Chapter XXXVI: Part III: Plant Life (6)

2. Take a crocus just pushing up out of its bulb. How many overcoats protect its leaves? What is at the very center of the bulb? Has the flower bud a special overcoat?

3. Describe the leaves. How are they folded in their overcoats? What color are they where they have pushed out above their overcoats? What color are they within the overcoats? Why?

4. Do the flowers or the leaves have stems, or do they arise directly from the bulb?

5. What is the shape of the open crocus flower? Can you tell the difference between sepals and petals in color? Can you tell the difference by their position? Or by their texture above or below? As you look into the flower, which make the points of the triangle, the sepals or the petals?

6. Describe the anthers. How long are they? How many are there? How do they open? What is the color of the pollen? Describe how a bee becomes dusted with pollen? Why does the bee visit the crocus blossom? If she finds nectar there, where is it?

7. Describe the stigma. Open a flower and see how long the style is? How do the sepals and petals unite to protect the style? Where is the seed-box? Is it so far down that it is below ground? How many seeds are developed from a single blossom?

8. How many colors do you find in the crocus flowers? Which are the prettiest in the lawn? Which, in the flower beds?

9. How do the crocus blossoms act in dark and stormy weather? When do they open? How does this benefit them?

10. How do the crocus bulbs multiply? Why do they lift themselves out of the ground and thus need resetting?

11. Describe how to raise crocuses best; the kind of soil, the time of planting, and the best situations.

* * * * *

_Out of the frozen earth below,
Out of the melting of the snow,
No flower, but a film, I push to light;
No stem, no bud--yet I have burst
The bars of winter, I am the first
O Sun, to greet thee out of the night!_

_Deep in the warm sleep underground
Life is still, and the peace profound:
Yet a beam that pierced, and a thrill that smote
Call’d me and drew me from far away;
I rose, I came, to the open day
I have won, unshelter’d, alone, remote._
--“THE CROCUS,” BY HARRIET E. H. KING.

_When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold,
Up through the still snow-drifted garden-mould,
And folded green things in dim woods unclose
Their crinkled spears, a sudden tremor goes
Into my veins and makes me kith and kin
To every wild-born thing that thrills and blows._
--“A TOUCH OF NATURE,” BY T. D. ALDRICH.

THE DAFFODILS AND THEIR RELATIVES

_Teacher’s Story_

“_Daffydown Dilly came up in the cold from the brown mold,
Although the March breezes blew keen in her face,
Although the white snow lay on many a place._”

Thus, it is that Miss Warner’s stanzas tell us the special reason we so love the daffodils. They bring the sunshine color to the sodden earth, when the sun is chary of his favors in our northern latitude; and the sight of the daffodils floods the spirit with a sense of sunlight.

The daffodils and their relatives, the jonquils and narcissus, are interesting when we stop to read their story in their form. The six segments of the perianth, or, as we would say, the three bright-colored sepals and the three inner petals of the flower, are different in shape; but they all look like petals and stand out in star-shape around the flaring end of the flower tube, which, because of its shape, is called the corona, or crown; however, it looks more like a stiff little petticoat extending out in the middle of the flower than it does like a crown. The crown is simply the widened end of the tube of the flower, as maybe seen by opening a flower lengthwise; the six seeming petals will peel off the tube, showing that they are fastened to the outside of it. When we look down into the crown of one of these flowers, we see the long style with its three-lobed stigma pushing out beyond the anthers, which are pressed close about it at the throat of the tube; between each two anthers may be seen a little deep passage, through which the tongues of the moth or butterfly can be thrust to reach the nectar. In a tube, slit open, we can see the nectar at the very bottom of it, and it is sweet to the taste and has a decided flavor. In this open tube we may see that the filaments of the stamens are grown fast to the sides of the tube for much of their length, enough remaining free to press the anthers close to the style. The ovary of the pistil is a green swelling at the base of the tube; by cutting it across we can see it is triangular in outline, and has a little cavity in each angle large enough to hold two rows of the little, white, shining, unripe seeds. Each of these cavities is partitioned from the others by a green wall; the partition is marked by a suture on the outside of the seed-pod.

a, corona or crown; b, sepals and petals forming perianth; c,
corolla tube; d, ovary or seed-case; e, sheath or spathe.
]

When the flower stalk first appears, it comes up like a sheathed sword, pointing toward the zenith, green, veined lengthwise, and with a noticeable thickening at each edge. As the petals grow, the sheath begins to round out; and then as if to confuse those people who are so stupid as to believe that plants do not really do things, the stiff stem at the base of the sheath bends at right angles. This brings a strain upon the sheath which bursts it, usually along the upper side, although sometimes it tears it off completely at the base. The slitted sheath, or spathe, hangs around the stem, wrinkled and parchment-like, very like the loose wrist of a suede glove. The stalk is a strong green tube; the leaves are fleshy and are grooved on the inner side, the groove being deep enough to clasp part way around the flower stem. The number of leaves varies with the variety, and they are usually as tall as the flower stalk. There is one flower on a stalk in the daffodils and the poet’s narcissus, but the jonquils and paper-white narcissus have two or more flowers on the same stalk.

