Chapter XXXIV: Part III: Plant Life (4)

4. The flower-heads are protected before they open with overlapping bracts, which may be compared to a shingled house protecting the flower family. As the flower-head opens, these bracts are pushed back beneath it. Describe the shape of these bracts. Are they set in regular, overlapping rows? Are they rough or smooth? Do they end bluntly, with a short point, with a long point, with a spine, or a hook? How do the bracts act when the flower family goes to sleep? Do they remain after the seeds are ripened?

5. Take a flower-head apart, and examine the florets. Can you see what part of the floret will be the seed? Is there a fringe of pappus above it? If so, what will this be on the seed?

6. Study the ripe seeds. How are they scattered? Do they have balloons? Is the balloon close to the seed? Is it fastened to all parts of it?

THE GOLDENROD

_Teacher’s Story_

Once I was called upon to take some children into the field to study autumn flowers. The day we studied goldenrod, I told them the following story on the way, and I found that they were pleased with the fancy and through it were led to see the true purpose of the goldenrod blossoming:

“There are flowers which live in villages and cities, but people who also live in villages and cities are so stupid that they hardly know a flower city when they see it. This morning we are going to visit a golden city where the people are all dressed in yellow, and where they live together in families; and the families all live on top of their little, green, shingled houses, which are set in even rows along the street. In each of these families, there are some flowers whose business it is to furnish nectar and pollen and to produce seeds which have fuzzy balloons; while there are other flowers in each family which wave yellow banners to all the insects that pass by and signal them with a code of their own, thus: ‘Here, right this way is a flower family that needs a bee or a beetle or an insect of some sort to bring it pollen from abroad, so that it can ripen its seed; and it will give nectar and plenty of pollen in exchange.’ Of course, if the flowers could walk around like people, or fly like insects, they could fetch and carry their own pollen, but as it is, they have to depend upon insect messengers to do this for them. Let us see who of us will be the first to guess what the name of this golden city is, and who will be the first to find it.”

The children were delighted with this riddle and soon found the goldenrod city. We examined each little house with its ornate, green “shingles.” These little houses, looking like cups, were arranged on the street stem, right side up, in an orderly manner and very close together; and where each joined the stem, there was a little, green bract for a doorstep. Living on these houses we found the flower families, each consisting of a few tubular disk-flowers opening out like bells, and coming from their centers were the long pollen-tubes or the yellow, two-parted stigmas. The ray-flowers had short but brilliant banners; and they, as well as the disk-flowers, had young seeds with pretty fringed pappus developing upon them. The banner-flowers were not set so regularly around the edges as in the asters; but the families were such close neighbors, that the banners reached from one house to another. And all of the families on all of the little, green streets were signalling insects, and one boy said, “They must be making a very loud yellow noise.” We found that very many insects had responded to this call--honeybees, bumblebees, mining and carpenter bees, blue-black blister beetles with short wings and awkward bodies, beautiful golden-green chalcid flies, soldier beetles and many others; and we found the spherical gall and the spindle-shaped gall in the stems, and the strange gall up near the top which grew among the leaves.

Unless one is a trained botanist it is wasted energy to try to distinguish any but the well-marked species of goldenrod; for, according to Gray, we have 56 species, the account of which makes twelve pages of most uninteresting reading in the new Manual. The goldenrod family is not in the least cliquish, the species have a habit of interbreeding to the confusion of the systematic botanist. Matthew’s Field Book serves as well as any for distinguishing the well-marked species.

LESSON CXXXVI

THE GOLDENROD

_Leading thought_--In the goldenrod the flower-heads or families are so small that, in order to attract the attention of the insects, they are set closely together along the stem to produce a mass of color.

_Method_--Bring to the school-room any kind of goldenrod, and give the lesson on the flowers there. This should be followed by a field excursion to get as many kinds of goldenrod as possible. The following observations will bring out differences in well-marked species:

_Observations_--1. Use Lesson CXXXV to study the flower. How many banner-flowers in the family? How many disk-flowers? Are the banners arranged as regularly around the edges as in the asters and daisies? How are the flower-heads set upon the stems? Which flower-heads open first--those at the base or at the tip of the stem? Do the upper stems of the plant blossom before those lower down?

2. Do the stems bearing flowers come from the axils of the leaves? What is the general shape of the flower branches? Do they come off evenly at each side, or more at one side? Are the flower branches long or short? Make a sketch of the general shape of the goldenrod you are studying.

3. Is the stem smooth, downy, or covered with bloom? What is its color? In cross-section, is it circular or angular?

4. What is the shape and form of the edges of the lower leaves? The upper ones? Are they set with, or without, petioles on the stem? Do they have a heart-shaped base? Are the leaves smooth or downy? Are they light, or dark green?

5. _Field notes._ Where do you find the goldenrod growing? Do you find one kind growing alone or several kinds growing together? Do you find any growing in the woods? If so, how do they differ in shape from those in the field?

6. How many kinds of insects do you find visiting goldenrod flowers? How many kinds of galls do you find on the goldenrod stems and leaves?

