diff --git "a/Botany/botany_for_children_1880.md" "b/Botany/botany_for_children_1880.md" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/Botany/botany_for_children_1880.md" @@ -0,0 +1,2661 @@ +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +FLORAL DISSECTIONS. +ILLUSTRATIVE OF TYPICAL GENERA OF THE BRITISH +NATURAL ORDERS. +For the Use of Schools and Students in Botany. +Demy 4to, with Eight Plates, containing many hundred Illustrations, +and Descriptive Letterpress, boards, 4s. + +--- + +A black and white illustration of a group of people gathered around a table outdoors. There are trees, bushes, and a building in the background. +THE LATE PROFESSOR BERNARD WITH HIS LOCAL SCHOOL CHILDREN. +(PAGE 26) + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +AN +ILLUSTRATED ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK +FOR +JUNIOR CLASSES AND YOUNG CHILDREN. + +BY THE +REV. GEORGE HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.C.P.S., +Lecturer on Botany at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, +and Examiner in Natural Science for the College of Preceptors. + + +BIBLIOTHEC +MAY 1880 +RODLEIN + + +LONDON: +EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS. +1880. + +191. h. 192. + +. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +PREFACE. + +(For the Teacher.) + +The great advantage of Botany as an educational means is that, of all subjects of Natural History, it alone can be easily taught to very young children. But up to the age of ten or twelve, and sometimes even beyond that, the aid and sympathy of a teacher are absolutely indispensable. Hence, while it is hoped that elder children may be willing to use this little book to a great extent by themselves, it is not intended that younger ones should do so without extraneous help. If, however, the teacher's aid is used in stimulating and examining the details of structure and conjointly let the pupil read the description of them, a permanent interest will be secured which will then, it is hoped, induce the learner to proceed subsequently to a more advanced study of plants. + +The dissection of flowers, the critical examination of their minute differences, the comparative study of kindred forms, together with the recording in a systematical way of all the points of structure observed in any plant, and finally to draw every peculiarity, will, + +*Before drawing from nature, the pupil will acquire facility if he be taught to make careful drawings from models in the language of plants.* + +*Floral Dissections,* published by Mr. Stanford. + +vi +PREFACE. + +together, be found a most invaluable aid to the other branches of a child's education. To do these things well is the only real way of making progress in the science; and they, in fact, constitute the most essential part of botanical study. + +To describe plants, a knowledge of some technical terms is required. These will be found fully explained, as well as the right method of describing flowers, in the admirable little book by Professor Oliver, called 'Lessons in Elementary Botany' (Macmillan), which, indeed, this present volume is intended to precede: though any elaborate description of plants is not proposed for such young children as those for whom this book is intended. + +The teacher should encourage the pupil to examine and describe as many plants as possible indiscriminately, as they come to maturity in the course of summer; as well as those which he selects for them as types to represent many families of plants. As the first object in learning Botany, to be put before the pupil, is that he should learn to be familiar with the principal Families or Orders of plants, it is with this view, viz. as types of families, that the plants have been selected for this book. They represent twenty-five families in all. Several other important ones have not, for want of space, been represented; such, for instance, as the Poppy Family, the Mallow Family, the Carrot Family. These and others, however, will be learned subsequently when they are described. It follows that those come to be especially studied, as being the types which