A bed should be prepared by digging deep and fertilizing with stable manure. The bulbs should be planted in September or early October, and should be from four to six inches apart, the upper end of the bulbs at least four inches below the surface of the soil. They should not be disturbed but allowed to occupy the bed for a number of years, or as long as they give plenty of flowers. As soon as the surface of the ground is frozen in the winter, the beds should be covered from four to six inches in depth with straw-mixed stable manure, which can be raked off very early in the spring.

The new bulbs are formed at the sides of the old one; for this reason the daffodils will remain permanently planted, and do not lift themselves out of the ground like the crocuses. The leaves of the plant should be allowed to stand as long as they will after the flowers have disappeared, so that they may furnish the bulbs with plenty of food for storing. The seeds should not be allowed to ripen, as it costs the plant too much energy and thus robs the bulbs. The flowers should be cut just as they are opening. Of the white varieties, the poet’s narcissus is the most satisfactory, as it is very hardy and very pretty, its corona being a shallow, flaring, greenish yellow rosette with orange-red border, the anthers of its three longest stamens making a pretty center. No wonder Narcissus bent over the pool in joy at viewing himself, if he was as beautiful a man as the poet’s narcissus is as a flower.

LESSON CLI

DAFFODILS, JONQUILS AND NARCISSUS

_Leading thought_--The daffodil, jonquil and narcissus are very closely related, and quite similar. They all come from bulbs which should be planted in September; but after the first planting, they will flower on year after year, bringing much brightness to the gardens in the early spring.

_Method_--The flowers brought to school may be studied for form, and there should be a special study of the way the flower develops its seed, and how it is propagated by bulbs. The work should lead directly to an interest in the cultivation of the plants. In seedsmen’s catalogues or other books, the children will find methods of planting and cultivating these flowers in cities. Daffodils are especially adapted for both window gardens and school gardens.

_Observations_--1. Note the shape of the flower. Has it any sepals? What do we call the flowers that have their sepals colored like petals, thus forming a part of the beauty of the flower? Can you see any difference in color, position and texture between the petals and sepals?

2. How do the petal-like parts of these flowers look? How many of them are there? Do they make the most showy part of the flower?

3. What does the central part of the flower look like? Why is it called the corona, or crown? Is it a part of the tube which joins the flower to the stem? Do the petals and sepals peel off this tube? Peel them off one flower, and see that the tube is shaped like a trumpet.

4. Look down into the crown of the flower and tell what you see. Can you see where the insect’s tongue must go to reach the nectar?

5. Cut open a trumpet lengthwise to find where the nectar is. How far is it from the mouth of the tube? How long would the insect’s tongue have to be to reach it? What insects have tongues as long as this?

6. In order to reach the nectar how would an insect become dusted with pollen? Are the stamens loose in the flower-tube? Is the pistil longer than the stamens? How many parts to the stigma? Can you see how the flowers are arranged so that insects can carry pollen from flower to flower?

7. What is the green swelling in the stem at the base of the trumpet? Is it connected with the style? Cut it across and describe what you see. How do the young seeds look and how are they arranged?

8. Where the flower stem joins the stalk, what do you see? What is this dry spathe there for? Are there one or more flower stems coming from this spathe?

9. Describe the flower stalk? Are the leaves wide or narrow? Are they as long as the flower stalk, are they flat, or are they grooved to fit around the flower stalk?

10. What are the differences between daffodils, jonquils and poet’s narcissus? When should the bulbs for these flowers be planted? Will there be more bulbs formed around the one you plant? Will the same bulb ever send up flowers and leaves again? How do the bulbs divide to make new bulbs?

11. How should the bed for the bulbs be prepared? How near together should the bulbs be planted? How deep in the earth? How protect them in the North during the winter?

12. Why should you not cut the leaves off after the flowers have died? Why should you not let the seeds ripen? When should the flowers be cut for bouquets? Who was Narcissus, and why should these early spring flowers be named after him?

_Supplementary reading_--Green Things Growing, Mulock; The Daffodils, Wordsworth; The Story of Narcissus, Child’s Study of the Classics; Mary’s Garden, Duncan, Chapters XXVI and XXVII.

* * * * *

“_I emphatically deny the common notion that the farm boy’s
life is drudgery. Much of the work is laborious, and this it
shares with all work that is productive; for the easier the
job the less it is worth doing. But every piece of farm work
is also an attempt to solve a problem, and therefore it should
have its intellectual interest; and the problems are as many
as the hours of the day and as varied as the face of nature.
It needs but the informing of the mind and the quickening of
the imagination to raise any constructive work above the level
of drudgery. It is not mere dull work to follow the plow--I
have followed it day after day--if one is conscious of all
the myriad forces that are set at work by the breaking of the
furrow; and there is always the landscape, the free fields,
the clean soil, the rain, the promise of the crops. Of all
men’s labor, the farmer’s is the most creative. I cannot help
wondering why it is that men will eagerly seek work in the
grease and grime of a noisy factory, but will recoil at what
they call the dirty work of the farm. So much are we yet bound
by tradition!_”
--L. H. BAILEY.