7. Study the goldenrods in November. Describe their seeds and how they are scattered.

* * * * *

“_I am alone with nature,
With the soft September day;
The lifting hills above me,
With goldenrod are gay.
Across the fields of ether
Flit butterflies at play;
And cones of garnet sumac
Glow down the country way._

“_The autumn dandelion
Beside the roadway burns;
Above the lichened boulders
Quiver the plumèd ferns.
The cream-white silk of the milkweed
Floats from its sea-green pod;
From out the mossy rock-seams
Flashes the goldenrod._”
--MARY CLEMMER AMES.

THE ASTERS

_Teacher’s Story_

Let us believe that the scientist who gave to the asters their Latin name was inspired. Aster means _star_ and these, of all flowers, are most starlike; and in beautiful constellations they border our fields and woodsides. The aster combination of colors is often exquisite. Many have the rays or banners lavender, oar-shaped and set like the rays of a star around the yellow disk-flowers; these latter send out long, yellow anther tubes, overflowing with yellow pollen, and add to the stellar appearance of the flower-head.

“And asters by the brookside make asters in the brook.”

Thus sang H. H. of these beautiful masses of autumn flowers. But if H. H. had attempted to distinguish the species, she would have said rather that asters by the brookside make more asters in the book: for Gray’s Manual assures us that we have 77 species including widely different forms, varying in size, color and also as to the environment in which they will grow. They range from the shiftless woodland species, which has a few whitish ray-flowers hanging shabbily about its yellow disk and with great, coarse leaves on long, gawky petioles climbing the zigzag stem, to the beautiful and dignified New England aster, which brings the glorious purple and orange of its great flower-heads to decorate our hills in September and October.

Luckily, there are a few species which are fairly well marked, and still more luckily, it is not of any consequence whether we know the species or not, so far as our enjoyment of the flowers themselves is concerned. The outline of this lesson will call the attention of the pupils to the chief points of difference and likeness in the aster species, and they will thus learn to discriminate in a general way. The asters, like the goldenrods, begin to bloom at the tip of the branches, the flower-heads nearest the central stem, blooming last. All of the asters are very sensitive, and the flower-heads will close promptly as soon as they are gathered. The ray or banner-flowers are pistillate, and therefore develop seed. The seed has attached to its rim a ring of pappus, and is ballooned to its final destination. In November, the matured flower-heads are fuzzy, with seeds ready for invitations from any passing wind to fly whither it listeth.

LESSON CXXXVII

THE ASTERS

_Leading thought_--There are very many different kinds of asters, and they all have their flowers arranged similarly to those of the sunflower.

_Method_--Have the pupils collect as many kinds of asters as possible, being careful to get the basal leaves and to take notes on where each kind was found--that is, whether in the woodlands, by the brooksides or in the open fields. This lesson should follow that on the sunflower.

_Observations_--1. What was the character of the soil and surroundings where this aster grew? Were there large numbers of this kind growing together? Were the flowers wide open when you gathered them? How soon did they close?

2. How high did the plants stand when growing? Were there many flowers, or few, on each plant?

3. Study the lower and the upper leaves. Describe each as follows: the shape, the size, the edges, the way it was joined to the stem.

4. Is the stem many-branched or few? Do the branches bearing flowers extend in all directions? Are the stems hairy or smooth, and what is their color?

5. What is the diameter of the single flower-head? What is the color of the ray-flowers? How many ray or banner-flowers are there? What is the shape of a single banner as compared with that of a sunflower? What are the colors of the disk-flowers? Of the pollen? Do the disk-flowers change color after blossoming?

6. Look at the bracts below the flower-head. Are they all the same shape? What is their color? Do they have recurved tips or do they overlap closely? Are they sticky?

7. Take the aster flower-head apart and look at it with a lens. In a disk-flower, note the young seed, the pappus, the tubular five-parted corolla, the anther tube and the stigmas. In the ray-flower, find the young seed, the pappus and the stigma.

8. Watch the bees working on asters, and find where they thrust their tongues to reach the nectar.

9. Study an aster plant in November, and describe the seeds and how they are scattered.

Photo by Verne Morton.]

THE WHITE DAISY

_Teacher’s Story_

1, Disk-flower in pollen-stage;
2, Disk-flower in stigma-stage;
3, Ray-flower. All enlarged. ]

Every child loves this flower, and yet it is not well understood; it is always at hand for study from June until the frosts have laid waste the fields. However much enjoyment we get from the study of this beautiful flower-head, we should study the plant as a weed also, for it is indeed a pest to those farmers who do not practice a rotation of crops. Its root is long and tenacious of the soil, and it ripens many seeds which mingle with the grass seed, and thus the farmer sows it to his own undoing. The bracts of the involucre, or the shingles of the daisy-house, are rather long, and have parchment like margins. They overlap in two or three rows. In the daisy flower-head, the banner-flowers are white; there may be twenty or thirty of these, making a beautiful frame for the golden-yellow disk-flowers. The banner is rather broad, is veined, and toothed at the tip. The banner-flower has a pistil which shows its two-parted stigma at the base of the banner, and it matures a seed. The disk-flowers are brilliant yellow, tubular, rather short, with the five points of the corolla curling back. The anther-tubes and the pollen are yellow, so are the stigmas. The arrangement of the buds at the center is exceedingly pretty. The flowers develop no pappus, and therefore the seeds have no balloons. They depend upon the ignorance and helplessness of man to scatter their seeds far and wide with the grass and clover seed, which he sows for his own crops. It was thus that it came to America, and in this manner still continues to flaunt its banners in our meadows and pastures. The white daisy is not a daisy, but a chrysanthemum. It has never been called by this name popularly, but has at least twenty other common names, among them the ox-eye daisy, moon-penny, and herb-Margaret.

