fine tight roof. The children will notice that their edges overlap, the petals are so broad. But back in the flower the claws are slender, and there would be a crack between them if it were not for the topmost sepal. This covers up the crack. The two side sepals bring the roof well down at the sides. The two upper petals grow fast to the sepals. The rain cannot come through this roof. The flower does not like the rain to get inside, for it mixes with the nectar and wets and spoils the pollen. If the flower grew upside down the rain could easily come in. There are openings in the floor. It 117 118 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. is not necessary for .the floor to be tight enough to keep out rain. The petals grow between the sepals. They are therefore " alternate " with them. The three lower petals have a sort of fringe on the claw and on the petal where it joins the claw. This fringe is called a "beard." Of what use is this beard to the flower ? It might help keep out the rain, and it might pre- vent ants and other small insects from crawling in and stealing the nectar. The flower likes the bees to come, but does not like the ants. Some child will probably suggest that that is why the lower petals have such slender claws. It would not be easy for a small insect to walk in. It would be likely to get in the cracks of the floor. Notice how the flower stands. Does the opening into the corolla look up to the sky or to one side ? The flower is so attached to the peduncle that the opening looks out to one side. The roof is above. In this way the stamens are protected from the rain. Recall a similar position in the morning-glory THE NASTUUT1UM. 119 flower. The corolla is not held with the opening looking straight up to the sky. We remember it was turned a little to one side. Draw the flower in its proper attitude. Are the nasturtium petals all colored alike ? The upper ones have brighter spots of color and they have brown lines. These brown lines run into the honey spur, or nectary. They guide the bees to the nectar. What other nectar guides have we seen? The white (or colored) paths in the morning-glory are nectar guides, or pathfinders. SUMMARY. 1. Shape and position of petals. 2. Claw. 3. Nectar guides. THE CALYX. Teacher: " Look at the calyx and tell me how many sepals it has, John." John: " It has five sepals." Teacher : " Are they separate or grown together? " John : " They are separate." Kate: " I think they are grown together." Nellie : " They are separate at the ends and grown together at the bottom." Teacher : " Is Nellie right about this?" [The children examine carefully, and decide that she is right. At the bottom the sepals are all grown into one.] Teacher : " What do we call the morning-glory corolla because it has no separate petals, John?" John : " We call it gamopetalous." Teacher: " What shall we call the calyx when the sepals are grown together into a single piece ? " 120 THE NASTURTIUM. 121 John : " We might call it gamosepalous." Teacher: " That is right. We call our calyx gamo- sepalous if the sepals are grown together ever so little, so as to make the lower part of the calyx one. If the sepals were all separate, what should we call the calyx?" John: " Polysepalous." Teacher : "That is right. What kind of a calyx has the morning-glory ? " Nellie: "It has a polysepalous calyx." Teacher: "Good. Now look at the spur. What part of the flower makes the spur ? " Fred: " I think it is the calyx." Teacher: " How does the calyx make a spur ? " Fred: " Some of the sepals are grown together to make it." Teacher: "Which sepals have grown together to make the spur?" George: " The three upper ones have." Teacher: "Are there any color lines on the calyx?" Fred: "Yes, on the upper sepals. They finish out the nectar guides of the petals." Teacher: "What other part of the flower do the sepals resemble?" May: "They resemble the petals." 122 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Teacher: " What part of the plant do the morning- glory sepals resemble ? " John: "They are like little green leaves." Jeacher: " What are the uses of the sepals to the nasturtium ? " Kate: "They help make it bright." John: " They help form a roof to keep out rain." May: " They help make a floor." Nellie: " They protect the bud." Write about the calyx. SUMMARY. 1. Shape, position, and use of sepals. 2. Gamosepalous. 3. Polysepalous. With the older pupils the teacher may speak of the " cohesion " and " adhesion " of flower parts. If physics has been studied, it will be remembered that like molecules cohere, as, for instance, the molecules in a piece of wood. Unlike molecules when they remain together are said to " adhere," as when two pieces of wood are held together by glue. The glue adheres to the wood. So when different parts of the same flower whorl grow together they are said to " cohere." THE NASTURTIUM. 123 When one sepal grows to another sepal, as in the case of the monosepalous calyx, the sepals are said to cohere. If petals grow together they are said to cohere, and so of the parts of any flower whorl. But if the parts of different flower whorls grow together they are said to adhere. Thus, if petals and sepals grow fast to each other, they are said to adhere, as in the case of the upper petals and sepals of the nasturtium. In the morning-glory the older pupils found the nectar gland growing about the ovary. In the nasturtium it occupies the tip of the spur, and the nectar flows into and partly fills the roomy spur. It will interest the older pupils to know why the spur is so long. Can the bee's tongue reach to the bottom of this long spur ? It cannot. Even the large bumblebee cannot reach clear down. Then why has the flower devel- oped such a nectary? Usually the flower is constructed to agree with the shape and size of the insects that fertilize it. 1 No doubt this is true of the nasturtium, and in spite of the frequency with which the large bees are 1 See Flowers arid their Friends " Tongues and Tubes." 