THE TULIP

_Teacher’s Story_

We might expect that the Lady Tulip would be a stately flower, if we should consider her history. She made her way into Europe from the Orient during the sixteenth century, bringing with her the honor of being the chosen flower of Persia, where her colors and form were reproduced in priceless webs from looms of the most skilled weavers. No sooner was she seen than worshipped, and shortly all Europe was at her feet.

A hundred years later, the Netherlands was possessed with the tulip mania. Growers of bulbs, and brokers who bought and sold them, indulged in wild speculation. Rare varieties of the bulbs became more costly than jewels, one of the famous black tulips being sold for about $1800. Since then, the growing of tulips has been one of the noted industries of the Netherlands, and now the bulbs on our market are imported from Holland.

There are a great many varieties of tulips, and their brilliant colors make our gardens gorgeous in early spring. Although this flower is so prim, yet it bears well close observation. The three petals, or inner segments of the perianth, are more exquisite in texture and in satiny gloss on their inner surface than are the three outer segments or sepals; each petal is like grosgrain silk, the fine ridges uniting at the central thicker portion. In the red varieties, there is a six pointed star at the heart of the flower, usually yellow or yellow-margined, each point of the star being at the middle of a petal or sepal; the three points on the petals are longer than those on the sepals.

When the flower’s bud first appears, it is nestled down in the center of the plant, scarcely above the ground. It is protected by three green sepals. As it stretches up, the bud becomes larger and the green of the sepals takes on the color of the tulip flower, until when it opens there is little on the outside of the sepals to indicate that they once were green. But they still show that they are sepals, for they surround the petals, each standing out and making the flower triangular in shape as we look into it. During storms and dark days, the sepals again partially close about the flower.

The seed-vessel stands up, a stout, three-sided, pale green column at the center of the flower, in some varieties, its three-lobed yellowish stigma making a Doric capital; in others, the divisions are so curled as to make the capital almost Ionian. The six stout, paddle-shaped stamens have their bases expanded so as to encircle completely the base of the pistil column; these wide filaments are narrower just below the point where the large anthers join. The anther opens along each side to discharge the pollen; however, the anthers flare out around the seed vessel and do not reach half way to the stigma, which is probably the tulips’ way of inducing the insects to carry their pollen, since the bees cannot reach the nectar at the base of the pistil without dusting themselves with pollen.

The flower stem is stout, pale green, covered with a whitish bloom. The leaves are long, trough-shaped and narrow with parallel veins; the bases of the lower ones encircle the flower stem and have their edges more or less ruffled and their tips recurved; the upper leaves do not completely encircle the flower stem at their bases. The texture of the leaves is somewhat softer on the inside than on the outside, and both sides are grayish green.

After the petals and stamens are dropped the seed-vessel looks like an ornamental tip to the flower stem; it is three-sided, and has within double rows of seeds along each angle. The seeds should not be allowed to ripen as they thus take too much strength from the bulbs.

1, Tulip seed-capsule; 2, the same opened; 3, cross section of same.]

The bulb is formed of several coats, or layers, each of which extends upwards and may grow into a leaf; this shows that the bulb is made up of leaves which are thickened with the food which is stored up in them during one season, so as to start the plant growing early the next spring. In the heart of each bulb is a flower bud, sheltered and cuddled by the fleshy leaf-layers around it, which protect it during the winter and furnish it food in the spring. This structure of the bulb explains why the leaves clasp the flower stem at their bases. The true roots are below the bulb, making a thick tassel of white rootlets, which reach deep into the soil for food and water.

Tulips are very accommodating; they will grow in almost any soil if it is well drained, so that excessive moisture may not rot the bulbs. In preparing a bed, it should be rounded up so as to shed water; it should also be worked deep and made rich. If the soil is stiff and clayey, set bulbs only three inches deep, with a handful of sand beneath each. If the soil is mellow loam, set the bulbs four inches deep and from four to six inches apart each way, depending on the size of the bulbs. They should be near enough so that when they blossom the bed will be covered and show no gaps. Take care that the pointed tip of the bulb is upward and that it does not fall to one side as it is covered. October is the usual time for planting as the beds are often used for other flowers during the summer. However, September is not too early for the planting, as the more root growth made before the ground freezes, the better; moreover, the early buyers have best choice of bulbs. The beds should be protected by a mulch of straw or leaves during the winter, which should be raked off as soon as the ground is thawed in the spring. The blossoms should be cut as soon as they wither, in order that the new bulbs which form within and at the sides of the parent bulb may have all of the plant food, which would otherwise go to form seed. Tulips may be grown from seed, but it takes from five to seven years to obtain blossoms, which may be quite unlike the parent and worthless. The bulblets grow to a size for blooming in two or three years; the large one which forms in the center of the plant will bloom the next season.

Courtesy Doubleday, Page & Co.]

LESSON CLII

THE TULIPS

_Leading thought_--The tulips blossom early, because they have food stored in the bulbs the year before, ready to use early in the spring. There are many varieties; each is worth studying carefully, and we should all know how to grow these beautiful flowers.