LESSON CXXXVIII

THE WHITE DAISY

_Leading thought_--The white-daisy is not a single flower but is made up of many little flowers and should be studied by the outline given in Lesson CXXXV.

THE YELLOW DAISY, OR BLACK-EYED SUSAN

_Teacher’s Story_

These beautiful, showy flowers have rich contrasts in their color scheme. The ten to twenty ray flowers wave rich, orange banners around the cone of purple-brown disk-flowers. The banners are notched and bent downward at their tips; each banner-flower has a pistil, and develops a seed. The disk-flowers are arranged in a conical, button-like center; the corollas are pink-purple at the base of the tube, but their five recurved, pointed lobes are purple-brown. The anther-tube is purple-brown and the stigmas show the same color; but the pollen is brilliant orange, and adds much to the beauty of the rich, dark florets when it is pushed from the anther-tubes. There is no pappus developed, and the seeds are carried as are the seeds of the white daisy, by being harvested with the seeds of grain.

The stem is strong and erect; the bracts of the involucre, or “shingles”, are long, narrow and hairy, the lower ones being longer and wider than those above; they all spread out flat, or recurve below the open flower-head. In blossoming, first the ray-flowers spread wide their banners; then the flowerets around the base of the cone open and push out their yellow pollen through the brown tubes; then day by day the blossoming circle climbs toward the apex--a beautiful way of blossoming upward.

LESSON CXXXIX

THE BLACK-EYED SUSAN

_Leading thought_--This flower should be studied by the outline given in Lesson CXXXV.

THE THISTLE

_Teacher’s Story_

On looking at the thistle from its own standpoint, we must acknowledge it to be a beautiful and wonderful plant. It is like a knight of old encased in armor and with lance set, ready for the fray. The most impressive species is the great pasture, or bull, thistle (_C. pumilis_), which has a blossom-head three inches across. This is not so common as the lance-leaved thistle, which ornaments roadsides and fence corners, where it may remain undisturbed for the necessary second year of growth before it can mature its seeds. The most pernicious species, from the farmer’s standpoint, is the Canada thistle. Its roots are perennial, and they invade garden, grain field and meadow. They creep for yards in all directions, just deep enough to be sure of moisture, and send up new plants here and there, especially if the main stalk is cut off. Roots severed by the plow, send up shoots from both of the broken parts. Not so with the common thistle, which has a single main root, with many fibrous and clustered branches but with no side shoots.

The stalk of the lance-leaved thistle is strong and woody, and is closely hugged by pricky leaf stems, except for a few inches above the root. The leaves are placed alternately on the stalk; they are deep green, covered above with rough and bristling hairs, and when young are covered on the under side with soft, gray wool which falls away later. The spines grow on the edges of the leaves, which are deeply lobed and are also somewhat wavy and ruffled, thus causing the savage spears to meet the enemy in any direction. The ribs and veins are without spines. Small buds or branches may be found at the axils of the leaves; and if a plant is beheaded, those axiliary buds nearest the top of the stem will grow vigorously.

The thistle flowers are purple in color and very fragrant; they grow in single heads at the summit of the stalk, and from the axils of the upper leaves. The topmost heads open first. Of the individual flowers in the head, those of the outer rows first mature and protrude their pistils; the pollen grains are white. In each flower, the corolla is tube-shaped and purple, parting into five fringelike lobes at the top, and fading to white at its nectar-filled base.

The stamens have dark purple anthers, united in a tube in which their pollen is discharged. The pistil, ripening later, shoves out the pollen with its stigma, which at first is blunt at the end, its two-parted lips so tightly held together that not a grain of its own flower’s pollen can be taken. But when thrust far out beyond the anther-tube, the two-parted stigma opens to receive the pollen which is brought by the many winged visitors; for of all flowers, the thistles with their abundant nectar are the favorites of insects. Butterflies of many species, moths, beetles and bees--especially the bumblebees--are the happy guests of the thistle blooms.

The thistles believe in large families; a single head of the lance-leaved thistle has been known to have 116 seeds. The seeds are oblong, pointed, little akenes, with hard shells. Very beautiful and wonderful is the pappus of the thistle; it is really the calyx of the flower, its tube being a narrow collar, and the lobes are split up into the silken floss. At the larger end of the seed is a circular depression with a tiny hub at its center; into this ring, and around the knob, is fitted the collar which attaches the down to the seed. Hold the balloon between the eye and the light, and it is easy to see that the down is made of many-branched plumes which interlace and make it more buoyant. When first taken from its crowded position on the flower-head, the pappus surrounds the corolla in a straight, close tube; but if placed for just a few moments in the sun, the threads spread, the filmy branchlets open out, and a fairy parachute is formed, with the seed hanging beneath; if no breath of air touches it while spreading, it will sometimes form a perfect funnel; when blown upon, some of the silken threads lose their places on the rim and rise to the center. When driven before the breeze, this balloon will float for a long distance. When it falls, it lets go of the seed as the wind moves it along the rough surface of the ground, and when it is thus unburdened the down fluffs out in every direction, making a perfect globe.