124 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. found in it in our gardens, it evidently is not a bee flower. We must remember the nasturtium does not grow of itself in our climate. It is not wild with us. It has been brought from South America, where it no doubt is visited by insects with very long tongues, or else by humming birds, and so has developed a long spur. 1 Humming birds sometimes visit it here. Their long bills can reach deep into the nectary. But our bumblebees are able to get some of its nectar, and they are very fond of it, being effectual instruments in fertilizing it. 1 See Flowers and their Friends : " The Tropaeolum. " THE STAMENS. Teacher: " What do you think the bee finds in the flower besides nectar ? " Children: " She finds pollen." Have the children watch the bees gather the pollen if possible. See them collect a little ball of dark-colored pol- len on the hindmost legs. Where does the bee get the pollen ? The children will say she gets it from the anthers. What are the anthers a part of ? They are a part of the stamens. Teacher: " Where in the nasturtium do we find the stamens?" John: "They are on the floor." The children will find there are eight of them. They do not stand up as in the morning-glory. They lie flat on the floor, but the anthers of some turn up. 125 126 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Why do they lie flat on the floor ? Evidently so as not to obstruct the opening to the nectary. They also help make a firm floor, or land- ing-place, for the insect. See if the anthers are all ripe and shedding their pollen at the same time. Only part are. Some have not opened yet, others have shed all their pollen, while still others are shedding it. Have the children discover for themselves that only the ripe anthers stand up. The unripe and overripe lie down out of the way. Why do the ripe anthers stand up ? In order that when a large insect enters the flower it may brush against them. When the anther gets ripe it opens, or " dehisces," and sheds its pollen. The stamens think of each other ; they do not wish to get in each other's way, so when they are not shedding pollen they lie down flat out of the way of the nectary, so the bees can come to the ripe stamens. The teacher tells the children to press the three lower petals down out of the way and look at the stamens carefully. Teacher: " How many of them seem ripe and fresh and full of pollen ? " THE NASTURTIUM. 127 Kate: "Only one of mine. Two of them look withered and five have not opened." John : " One of mine looks fresh. All of the others look withered and lie down." Teacher: " How many find just one anther full of fresh pollen ? " Several do. Teacher: " How many find more than one ? " A few do. Teacher : " How many find all the anthers ripe and fresh and covered with pollen ? " Jennie thinks she does, but Lucy shows her how the fresh ones look, then she says hers are all withered. If the children are old enough, and if there is abundance of material, the ripening of the anthers can be watched for a few days, and the order in which the stamens open one at a time can be noticed. Why do the stamens open one at a time and continue to shed pollen for several days instead of all opening together and finishing their work in a few hours, as is the case with most of our wild flowers ? If the stamens opened all at once the pollen might be injured by a heavy shower, where the water beat in and soaked the anthers. Does the Trovceolum, 128 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. then, bloom in its native country during a rainy season ? Teacher: " Why are the stamens of the nasturtium on the floor ? " Lucy: " So the bee will have to touch the pollen when she goes in." Nellie: " It is easy for her to get the pollen." Teacher: "Is this like morning-glory pollen?" John: "No, it is red." Teacher: "Do the bees gather it?" If the children can watch the flowers out of doors, they will see the bees with the red pollen on their legs and bodies. If not, the teacher will have to tell how they collect it. If they have seen the bees in the morning-glories, they can tell for themselves. Have the children look at the filaments of the stamens. They are short and stiff. They do not stand up straight, but curve so as to bring the anther in the right place. . If the children can do so, have them form a schedule of the parts of the stamen. f anther pollen. Stamen <^ [ filament. Have the children spend as much time as possible in drawing the flowers. Also have as much writing THE NASTURTIUM. 129 as possible; the nasturtium stamens form a very attractive subject. SUMMARY. 1. The stamens. 2. Their position, number, method of ripening. If she pleases, the teacher may here compare the position of the morning-glory stamens with that of the nasturtium stamens. In both cases the object is the same, to place the stamens in such a position that the insect cannot reach the nectar without coming in contact with the pollen. There are five openings to the nectary of the morning-glory, so the stamens stand erect, stacked about the central column ; and whichever way the insect enters, it will be likely to touch the circle of anthers. In the nasturtium there is only one opening to the nectary ; therefore the stamens are all put in front of that opening and so placed that the insect is obliged to pass over them to reach the nectar. In the case of the humming bird, the under side of the bill becomes dusted with pollen, and this is carried to the next flower. 