_Methods_--These observations may be made upon tulips in school gardens or bouquets. The best methods of cultivating should be a part of the garden training. For this, consult the seed catalogues; also let the pupils form some idea of the number of varieties from the seed catalogues. Water-color drawings should be a large factor in studying the tulip. The red varieties are best for beginning the study, and then follow with the other colors; note differences.

_Observations_--1. What is the color of your tulip? Is it all the same color? Is the bottom of the flower different in color? What is the pretty shape of these different colors at the heart of the flower?

2. Look at a tulip just opening. What causes it to appear so triangular? Can you see that the three sepals are placed outside the petals? Is there any difference in color between the sepals and petals on the inside? On the outside? Are the sepals and petals the same in length and shape? Do you know the name given to this arrangement when sepals and petals look alike in color? Are the three petals more satiny on the inside than the sepals? Is the center part of the petal as soft as the edges?

3. When the tulip flower bud first begins to show, where is it? What color are the sepals which cover it? Describe the opening of the flower? Do the green sepals fall off? What becomes of them?

4. In the open flower, where is the seed-pod, and how does it look? How do the anthers surround the seed-pod, or ovary? Describe the anthers, or pollen-boxes? What color are they? What color is the pollen? Do the anthers reach up to the stigma, or tip of seed-pod? Where is the nectar in tulips? How do the insects become covered with the pollen in reaching it? Do the flowers remain open during dark and stormy days? Why?

5. Describe the tulip stem and the leaves. Do the leaves completely encircle the flower stem at the base? Are their edges ruffled? In the sprouting plant, do these outer basal leaves enfold the leaves which grow higher on the stem? Are the leaves the same color above and below? What shade of green are they?

6. After the petals have dropped, study the seed-pod. Cut it crosswise and note how many angles it has. How are these angles filled? Should tulips be allowed to ripen seeds? Why not?

7. Study a bulb of a tulip. There are outer and inner layers and a heart. What part of the plant do the outer layers make? What part does the center make? Where are the true roots of the tulip?

8. When should tulip bulbs be planted? How should you prepare the soil? How protect the bed during the winter? How long would it take to grow the flowers from the seed? Where are most of our bulbs grown? Do you know about the history of tulips?

_Supplementary reading_--Bulbs and Bulb-Culture, Peter Henderson; Plants and their Children, Dana, p. 216; Mary’s Garden and How It Grew, Duncan, Ch. XXVI; Bulbs and How to Grow Them, Doubleday-Page Co.

Drawn by Anna C. Stryke.]

THE PANSY

_Teacher’s Story_

Some people are pansy-faced and some pansies are human-faced, and for some occult reason this puts people and pansies on a distinctly chummy basis. When we analyze the pansy face, we find that the dark spots at the bases of the side petals make the eyes, the lines radiating from them looking quite eyelashy. The opening to the nectar-tube makes the nose, while the spot near the base of the lower petal has to do for a mouth, the nectar guiding-lines being not unlike whiskers. Meanwhile, the two upper petals give a “high-browed” look to the pansy countenance, and make it a wise and knowing little face.

The pansy nectar is hidden in the spur made by the lower petal extending behind the flower. The guiding lines on the lower and side petals all converge, pointing directly to the opening which leads to this nectar-well, telling the secret to every bee that flies. Moreover, the broad lower petal is a platform for the lady bee to alight upon, while she probes the nectar-well with her tongue.

But at the door leading to the nectar-well sits a little man; his head is green, he wears a white cape with a scalloped, reddish brown collar, and he sits with his bandy legs pushed back into the spur as if he were taking a foot bath in nectar. This little pansy man has plenty of work to do; for his mouth, which is large and at the top of his green head, is the stigma. The cape is made of five overlapping stamens, the brown, scalloped collar being the anthers; his legs consist of prolongations of the two lower stamens. And when the bee probes the nectar-well with her tongue, she tickles the little man’s feet so that his head and shoulders wriggle; and thus she brushes the pollen dust from his collar against her fuzzy face, and at the same time his mouth receives the pollen from her dusty coat.

As the pansy matures, the little man grows still more manlike; after a time he sheds his anther cape, and we can see that his body is the ribbed seed-pod. He did not eat pollen for nothing, for he is full of growing seeds. Sometimes the plush brushes, which are above his head in the pansy flower, become filled with pollen, and perhaps he gets a mouthful of it, although these brushes are supposed to keep out intruders.

The pansy sepals, five in number, are fastened at about one-third of their length, their heart-shaped bases making a little green ruffle around the stem where it joins the flower. There is one sepal above and two at each side, but none below the nectar-spur. The flower stem is quite short and always bends politely so the pansy can look sidewise at us instead of staring straight upward. The plant stem is angled and crooked and stout. In form, the leaves are most capricious; some are long and pointed, others wide and rounded. The edges are slightly scalloped and the leaf may have at its base a pair of large, deeply lobed stipules. In a whole pansy bed it would be quite impossible to find two leaves just alike.

The pansy ripens many seeds. The ribbed seed-capsule, with its base set comfortably in the faithful sepals, finally opens in three valves and the many seeds are scattered. To send them as far afield as possible, the edges of each valve of the pod curl inward, and snap the seeds out as boys snap apple seeds from the thumb and finger.