For the first season after the seed has rooted, the thistle develops only rosettes, meanwhile putting down roots and becoming permanently established. The next season, the flowers and seeds are developed, and then the plant dies. Would that this fact were true of the Canada thistle; but that, unfortunately, is perennial, and its persistent roots can only be starved out by keeping the stalks cut to the ground for the entire season. This thistle trusts to its extensively creeping rootstocks more than to its seeds for retaining its foothold and for spreading. While it develops many seed balloons, a large number of its seeds are infertile and will not grow.

LESSON CXL

THE COMMON, OR LANCE-LEAVED, THISTLE

_Leading thought_--The thistle is covered with sharp spines, and these serve to protect it from grazing animals. It has beautiful purple flowers, arranged in heads similar to those of the sunflower.

Drawing by W. C. Baker.]

_Method_--A thistle plant brought into the schoolroom--root and all--and placed in water will serve well for this lesson. The questions should be given the pupils as to where thistles are found. Any thistle will do for the lesson.

_Observations_--1. Where do you find the thistles growing? Do you find more than one species growing thickly together? Do you find any of the common thistles growing in soil which has been cultivated this season?

2. Describe the stalk, is it smooth? Is it weak or strong and woody? What sort of root has it?

3. Do the leaves grow alternately or opposite? Are they smooth or downy on one or both sides? Do the spines grow around the margins, or on the leaves and veins? Are the leaf edges flat, or wavy and ruffled?

4. How does this affect the direction in which the spines point? Are the leaves entire or deeply lobed? Have they petioles, or are they attached directly to the stalk?

5. Note if any buds or small branches nestle in the axils of the lower leaves. What effect does cutting the main stalk seem to have on each side shoot?

6. Do the flower-heads of the thistle grow singly or in clusters? Do they come from the summit of the stalk, or do they branch from its sides? Which blossom-heads open first--the topmost or those lowest on the stalk? Are the flowers fragrant? What insects do you most often see visiting thistle blossoms for pollen or nectar? Study the thistle flower according to Lesson CXXXV.

7. Carefully study a thistle balloon. How is the floss attached to the seed? Is it attached to the smaller, or the larger end? Hold the thistle balloon between your eye and the light. Does the down consist of single separate hairs, or have they many fine branches? How is the down arranged when all the flowers are packed together in the thistle-head? Take a seed from among its closely packed fellows in the thistle-head, and put it in the sun or in a warm, dry place where it cannot blow away. How long does it take for the balloon to open out? What is its shape? Is there any down at the center of the balloon or is it arranged in a funnel-shaped ring? Can you find a perfectly globular thistle balloon with the seeds still attached to it? How far do you think the thistle balloons might travel?

8. If a thistle seed finds a place for planting during the autumn, how does the young plant look the next season? Describe the thistle rosette. What growth does it make the second summer? What happens to it then?

9. Why can you not cultivate out the Canada thistles as you can the other species?

THE BURDOCK

TEACHER’S STORY

Psychologists say that all young things are selfish, and the young burdock is a shining example of this principle. Its first leaves are broad and long, with long petioles by means of which they sprawl out from the growing stem in every direction, covering up and choking out all the lesser plants near them. In fact, the burdock remains selfish in this respect always, for its great basal leaves see to it that no other plants shall get the good from the soil near its own roots. One wonders at first how a plant with such large leaves can avoid shading itself; but there are some people very selfish toward the world who are very thoughtful of their own families, and the burdock belongs to this class. We must study carefully the arrangement of its leaves in order to understand its cleverness. The long basal leaves are stretched out flat; the next higher, somewhat smaller ones are lifted at a polite angle so as not to stand in their light. This courtesy characterizes all the leaves of the plant, for each higher leaf is smaller and has a shorter petiole, which is lifted at a narrower angle from the stalk; and all the leaves are so nicely adjusted as to form a pyramid, allowing the sunlight to sift down to each part. While some of the uppermost leaves may be scarcely more than an inch long, the lower ones are very large. They are pointed at the tip and wide at the base; where the leaf joins the petiole it is irregular, bordered for a short distance on each side with a vein, and then finished with a “flounce”, which is so full that it even reaches around the main stem--another device for getting more sunlight for itself and shutting it off from plants below. On the lower side, the leaf is whitish and feltlike to the touch; above it is a raw green, often somewhat smooth and shining. The leaf is in quality poor, coarse and flimsy, and it hangs--a web of shoddy--on its strong supporting ribs; lucky for it that its edges are slightly notched and much ruffled, else they would be torn and tattered. The petiole and stems are felty in texture; the petiole is grooved, and expands at its base to grasp the stems on both sides with a certain vicious pertinacity which characterizes the whole plant.