130 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. If it is impossible to go to the growing flowers where the bees have access to them, the flowers may be used in the class room. The teacher should then have the children place their flowers in water, with the stem supported in just the position the flowers assume when growing that is, with the open face of the flower directed out instead of up, as in the illustrations, the spur hanging down. Then the teacher may tell how the bright flowers stand out in the open spaces above or between the leaves, and how the bees come to them. Then she may tell the children to make believe the little finger is the bee, and to slide it in under the roof of the flower, so it will lodge in front of the opening to the nectary. THE NASTURTIirM. 131 Teacher: " Now take out the finger and look at it." Ned: " Mine is all yellow." All the children find their fingers yellow. Teacher: "What do you suppose has made your fingers yellow?" Kate: "I think it is pollen." Teacher: " Is it like the morning-glory pollen ? " Tom : ' That was white and this is red, but it stains the fingers yellow. It is floury, like the morning-glory pollen." Teacher: " You are right, it is the pollen." The teacher now asks the children to tell her what the bee does with the pollen. If they have studied the morning-glory, they are able to tell her it is the flour of which the bees make beebread, and that they carry it to the hive attached to the hairs of the body or rolled into little balls on the legs. [See first chapter on the Morning-Glory.] Such a lesson can be made very charming, though of course nothing can take the place of the real bees and the natural growth of the flowers. Have the older pupils notice that the attachment of anther to filament is innate, the same as in the morning-glory. 132 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The anthers have two cells each'. These cells open, or dehisce, by a lengthwise slit at the side instead of at the back, as in the morning-glory. The pollen gushes out and lies on the front of the anther in the best position to be rubbed off by a passing insect. THE PISTIL. LEAD the children to notice how all the stamens bend back so as not to stop up the opening to the nectary. They are anxious to please the bee and make her glad to visit the flower. Teacher: "Why do they wish the bee to come ? " Fred: " They want her to carry the pollen." Teacher: "Where do they want her to take it ? " Nellie: "To the little seed-children." Teacher: " Let us look for the seed-children. What part of the flower holds them, Jack ? " Jack: "The mother part holds them." Teacher: " What do we call the mother part ?" Frank: " The pistil." Teacher: "Where is the pistil in our flower?" 133 134 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. Nellie: " There is a green berry in the bottom of my flower with a little white brush growing out of the top." Tom: "It looks more like an anchor than a brush." The children should here examine some old and therefore partly faded flowers. The pistil is large and conspicuous. The style stands up, the three linear lobes to the stigma stand apart. In the newly opened, flower it is difficult to see the pistil. The style is small and short, and the stigma lobes lie close together. The stamens quite conceal the pistil. Until the stigma lobes separate and the pistil stands up, the pistil is not ripe, and cannot use the pollen that may fall upon it. Let the children examine their flowers and dis- cover that the stigma is not open until nearly or quite all of the stamens have shed their pollen, and that meantime the small, half-grown pistil lies down under the stamens. When the flower is nearly done shedding pollen, the pistil comes up. It grows larger and longer and stands up where the ripe anthers stood in front of the opening to the nectary, and its three lobes are wide open. THE NASTURTIUM. 135 No bee could go in without touching it. The spur is full of honey. There is not much, if any, pollen left, but there is plenty of delicious nectar, and the bees visit it as eagerly as ever. Why does the stigma wait until the anthers have shed their pollen? Does it not wish to receive pollen ? It wishes it of all things in the world, for without it its seed-children would perish. But it does not want its own pollen ; it wants pollen from another flower. It knows the bee will be dusted with other pollen when she comes to it for nectar, and that going to the nectary she will brush against the now ripe and sticky stigma with its three lobes standing wide apart, and leave some of this pollen upon it. Like the morning-glory, the nasturtium does- not make pollen for its own use. It makes it for the use of its neighbors, the other nasturtiums, and sends it to them by its messengers, the insects and humming birds. It first fills its spur with honey to entice these visitors for the benefit of its neighbors, then makes honey to call the insects with their pollen- dusted bodies to come and give pollen to its pistil. What happens as soon as the pollen touches the stigma ? 136 A FEW FAMILIAR FLOWERS. The children, if the morning-glory has been studied, will be able to tell how the pollen grain sends down its tube to the ovule, 1 and how, as soon as it has received the gift from the pollen, or been fertilized, the ovule begins to develop into a seed. Tell in connection with this stories of the mother part of the plant and her care of the seed-children. Do not forget the writing and drawing. 1 SUMMARY. 1. The pistil is the flower's reason for enticing the bee. 2. The ovary : a. The style, short at first, grows longer, b. The club-like stigma when ripe opens into three linear lobes. 3. The pistil ripens after the anthers, and when ripe stands up in front of the nectary. SCHEDULE OF ESSENTIAL ORGANS. f anther pollen. Stamen^ I filament. f ovary. Pistil