Pansies like deep, rich and cool, moist soil. They are best suited to a northern climate, and prefer the shady side of a garden to the full sunshine. The choice varieties are perpetuated through cuttings. They may be stuck in the open ground in summer in a half-shady place and should be well-watered in dry weather. All sorts of pansies are readily raised from seed sown in spring or early summer, and seedlings, when well established, do not suffer, as a rule, from winter frosts.

The general sowing for the production of early spring bloom is made out of doors in August, while seeds sown indoors from February to June will produce plants to flower intermittently during the late summer and fall months. When sowing pansy seed in August, sow the seed broadcast in a seed-bed out of doors, cover very lightly with fine soil or well-rotted manure, and press the seed in with a small board; then mulch the seed-bed with long, strawy horse manure, from which the small particles have been shaken off, to the thickness of one inch, so as to have the soil well and evenly covered. At the end of two weeks the plants will be up. Then remove the straw gradually, a little at a time, selecting a dull day if possible. Keep the bed moist.

If the pansies are allowed to ripen seeds the season of bloom will be short, for when its seeds are scattered the object of the plant’s life is accomplished. Besides, the plant has not vitality enough to perfect seeds and continue its bloom, and flowers borne with the forming seeds are smaller than the earlier ones. But if the flowers are kept plucked as they open, the plants persistently put forth new buds. The plucked flowers will remain in good condition longer if picked in the early morning before the bees begin paying calls, for a fertilized flower fades more quickly than one which has received no pollen.

Photo by Verne Morton. ]

LESSON CLIII

THE PANSY

_Leading thought_--The pansy is a member of the violet family. The flower often resembles a face; the colors, markings and fragrance all attract the bees, who visit it for the nectar hidden in the spur of the lower petal.

_Method_--The children naturally love pansies because of the resemblance of these flowers to quaint little faces. They become still more interested after they see the little man with the green head, which appears in the flower as it fades. A more practical interest may be cultivated by studying the great numbers of varieties in the seed catalogs and learning their names. This is one of the studies which leads directly to gardening. There are many beautiful pansy poems which should be read in connection with the lesson.

_Observations_--1. How does the pansy flower resemble a face? Where are the eyes? The nose? The mouth? How many petals make the pansy forehead? The cheeks? The chin?

2. Where is the nectar in the pansy? Which petal forms the nectar-tube?

3. Describe how a bee gets the nectar. Where does she stand while probing with her tongue?

4. Where is the pollen in the pansy? What is the peculiar shape of the anthers? How do the two lower stamens differ in form from the three upper ones?

5. Where is the stigma? Does the bee’s tongue go over it or under it to reach the nectar? Describe the pansy arrangement for dusting the bee with pollen and for getting pollen from her tongue.

6. Observe the soft little brushes at the base of the two side petals. What do you think they are for?

7. Take a fading flower; remove the petals, and see the little man sitting with his crooked legs in the nectar-tube. What part of the flower makes the man’s head? What parts form his cape? Of what is his pointed, scalloped collar formed?

8. How many sepals has the pansy? Describe them. How are they attached? When the flower fades and the petals fall, do the sepals also fall?

9. Where in the flower is the young seed-pod? Describe how this looks after the petals have fallen.

10. Describe how the seed-pod opens. How many seeds are there in it? How are they scattered?

11. Study the pansy stem. Is it solid? Is it smooth or rough? Is it curved? Does it stand up straight or partially recline on the ground?

12. Take a pansy leaf and sketch it with the stipules at its base. Can you find two pansy leaves exactly alike in shape, color and size?

13. At what time should the pansy seed be planted? How should the soil be prepared?

_Supplementary reading_--“April Fools” (p. 50), “Pansy Song” (p. 125), Nature in Verse, compiled by Mary J. Lovejoy; “Garden Folk” (p. 179), “Pansies” pp. 183–184, Among Flowers and Trees with the Poets, Wait & Leonard; “A Yellow Pansy” (p. 124), Nature Pictures by American Poets compiled by Annie Russell Marble.

* * * * *

_I dropped a seed into the earth. It grew, and the plant was
mine._

_It was a wonderful thing, this plant of mine. I did not know
its name, and the plant did not bloom. All I know is that I
planted something apparently as lifeless as a grain of sand
and there came forth a green and living thing unlike the seed,
unlike the soil in which it stood, unlike the air into which
it grew. No one could tell me why it grew, nor how. It had
secrets all its own, secrets that baffle the wisest men; yet
this plant was my friend. It faded when I withheld the light,
it wilted when I neglected to give it water, it flourished
when I supplied its simple needs. One week I went away on a
vacation, and when I returned the plant was dead; and I missed
it._

_Although my little plant had died so soon, it had taught me
a lesson; and the lesson is that it is worth while to have a
plant._--THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA, L. H. BAILEY.

Photo by Verne Morton.