The flower-heads come off at the axils of the upper leaves, and are often so crowded that the leaf is almost lost to sight. It is amazing to behold the number of flower-heads which develop on one thrifty plant. The main stem and the pyramid of lower branching stems, are often crowded with the green balls beset with bracts which are hooked, spiny, and which hold safe the flowers. This composite flower-house is a fortress bristling with spears which are not changed to peaceful pruning-hooks, although they are hooked at the sharp end, every hook turning toward the flowers at the center; the lower bracts are shorter and stand out at right angles, while the others come off at lesser angles, graded so as to form a globular involucre--a veritable block-house. The flower might be a tidbit for the grazing animal; but, if so, he has never discovered it, for these protective hooks have kept him from ever enjoying a taste. The bracts protect, not only by hooks at the tip, but by spreading out at the bases so as to make a thickly battened dwelling for the flower-family.

But if we tear open one of these little fortresses, we are well repaid in seeing the quite pretty florets. The corollas are long, slender, pink tubes, with five, pointed lobes. The anther-tubes are purple, the pistils and the stigmas white; the stigmas are broad and feathery when they are dusting out the pollen from the anther-tubes, but later they change to very delicate pairs of curly Y’s. The young seed is shining white, and the pappus forms a short, white fluff at the upper margin; but this is simply a family trait, for the burdock seeds never need to be ballooned to their destination; they have a surer method of travel. When in full bloom, the burdock flower heads are very pretty and the skillful child weaver makes them into beautiful baskets. When I was a small girl, I made whole sets of furniture from these flowers; and then, becoming more ambitious, wove some into a coronet which I wore proudly for a few short hours, only to discover later, from my own experience, that great truth which Shakespeare voiced,--“uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

In winter, the tough, gray stalks of the burdock still stand; although they may partially break, if they can thus better accomplish their purpose,--always falling toward the path. In this way, they may be sure of inserting the hooks of their seed storehouses into the clothing or covering of the passer-by; and when one gets a hold, mayhap a dozen others will hold hands and follow. If they catch the tail of horse or cow, then indeed they must feel their destiny fulfilled; for the animal, switching about with its uneasy appendage, threshes out the seeds, and unheedingly plants them by trampling them into the ground. Probably some of the livestock of our Pilgrim Fathers came to America thus burdened; for the burdock is a European weed, although now it flourishes too successfully in America. The leaves of the burdock are bitter, and are avoided by grazing animals. Fortunately for us, certain flies and other insects like their bitter taste, and lay eggs upon them, which hatch into larvæ that live all their lives between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf. Often the leaves are entirely destroyed by the minute-larvæ of a fly, which live together cozily between these leaf blankets, giving the leaves the appearance of being afflicted with large blisters.

The burdocks have long vigorous taproots, and it is therefore difficult to eradicate them without much labor. But persistent cutting off the plant at the root will, if the cut be deep, finally discourage this determined weed.

LESSON CXLI

THE BURDOCK

_Leading thought_--The burdock wins because its great leaves shade down plants in its vicinity, and also by having taproots. It scatters its seed by hooking its seed-heads fast to the passer-by.

_Method_--Study a healthy burdock plant in the field, to show how it shades down other plants and does not shade itself. The flowers and the seed-heads may be brought into the schoolroom for detailed study.

_Observations_--1. Note a young plant. How much space does its leaves cover? Is anything growing beneath them? How are its leaves arranged to cover so much space? Of what advantage is this to the plant?

2. Study the full-grown plant. How are the lower leaves arranged? At what angles to the stalks do the petioles lie? Are the upper leaves as large as the lower ones? Do they stand at different angles to the stalk?

3. Study the arrangement of leaves on a burdock plant, to discover how it manages to shade down other plants with its leaves and yet does not let its own upper leaves shade those below.

4. Study a lower and an upper leaf. What is the general shape? What peculiarity where it joins the petiole? What is the texture of the leaf above and below? The color? Describe the petiole and how it joins the stem.

5. Where do the flowers appear on the stem? Are there many flowers developed? Count all the flower-heads on a thrifty burdock.

6. The burdock has its flowers gathered into families, like the sunflower and thistle. Describe the burdock flower-family according to Lesson CXXXV.

7. What insects visit the burdock flowers? Can you make baskets from the flower-heads?

8. Study the burdock again in winter, and see what has happened to it. Describe the seed and the seed-heads. How are the seed-heads carried far away from the parent plant? How many seeds in a single “house?” How do they escape?

9. Write the biography of a burdock plant which came to America as a seed, attached to the tail of a Shetland pony.

PRICKLY LETTUCE, A COMPASS PLANT

_Teacher’s Story_

Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]

The more we know of plants, the more we admire their ways of attaining success in a world where it is only attained by a species after a long struggle. While plants may not be conscious of their own efforts for living on successfully, they have developed them just the same, and they merit our admiration perhaps even more, than as if their strategy was the result of conscious thought. The prickly lettuce has a story to tell us about success attained by the prevention of exhaustion from thirst. In fact, the success of this weed depends much upon its being able to live in dry situations and withstand the long droughts of late summer. The pale green stems grow up slim and tall, bearing leaves arranged alternately and from all sides, since between two, one of which is exactly above the other, two other leaves are borne. Thus, if the leaves stood out naturally, the shape of the whole plant would be a somewhat blunt pyramid. But during the hot, dry weather, the leaves do not stand out straight from the stem; instead, they twist about so that they are practically all in one plane, and usually point north and south, although this is not invariably the case. The way this twisting is accomplished is what interests us in this plant. The long spatulate leaf has a thick, fleshy midrib, and at the base are developed two pointed lobes which clasp the stalk. The leaf is soft and leathery and always seems succulent, because it retains its moisture; it has a ruffled edge near its base, which gives it room for turning without tearing its margin. Each leaf tips over sidewise toward the stem, and as far as necessary to bring one edge uppermost. Thus the sun cannot reach its upper surface to pump water from its tissues. The ruffled margin of the upper edge is pulled out straight when the leaf stands in this position, while the lower margin is more ruffled than ever. Thus, it stands triumphantly, turning edgewise to the sun, retaining its moisture and thriving when cultivated plants are dry and dying.

It also has another “anchor to the windward.” A plant so full of juice would prove attractive food for cattle when pastures are dry. The leaves of this perhaps escape, because each has a row of very sharp spines on the lower side of the midrib. At first we might wonder why they are thus placed; but if we watch a grazing animal, as a cow, reach out her tongue to pull the herbage into her mouth, we see that these spines are placed where they will do the most efficient work. The teasel has the same clever way of warning off meddlesome tongues. The prickly lettuce also has spines on its stem, and the leaves are toothed with spines at their points.

LESSON CXLII

PRICKLY LETTUCE

_Leading thought_--The sunshine sets the machinery in the leaf-factories going, and incidentally pumps up water from the soil, which pours out into the air from the leaves; but if the soil is dry the pump works just the same, and the plant thus robbed of its water soon withers and dies. The young plants of wild lettuce prevent the sun from pumping them dry during drought, by turning the edges of their leaves toward the sun, and thus not exposing the leaf surface to its rays. The leaves thus lifted stand in one plane. They are usually directed north and south. The lettuce also has spines to protect it from grazing animals.

_Method_--The lettuce should be studied in the field, and is a good subject for a lesson in late summer or September. This lesson should supplement the one on transpiration. The young plants show this arrangement of the leaves best. The flowers may be studied by the outline given in Lesson CXXXV.

_Observations_--1. Where does the prickly lettuce grow? What sort of a stem has it? How are the leaves arranged on the stem?

2. If the leaves stood straight out from the stem, what would be the shape of the plant? How do the leaves stand? Is their upper surface exposed to the rays of the sun? Which portion of the leaf is turned toward the sun?

3. If the leaves turn sideways and stand in one plane, do they stand north and south or east and west. How does the edgewise position of the leaf protect the plant during drought? Why does any plant wither during drought? If the leaves of the lettuce should extend east and west instead of north and south, would they get more sun? (See lesson on the Sun.)

4. What is the shape of the lettuce leaf? How does it clasp the stalk? How is the base shaped so that the leaf can turn without tearing its edges? Sketch a leaf thus turned fully, showing how it is done. Does the leaf turn toward the stem or away from it?

5. How are the leaves protected against grazing cattle? How does the cow use her tongue to help bring herbage to her mouth? How are the prickly spines placed on the lettuce leaf, to make the cow’s tongue uncomfortable? Sketch a leaf showing its shape, its venation and its spines.

THE DANDELION

_Teacher’s Story_

This is the most persistent and indomitable of weeds, yet I think the world would be very lonesome without its golden flower-heads and fluffy seed-spheres. Professor Bailey once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure. And Lowell says of this “dear common flower”--

“_Tis Spring’s largess, which she scatters now
To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand;
Though most hearts never understand
To take it at God’s value, and pass by
The offered wealth with unrewarded eye._”

It is very difficult for us, when we watch the behavior of the dandelions, not to attribute to them thinking power, they have so many ways of getting ahead of us. I always look at a dandelion and talk to it as if it were a real person. One spring when all the vegetables in my garden were callow weaklings, I found there, in their midst, a dandelion rosette with ten great leaves spreading out and completely shading a circle ten inches in diameter; I said, “Look here, Madam, this is my garden!” and I pulled up the squatter. But I could not help paying admiring tribute to the taproot, which lacked only an inch of being a foot in length. It was smooth, whitish, fleshy and, when cut, bled a milky juice showing that it was full of food; and it was as strong from the end-pull as a whipcord; it also had a bunch of rather fine rootlets about an inch below the surface of the soil and an occasional rootlet farther down; and then I said “Madam, I beg your pardon; I think this was your garden and not mine.”

Dandelion leaves afford an excellent study in variation of form. The edges of the leaf are notched in a peculiar way, so that the lobes were, by some one, supposed to look like lions’ teeth in profile; thus the plant was called in France “dents-de-lion” (teeth of the lion), and we have made from this the name dandelion. The leaves are so bitter that grazing animals do not like to eat them, and thus the plants are safe even in pastures.

The hollow stem of the blossom-head from time immemorial has been a joy to children. It may be made into a trombone, which will give to the enterprising teacher an opportunity for a lesson in the physics of sound, since by varying its length, the pitch is varied. The dandelion-curls, which the little girls enjoy making, offer another lesson in physics--that of surface tension, too difficult for little girls to understand. But the action of this flower stem is what makes the dandelion seem so endowed with acumen. If the plant is in a lawn, the stem is short, indeed so short that the lawn-mower cannot cut off the flower-head. In this situation it will blossom and seed within two inches of the ground; but if the plant is in a meadow or in other high grass, the stem lifts up sometimes two feet or more, so that its blossom may be seen by bees and its seeds be carried off by the breeze without let or hindrance from the grass. We found two such stems each measuring over 30 inches in height.