“_The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die._”
--Shakespeare.
]

THE BLEEDING HEART

_Teacher’s Story_

For the intricate structure of this type of flower, the bleeding heart is much more easily studied than its smaller wild sisters, the Dutchman’s breeches or squirrel corn; therefore it is well to study these flowers when we find them in profusion in our gardens, and the next spring we may study the wildwood species more understandingly.

_1, Flower of bleeding heart with swing-door ajar._ _2,
Side-view of flower showing the broad tips of the inner
petals._ _3, Flower with outer petals removed showing inner
petals--and the heart-shaped bases of the stamens._
]

The flowers of the bleeding heart are beautiful jewel-like pendants arranged along the stem according to their age; the mature flower, ready to shed its petals, is near the main stem, while the tiny unopened bud is hung at the very tip, where new buds are constantly being formed during a long season of bloom. This flower has a strange modification of its petals; the two pink outer ones, which make the heart, are really little pitchers with nectar at their bottoms, and although they hang mouth downwards the nectar does not flow out. When these outer petals are removed, we can see the inner pair placed opposite to them, the two of them close together and facing each other like two grooved ladles. Just at the mouth of the pitchers these inner petals are almost divided crosswise; and the parts that extend beyond are spoon-shaped, like the bowls of two spoons which have been pinched out so as to make a wide, flat ridge along their centers. These spoon-bowls unite at the tip, and between them they clasp the anthers and stigma. Special attention should be given to the division between the two portions of these inner petals; for it is a hinge, the workings of which are of much importance to the flower. On removing the outer petals, we find a strange framework around which the heart-shaped part of the flower seems to be modeled. These are filaments of the stamens grouped in threes on each side; the two outer ones of each group are widened into frills on the outer edge, while the central one is stiffer and narrower. At the mouth of the pitchers all these filaments unite in a tube around the style; near the stigma they split apart into six short, white, threadlike filaments, each bearing a small, brilliant yellow anther. So close together are these anthers that they are completely covered by the spoon-bowls made by the inner petals, the pollen mass being flat and disklike. During the period when the pollen is produced, the stigma is flat and immature; but after the pollen is shed, it becomes rounded into lobes ready to receive pollen from other flowers.

Although the description of the plant of this flower is most complex and elaborate, the workings of the flower are most simple. As the nectar-pitchers hang mouth down, the bee must cling to the flower while probing upward. In doing this she invariably pushes against the outside of the spoon-bowls, and the hinge at their base allows her to push them back while the mass of pollen is thrust against her body; as this hinge works both ways, she receives the pollen first on one side and then on the other, as she probes the nectar-pitchers. And perhaps the next flower she visits may have shed its pollen, and the swing door will uncover the ripe stigma ready to receive the pollen she brings.

The sepals are two little scales opposite the bases of the outer petals. Before the flower opens, the “spouts of the nectar-pitchers” are clamped up on either side of the spoon-bowls, as if to keep everything safe until the right moment comes; at first they simply spread apart, but later curve backward. The seed-pod is long and narrow, and in cross-section is seen to contain two compartments with seeds growing on every side of the partition.

The bleeding heart is a native of China, and was introduced into Europe about the middle of the last century.

_Reference_--Our Garden Flowers, Keeler.

LESSON CLIV

THE BLEEDING HEART

_Leading thought_--The bleeding heart flower has its pollen and stigma covered by a double swing door, which the bees push back and forth when they gather the nectar.

_Method_--Bring a bouquet of the bleeding heart to the schoolroom, and let each pupil have a stem with its flowers in all stages. From this study, encourage them to watch these flowers when the insects are visiting them.

_Observations_--1. How are these flowers supported? Do they open upward or downward? Can you see the tiny sepals?

2. How many petals can you see in this flower? What is the shape of the two outer petals? How do they open? Where is the nectar developed in these petals?

3. Take off the two outer petals and study the two inner ones. What is their shape near the base? How are their parts shaped which project beyond the outer petals? What does the spoon-end of these petals cover? Can you find the hinge in these petals?

4. Where are the stamens? How many are there? Describe the shape of the stamens near the base. How are they united at the tip?

5. Where is the stigma? The style? The ovary?

6. Supposing a bee is after the nectar, where must she rest while probing for it? Can she get the nectar without pushing against the flat projecting portion of the inner petals? When she pushes these spoon-bowls back, what happens? Does she get dusted with pollen? After she leaves, does the door swing back? Suppose she visits another flower which has shed its pollen, will she carry pollen to its stigma? Does she have to work the hinged door to do this?

THE POPPIES

_Teacher’s Story_

_Poppies._

Drawn by Anna C. Stryke.]

Perhaps we might expect that a plant which gives strange dreams to those who eat of its juices should not be what it seems in appearance. I know of nothing so deceptive as the appearance of the poppy buds, which, rough and hairy, droop so naturally that it seems as if their weight must compel the stem to bend; and yet, if we test it, we find the stem is as stiff as if made of steel wire. Moreover, the flower and the ripened seed-capsule must be far heavier than the bud; and yet, as soon as the flower is ready to open, the stem straightens up, although it does not always remove the traces of the crook; and after the capsule is full of ripened seed, the stem holds it up particularly stiff, as if inviting the wind to shake out the seeds.

The rough covering of the bud consists of two sepals, as can be easily seen; but if we wish to see the poppy shed its sepals, we must get up in the morning, for the deed is usually done as soon as the first rays of the early sun bring their message of a fair day. The sepals break off at their base and fall to the ground. The two opposite outer petals unfold, leaving the two inner petals standing erect and on guard about the precious pollen, until the sunshine folds them back. An open poppy, when looked at below, shows two petals, each semicircular, and overlapping each other slightly; looked at from above, we see two petals, also half circles, set at right angles to the lower two, and divided from each other by the pistil.

The pistil of the poppy is, from the beginning, a fascinating box. At first, it is a vase with a round, circular cover, upon which are ridges, placed like the spokes of a wheel. If these ridges are looked at with a lens, particles of pollen may be seen adhering to them; this fact reveals the secret that each ridge is a stigma, and all of these radiating stigmas are joined so as better to catch the pollen. In a circle of fringe about the pistil are the stamens. In the study of the stamens, we should note whether their filaments expand or dilate near the anthers, and we should also note the color of the masses of pollen which crowd out from the anthers.

Drawn by Anna C. Stryke.]

Despite the many varieties of poppies, there are only four species commonly cultivated. The opium poppy has upon its foliage a white bloom, the filaments of its stamens are dilated at the top, and its seed-capsule is smooth. The oriental poppy has all of these characters, except that its foliage is green and not covered with bloom. Its blossom is scarlet and very large and has a purple center in the petals and purple stamens; it has three sepals. Its flower stalks are stout and leafy. The corn poppy, which grows in the fields of Europe, is a weed we gladly cultivate. This, naturally, has red petals and is dark at the center of the flower; but it has been changed by breeding until now we have many varieties. Its foliage is finely cut and very bristly or hairy. Its seed-capsule is not bristly. To see this poppy at its best, we should visit northern Italy or southern France in late May, where it makes the grain fields gorgeous. This is the original parent of all the Shirley poppies. The Arctic, or Iceland poppy, has flowers of satiny texture and finely crumpled; its colors are yellow, orange or white, but never scarlet like the corn poppy; it has no leaves on its flower stem, and its seed-capsule is hairy. Of these four species, the opium poppy and the corn poppy are annuals, while the Arctic and the Oriental species are perennials.

The bees are over-fond of the poppy pollen and it is a delight to watch the fervor with which they simply wallow in it, brushing off all of the grains possible onto their hairy bodies. I have often seen a honey-bee seize a bunch of the anthers and rub them against the under side of her body, meanwhile standing on her head in an attitude of delirious joy. As showing the honey-bee’s eye for color, I have several times seen a bee drop to the ground to examine a red petal which had fallen. This was plain evidence that she trusted to the color to guide her to the pollen.

But perhaps it is the development of the poppy seed-capsule which we find the most interesting of the poppy performances. After fertilization, the stigma-disk develops a scalloped edge, a stigma rounding out the point of each scallop; and a sharp ridge, which continues the length of the globular capsule, runs from the center of each scallop. If examined on the inside, it will be seen that the ridge on the capsule is the edge of a partition which extends only part way toward the center of the capsule. On these partitions, the little seeds are grown in great profusion, and when they ripen, they fall together in the hollow center of the seed-box. But how are they to get out? This is a point of interest for the children to observe, and they should watch the whole process. Just beneath the stigma-disk, and between each two of the sharp ridges, the point loosens; later, it turns outward and back, leaving a hole which leads directly into the central hollow portion of the capsule. The way these points open is as pretty a story as I know in flower history. This beautiful globular capsule, with its graceful pedestal where it joins the stem, is a seed-shaker instead of a salt or pepper-shaker. Passing people and animals push against it and the stiff stem bends and then springs back, sending a little shower of seeds this way and that; or a wind sways the stalk, and the seeds are sown, a few at a time, and in different conditions of season and weather. Thus, although the poppy puts all her eggs in one basket, she sends them to market a few at a time. The poppy seed is a pretty object, as seen through the lens. It is shaped like a round bean, and is covered with a honeycomb network.

LESSON CLV

THE POPPY

_Leading thought_--The poppies shed their sepals when the flowers expand; they offer quantities of pollen to the bees, which are very fond of it. The seed-capsule develops holes around the top, through which the seeds are shaken, a few at a time.

_Method_--It is best to study these flowers in the garden, but the lesson may be given if some of the plants with the buds are brought to the schoolroom, care being taken that they do not droop. If the teacher thinks wise, the pupils might prepare an English theme on the subject of the opium poppy and the terrible effects of opium upon the eastern nations.

_Observations_--1. Look at the bud of the poppy; how is it covered? How many sepals? Can you see where they unite? Is the stem bent because the bud is heavy? What happens to this crook in the stem when the flower opens? Does the crook always straighten out completely?

2. Describe how the poppy sheds its sepals. At what time of day do the poppies usually open?

3. Look at the back of, or beneath, an open flower. How many petals do you see? How are they arranged? Look at the base of the flower. How many petals do you see? How are they arranged in relation to the lower petals and to the pistil?