Before a dandelion head opens, the stem, unless very short, is likely to bend down to protect the young flowers, but the night before it is to bloom it straightens up; after the blossoms have matured it may again bend over, but straightens up when the seeds are to be cast off.

It often requires an hour for a dandelion head to open in the morning and it rarely stays open longer than five or six hours; it may require another hour to close. Usually not more than half the flowers of the head open the first day, and it may require several days for them all to blossom. After they have all bloomed and retired into their green house and put up the shutters, it may take them from one to two weeks to perfect their seeds.

In the life of the flower-head the involucre, or the house in which the flower family lives, plays an important part. The involucral bracts, in the row set next to the flowers, are sufficiently long to cover the unopened flowers; the bracts near the stem are shorter and curl back, making a frill. In the freshly opened flower-head, the buds at the middle all curve slightly toward the center, each bud showing a blunt, five-lobed tip which looks like the tips of five fingers held tightly together. The flowers in the outer row blossom first, straightening back and pushing the banner outward; and now we can see that the five lobes in the bud are the five notches at the end of the banner. All the flowers in the dandelion-head have banners, but those at the center, belonging to the younger flowers, have shorter and darker yellow banners. After a banner is unfurled, there pushes out from its tubular base a darker yellow anther-tube; the five filaments below the tube are visible with a lens. A little later, the stigma-ramrod pushes forth from the tube, its fuzzy sides acting like a brush to bring out all the pollen; later it rises far above the anther-tube and quirls back its stigma-lobes, as if every floret were making a dandelion curl of its own. The lens shows us, below the corolla, the seed. The pappus is not set in a collar upon the dandelion seed, as it is in the aster seed; there is a short stem above the seed which is called the “beak” and the pappus is attached to this.

Every day more blossoms open; but on dark, rainy days and during the night the little green house puts up its shutters around the flower-family, and if the bracts are not wide enough to cover the growing family, the banners of the outer flowers have thick or brownish portions along their lower sides which serve to calk the chinks. It is interesting to watch the dandelion stars close as the night falls, and still more interesting to watch the sleepy-heads awaken long after the sun is up in the morning; they often do not open until eight o’clock. The dandelion flower-families are very economical of their pollen and profuse nectar, and do not expose them until the bees and other insects are abroad ready to make morning calls.

After all the florets of a dandelion family have blossomed, they retire again into their green house and devote themselves to perfecting their seeds. They may stay thus in retirement for several days, and during this period the flower stem often grows industriously; and when the shutters of the little green house are again let down, what a different appearance has the dandelion family! The seeds with their balloons are set so as to make an exquisite, filmy globe; and now they are ready to coquette with the wind and, one after another, all the balloons go sailing off. One of these seeds is well worth careful observation through a lens. The balloon is attached to the top of the beak as an umbrella frame is attached to the handle, except that the “ribs” are many and fluffy; while the dandelion youngster, hanging below, has an overcoat armed with grappling hooks, which enable it to cling fast when the balloon chances to settle to the ground.

Father Tabb says of the dandelion,--“With locks of gold today; tomorrow silver gray; then blossom bald.” But not the least beautiful part of the dandelion is this blossom-bald head after all the seeds are gone; it is like a mosaic, with a pit at the center of each figure where the seed was attached. There is an interesting mechanism connected with this receptacle. Before the seeds are fully out this soon-to-be-bald head is concave at the center, later it becomes convex, and the mechanism of this movement liberates the seeds which are embedded in it.

Each freshly opened corolla-tube is full to overflowing with nectar, and much pollen is developed; therefore, the dandelion has many kinds of insect visitors. But perhaps the bee shows us best where the nectar is found; she thrusts her tongue down into the little tubes below the banners, working very rapidly from floret to floret. The dandelion stigmas have a special provision for securing cross-pollenation; and if that fails, to secure pollen from their own flower-family; and now the savants have found that the pistils can also grow seeds without any pollen from anywhere. It surely is a resourceful plant!

The following are the tactics by which the dandelion conquers us and takes possession of our lands: (a) It blossoms early in the spring and until snow falls, producing seed for a long season. (b) It is broadminded as to its location, and flourishes on all sorts of soils. (c) It thrusts its long tap-roots down into the soil, and thus gets moisture and food not reached by other plants. (d) Its leaves spread out from the base, and crowd and shade many neighboring plants out of existence. (e) It is on good terms with many insects, and so has plenty of pollen carriers to insure strong seeds; it can also develop seeds from its own pollen, and as a last resort it can develop seeds without any pollen. (f) It develops almost numberless seeds, and the wind scatters them far and wide and they thus take possession of new territory. (g) It forms vigorous leaf-rosettes in the fall, and thus is able to begin growth early in the spring.

LESSON CXLIII

THE DANDELION

_Leading thought_--The dandelions flourish despite our determined efforts to exterminate them. Let us study the way in which they conquer.