4. Look at the globular pistil. Describe the disk which covers it. How many ridges on this disk? How are they arranged? Look at the ridges with a lens and tell what they are.

5. Look at the stamens. How are they arranged? Describe the anthers--their color, and the color of the pollen. Watch the bees working on the poppies, and note if they are after nectar or pollen.

6. Find all the varieties of poppies possible, and note the colors of the petals on the outside, the inside and at the base; of the stamens, including filaments, anthers and pollen; of the pistil-disk and ovary. Sketch the poppy opened, and also in the bud. Sketch a petal, a stamen and the pistil, in separate studies.

7. Study the poppy seed-box as it ripens. How does the stigma-disk look? What is the shape of the capsule below the disk? Is it ridged? What relation do its ridges bear to the stigma ridges on the disk? Cut a capsule open, and note what these ridges on the outside have to do with the partitions inside. Where are the seeds borne?

8. Note the development of the holes beneath the edge of the disk of the poppy capsule. How are they made? What are they for? How are the seeds shaken from these holes? What shakes the poppy seed-box and helps sow the seeds? Look at a seed through a lens, and describe its form and decoration.

9. Notice the form of the poppy leaf, and note whether it is hairy or covered with bloom. What is there peculiar about the smell of the poppy plant? Where do poppies grow wild?

10. Is the slender stem smooth or grooved and hairy? Is it solid or hollow?

11. When a stem or leaf is pierced or broken off, what is the color of the juice which exudes? Does this juice taste sweet or bitter and unpleasant? Do you know what harmful drug is manufactured from the juice of one species of poppy? What countries cultivate and use it most extensively?

THE CALIFORNIA POPPY

_Teacher’s Story_

Although this brilliant flower blossoms cheerfully for us in our Eastern gardens, we can never understand its beauty until we see it glowing in masses on the California foothills. We can easily understand why it was selected as the flower of that great State, since it burnished with gold the hills, above the gold buried below; and in that land that prides itself upon its sunshine, these poppies seem to shine up as the sun shines down. The literature of California, and it has a noble literature of its own, is rich in tributes to this favored flower. There is a peculiar beauty in the contrast between the shining flower and its pale blue-green, delicate masses of foliage. Although it is called a poppy and belongs to the poppy family, yet it is not a true poppy, but belongs to a genus named after a German who visited California early in the nineteenth century, accompanying a Russian scientific expedition; this German’s name was Eschscholtz, and he, like all visitors, fell in love with this brilliant flower, and in his honor it was named Eschscholtzia (es-sholts-ia) californica. This is not nearly so pretty, nor so descriptive, as the name given to this poppy by the Spanish settlers on the Pacific Coast, for they called it _Copa-de-oro_, cups of gold.

The bud of the Eschscholtzia is a pretty thing; it stands erect on the slender, rather long stem, which flares near the bud to an urnlike pedestal with a slightly ruffled rim, on which the bud is set. This rim is often pink above, and remains as a pretty base for the seed-pod. But in some garden varieties, the rim is lacking. The bud itself is covered with a peaked cap, like a Brownie’s toboggan cap stuffed full to the tip. It is the shape of an old-fashioned candle extinguisher; it is pale green, somewhat ribbed, and has a rosy tip; it consists of two sepals, which have been sewed together by Mother Nature so skillfully that we cannot see the seams. One of the most interesting performances to watch that I know, is the way this poppy takes off its cap before it bows to the world. Like magic the cap loosens around the base; it is then pushed off by the swelling expanding petals until completely loosened, and finally it drops.

Drawn by Anna C. Stryke.]

The petals are folded under the cap in an interesting manner. The outer petal enfolds all the others as closely as it can, and its mate within it enfolds the other two, and the inner two enfold the stamens with their precious gold dust. When only partially opened, the petals cling protectingly about the many long stamens; but when completely opened, the four petals flare wide, making a flower with a golden rim and orange center, although among our cultivated varieties they range from orange to an anaemic white. To one who loves them in their glorious native hues, the white varieties seem almost repulsive. Compare one of these small, pale flowers with the great, rich, orange ones that glorify some favored regions in the Mojave Desert, and we feel the enervating and decadent influence of civilization.

The anthers are many and long, and are likely to have a black dot on the short filament; at first, the anthers stand in a close cluster at the center of the flower, but later they flare out in a many pointed star. Often, when the flowers first open, especially the earlier ones, the stigmas cannot be seen at all; but after a time the three, or even six stigmas, spread wide athwart the flower and above the stamen-star, where they may receive pollen from the visiting insects. The anthers give abundance of pollen, but there is said to be no nectary present. This flower is a good guardian of its pollen, for it closes during the nights and also on dark and rainy days, only exposing its riches when the sunshine insures insect visitors. It closes its petals in the same order in which they were opened in our Eastern gardens, although there are statements that in California, each petal folds singly around its own quota of anthers. The insects in California take advantage of the closing petals and often get a night’s lodging within them, where they are cozily housed with plenty of pollen for supper and breakfast; and they pay their bill in a strange way by carrying off as much of the golden meal as adheres to them, just as the man who weighs gold-dust gets his pay from what adheres to the pan of his scales.