_Method_--The study should be made with the dandelions on the school grounds. Questions should be given, a few at a time, and then let the pupils consult the dandelions as to the answers.

The dandelion is a composite flower and may be studied according to Lesson CXXXV. All the florets have banners or rays.

_Observations_--1. Where do you find dandelions growing? If they are on the lawn, how long are their blossom or seed stems? If in a meadow or among high grass, how long is the blossom stem? Why is this? Is the blossom stem solid or hollow? Does it break easily?

2. Dig up a dandelion root and then explain why this weed withstands drought, and why it remains, when once planted.

3. Sketch or describe a dandelion leaf. Why was the plant named “lion’s teeth?” How are the leaves arranged about the root? How does this help the dandelion and hinder other plants? In what condition do the leaves pass the winter under the snow? Why is this useful to the plant?

4. Take a blossom not yet open. Note the bracts that cover the unopened flower-head. Note the ones below and describe them.

5. Note the dandelion flower-head just open. Which flowers open first? How do the buds look at the center? Do all the florets have banners? Are the banners of the central florets the same color and length as of those outside? Examine a floret and note the young seed. Is the pappus attached to it or above it?

6. What happens to the dandelion blossom on rainy or dark days? How is the dandelion family hidden during the rain? When does it appear again? Do you think that this has anything to do with the insect visitors? Do bees and other insects gather nectar during dark or rainy days?

7. Note at what hour the dandelions on the lawn go to sleep and at what hour they awaken on pleasant days?

8. Make notes on a certain dandelion plant three times a day: How long does it take the dandelion head to open fully on a sunny morning? How long does it remain open? How long does it take the flower-head to close? What proportion of the flowers in the head, blossoms during the first day? What proportion of the flowers in the head, blossoms during the second day? How long before they all blossom? Does the flower-head remain open longer in the afternoon on some days than on others, equally sunny? Does the stem bend over before the blossom-head opens?

9. After all the little flowers of a dandelion family have blossomed, what happens to it? How long does it stay shut up in its house? Measure the stem, and see if it stretches up during the time. How does the dandelion look when it opens again? Look at a dandelion-head full of seed, and see how the seeds are arranged to make a perfect globe. Shake the seeds off and examine the “bald head” with a lens. Can you see where the seeds were set?

10. Examine a dandelion seed with a lens. Describe the balloon, the beak or stem of the balloon, and the seed. Why do you suppose the seed has these hooks?

11. How early in the spring, and how late in the fall, do dandelions blossom?

12. Watch a bee when she is working on a dandelion flower, and see where she thrusts her tongue and which flowers she probes.

13. Tell all the things that you can remember which the dandelion does in order to live and thrive in spite of us.

14. What use do we make of the dandelions?

THE PEARLY EVERLASTING

_Teacher’s Story_

These wraithlike flowers seem never to have been alive, rather than to have been endowed with everlasting life. The cattle share this opinion and would no sooner eat these plants than if they were made of cotton batting. The stems are covered with white felt; the long narrow leaves are very pale green, and when examined with a lens, look as if they were covered with a layer of cotton which disguises all venation except the thick midrib. The leaves are set alternate, and become shorter and narrower and whiter toward the top of the plant, where they are obliged to give their sustenance to the flower stems borne in their axils. All this cottony covering has its uses to prevent the evaporation of water from the plant during the long droughts. The everlasting never has much juice in its leaves but what it has, it keeps.

Photo by Verne Morton.]

The flower stems are rather stout, woolly, soft and pliable. They come off at the axils of the threadlike whitish leaves. The pistillate and the staminate flowers are borne on separate plants, and usually in separate patches. The pistillate, or seed-developing, plants have globular flower buds, almost egg-shaped, with a fluffy lemon-yellow knob at the tip; this fluff is made up of stigmas split at the end. At the center of this tassel of lemon-yellow stigma-plush, may often be seen a depression; at the bottom of this well, there are three or four perfect flowers. One of the secrets of the everlasting is, evidently, that it does not put all of its eggs in one basket; it has a few perfect flowers for insurance. This pistillate or seed-bearing flower has a long, delicate tube, ending in five needlelike points and surrounded by a pretty pappus. The bracts of the flower-cluster seem to cling around the base of the beautiful yellow tassel of fertile flowers, as if to emphasize it. They look as if they were made of white Japanese paper, and when looked at through a lens, they resemble the petals of a water lily. They are dry to begin with, so they cannot wither.

The staminate, or pollen-bearing, flower-heads are like white birds’ nests, the white bracts forming the nest and the little yellow flowers the eggs. The flower has a tubular, five-pointed starlike corolla, with five stamens joined in a tube at the middle, standing up like a barrel from the corolla. The anther-tube is ocher-yellow with brown stripes, and is closed at first with five little flaps, making a cone at the top. Later, the orange-yellow pollen bulges out as if it were boiling over. The flowers around the edges of the flower-disk open first.

LESSON CXLIV

THE PEARLY EVERLASTING

_Leading thought_--There are often found growing on the poor soil in dry pastures, clumps of soft, whitish plants which are never eaten by cattle. There is so little juice in them that they retain their form when dried and thus have won their name.