he has selected. + +The descriptions of flowers in this book are intended + +PREFACE. +vii + +to form Botanical Reading Lessons, specimens of the flowers being at the same time placed in the hands of the pupils, who are required to dissect and examine them carefully, and be sure they see and understand each separate point noticed in the text. + +The pupils must always write down under the several parts of the flowers, as dissected out, their descriptions, as given for the Lesser Celandine and Wallflower; but the Teacher is expected to explain in all other cases what he thinks best to write. It might be first written on the Black Board. + +As the pupils thus study types of Families, they will at the same time be learning the characteristic features of the leading genera as well. Lastly, but which is of somewhat less importance at first, they will learn the characters of important species. + +In this way a sound knowledge of plant structure will soon be obtained. + +While the pupil is thus acquiring a knowledge of structural Botany or Morphology, he should also be made to understand, in a general way, the uses of all the different parts to the plant itself, or Physiological botany. This is the plan followed in the following descriptions, special physiological features being described whenever special cases occurred which admitted of it. Such will be found to greatly enhance the interest of the study, to rescue it from a mere acquisition of details, and to elevate it to the position of a really intelligible pursuit. + +Finally, the various uses of different parts of plants to man may be added, as furnishing much additional interest. Some few are appended to each plant de- + +viii +PREFACE. + +cribed. The Teacher will find the 'Treasury of Botany' (Longmans) of great use. +The descriptions of the several plants will be found not only of unequal lengths, but to contain very different degrees in the amount of matter compressed into them. It is left entirely to the discretion of the teacher to determine how much it may be desirable for a child to read and study at any one time. Hence I have not thought it desirable to divide the work into 'Lessons.' + +A word as to the order in which the different typical plants herein described may be studied. They are arranged in accordance with our British Floras, but they do not blossom in the same consecutive order at all; hence a teacher must always incur a difficulty in not being able to procure just the plant wanted at any particular time. I have stated the months in which they flower. In some cases these statements remind teachers to commence the study with the following plants --- Lesser Celandine, Wallflower, Violet, Primrose, White Lamium, Daffodil, Bluebell, Dandelion, Nut, Willow. + +It need hardly be observed that the pupils should be repeatedly questioned to see if they remember the meaning of the terms used in the previous reading lesson, as they will rapidly forget them, unless they are again and again illustrated and explained. + +The drawings, which are from nature, and the lithographed plates after them, are joint production of my sister, Mrs. R. C. Bathurst, and myself. + +The frontispiece has been executed by Mr. W. G. Smith, from a sketch from life, by my uncle, the late G. Jenyns, Esq., of Bottisham Hall, Cambs. It is an + +PREFACE. +ix + +admirable likeness of my father, who, as is well known, introduced Botany into his Village School of Hitcham, Suffolk, and was the first who, by means of the “Floral Schedule,” rendered the science capable of being taught to children not only with great simplicity, but also on a thoroughly scientific basis. + +If country clergymen would but follow his example, they would be doing a great good, and with more pleasure than trouble to themselves. Perhaps the present work may be found useful, enabling them to communicate while an account of the late Professor’s methods will be found in the ‘Leisure Hour’ for 1862 (p. 676). + +I shall be most happy to give all the information or aid in my power to anyone who may feel disposed to communicate with me on the subject. + +G. H. + +6, TITONFIELD TREASURER, +Bexley’s Park, N.W. + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +CONTENTS. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + < tr + + +A page from a book listing plant names and their page numbers. The table is organized by index, with each entry showing the plant name, a reference to a plate (PLATE), and the corresponding page number (PAGE). The entries include: The Plant and its Parts (PLATE L., PAGE 1); The Butcher's, or Crowfoot (PLATE L., PAGE 6); The Common Wallflower (PLATE IL, PAGE 10); The Sweet Violet (PLATE III, PAGE 16); The Redbud Robin (PLATE IV, PAGE 21); The Greatest Stinkweed (PLATE V, PAGE 24); The Meadow Geranium (PLATE VI, PAGE 28); The Wood-mugel (PLATE VII, PAGE 28); The Meadow Pea (PLATE VIII, PAGE 30); The Wild Strawberry (PLATE XV, PAGE 37); The Indian Paintbrush (PLATE X, PAGE 38); The Wild Bistort (PLATE XI, PAGE 41); The Woodruff (PLATE XII, PAGE 44); The Dandelion (PLATE XIII, PAGE 45); The Daisy (PLATE XIV, PAGE 48); The Scotch Heath (PLATE XV, PAGE 50); The Woody Nightshade (PLATE XVI, PAGE 52); The Fennel (PLATE XVII, PAGE 55); The Wood-fern (PLATE XVIII, PAGE 60); The Horsetail (PLATE XIX, PAGE 64); The Hare's Ear (PLATE XX, PAGE 66); and The Sallow Willow (PLATE XXI, PAGE 70). + +xii CONTENTS. + +
INDEXPAGE
The Plant and its PartsPLATExiii
The Butcher's, or CrowfootL.1
The Common WallflowerL.6
The Sweet VioletIL10
The Redbud RobinIII16
The Greatest StinkweedIV.21
The Meadow GeraniumV.24
The Wood-mugelVII.28
The Meadow PeaVIII.30
The Wild StrawberryXV.37
The Indian PaintbrushX.38
The Wild BistortXI.41
The WoodruffXII.44
The DandelionXIII.45
The DaisyXIV.48
The Scotch HeathXV.50
The Woody NightshadeXVI.52
The FennelXVII.55
The Wood-fernXVIII.60
The HorsetailXIX.64
The Hare's EarXX.< td>66< td > +
The Sallow WillowXXI. 70< td > +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
PagePage
The Snootch Fin...XXII72
The Yellow Iris...XXXIII77
The Spotted Orchis...XXIV81
The Common Daffodil...XXV84
The Hellebore...XXVI87
The Lily of the Valley...XXVII88
The Spotted Anemone...XXVIII90
The Cotton-Sedge...XXIX93
The Common Wheat...XXX96
The Principles of Variation...100
The Principles of Classification...102
+ +INDEX OF THE TEXT + +The Numbers indicate the Pages where each Term is alluded to. + +Achaea, 5, 61. +Adherent or adhesion, 23, 83, 55, 89, 101. +Albunium, 97, 98. +Albuniums, 98. +Albuniums, 98. +Angiosperms, 71, 103. +Annuals, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 66. +Anthocerae, 5, 67. + +xiv INDEX OF TERMS, ETC. + +Family, 9. 102. +Fortilisus, 6. +Fortilisus, foli., 13, 20, 27, 29. +Fibrous roots, 1. +Etimologia, 5. +Floral flowers, 4, 55. +Floral works, 4. +Flora, 97. +Flour, 97. +Folium, glume, 96. +Foliocoma, 70. +Folius, 88. +Form, 36, 101, 102. +Flow., 212, 25, 25. 102. +Frescoscens, Floscaenuma, 25. 58. +Frutic., 4. +Fruitum, 31. 94. +Genus, s. 26. 102. +Gland., s. 11. 71. +Glancea, s. 33. +Glumiferae, s. 32. +Gninae, s. 33. 38. +Grainia, wheat, 27. +Gymnoephorae, 72. 103. +Head., s. 48. +Herba, s. 48. +Hile., s. 33. +Hydral., s. 50. +Imbricata, s. 11. +Incompleta, s. 48. +Indulfecta, s. incompletae, s. 22. +Inferior, s. 35. 45. e.g., s. 68. s. 80. s. 103. +Inflorescence, s. s. xii. s. xiii. s. xiv. s. xvi. s. xvii. s. xviii. s. xix. s. xxvii. s. xxviii. s. xxxvii. s. xxxix. +Inferior capitate, s.s.xlvii. +Inflorescence, s.s.xlviii. +Laceratae, s.s.lxxxviii. +Interamnios, s.s.lxxxix. +Introreos, s.s.lxxix. +Ivogulae, s.s.lxxxix. s.s.lxxxixx. s.s.lxxxxxii. +Kael pala., s.kael pala.. +Kael (to glume), s.kael.. +Karnel, e.g., s.karnel.. +Labiat., e.g., s.labiat.. +Leaf., I. +Leaflet,, xiii. + +Leavescale,, e.g., s.leavescale.. +Leavescens,, e.g., s.leavescens.. +Legume,, e.g., s.legendem.. +Limb of cornua,, e.g., s.limb of cornua.. +Limbus of petal,, e.g., s.limbus of petal.. +Limbus of petal,, e.g., s.limbus of petal.. +Lipidus,, e.g., s.lipidus.. +Lobe of cornua,, e.g., s.lobe of cornua.. +Lodiculus,, e.g., s.lodiculus.. +Mammelonae,, e.g., s.mammelonae.. +Madriz,, e.g., s.madriz.. +Mediofascia,, e.g., s.mediofascia.. +Nebulon,, e.g., s.nebulon.. +Neonatum,, e.g., s.neonatum.. +Nodatum,, e.g., s.nodatum.. +Nutum,, e.g., s.nutum.. +Opposite leaves,, e.g., s.opposite leaves.. +Ornamentum,, e.g., ornamentum.. +Organes reproductive,, e.g., organes reproductive.. +Ovary,, (or Inferior and Superior)... +Palma,, e.g.. palma... +Paniculi,, e.g.. paniculi... +Pappus,, e.g.. pappus... +Petals,, e.g.. petals... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiolatum,, e.g.. petiolatum... +Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... Petiole,,, etc... + +Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. Personalis,. + +Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:, Pepo:. + +INDEX OF TERMS, ETC. +XV + +Principles of Classification, 102. +Principles of Variation, 36, 100. +Proctor, 25, 26, 28, 30. +Fertalandrondus, 25. +Fryxell, 74. + +Basella, 11. +Badirol, 90. +Badirol, 90. +Bay flowers, 48. +Beeenocular tube, 35 (note), 38. +H. H., 141. +Regulae, 2, 35, 101. +Reguropis, 2, 35, 101. +Rhizome, 15, 16, 77. +Root, 16. +Root, fibrous, 1. +Roots, fibrous, 1. +Rootstock, 7, 56. +Rootstock, 7, 56. +Rouner, 7, 37. + +Sealsas, 16, 26. +Seedsallum, 99. +Seed, 4. +Seed-plant, 68. +Segments of Leaf, G. F., 74. +Self-fertilized, I3, 30, 27, 29. +Squash, G. F., 74. + +Seamsil, 21. +Sheathing bract, 78. +Sheathing leaf-stalks, B. S., 89. +Sheathing stipule, G. F., 74. +Silicium, II. +Silique, II. +Silique of F. G., G. F., II. +Sleep of plantas. G. F., II. +Spadixes, G. F., II. + +Specieses, G. F., III. + +Spikes, 94. +Spikletsaum. G. F., III. +Stalks. G. F., III. +Stamens. G. F., III. +Staminae. A2. G. F., III. B. S., III. B. S., III. B. S., III. B. S., III. + +Starches. G. F., III. + +Stemules. G. F., III. + +Summitum. G. F., III. + +Strawberries. G. F., III. + +Strawberry-plantas. G. F., III. + +Superior ovules. G. F., III. + +Superior ovules. G. F., III. + +Taminin. G. F., III. + +Testa of capsule. G. F., III. + +Testa of capsule. G. F., III. + +Terminus. G. F., III. + +Toothed-leaf-stalks. G. F., IV. + +Trilea. G. F., IV. + +Thorn-leaf-stalks. G. F., IV. + +Tubererum. G. F., IV. + +Twinerlemae. G. F., IV. + +Umbelos. G. F., IV. + +Valves of capsule. G. F., V. + +Vegetable organs. L. + +Veins, parallelis B.S., B.S., B.S., B.S. + +Veins, parallelis B.S., B.S., B.S. + +Versatileis B.S. + +Wing-leafs. + +Woodes B.S.. B.S.. B.S.. B.S.. + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +- + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +. . . + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +- + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +- + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +- + +Plate 1 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria). The top part of the illustration shows the plant with its large, heart-shaped leaves and small yellow flowers. Below the plant, there are three illustrations of seeds: one showing the seed pod, another showing a single seed, and the third showing two seeds side by side. + + +LESSER CELANDINE + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE PLANT AND ITS PARTS.* + +THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS OF THE LESSER CELAN- +DINE.--To study flowers, it is not enough to read about them. You must always examine the living plants themselves; so, as soon as you can, get each one of those which are described in this little book. Dissect and look at them carefully while you read it. + +One of the first of our Spring flowers to appear in April and May is called the Lesser Celandine. It is an early flowering kind of Buttercup. Dig it up by the roots, and you will begin by looking at its parts which keep the plant alive, and which enable it to grow, and which botanists call the vegetative organs or parts. Any part of a plant which has something to do is called an Organ. + +The Root consists of a bundle of thick, juicy clubs, called tuberous roots, mixed with some fine threads, called fibrous roots or rootlets. + +The Leaves arise from a very short Stem, so that they seem to, but do not really, come from the root. They have two parts, the Stem and the Blade. The former + +*It is advisable for pupils to be provided with a pocket knife and a pocket lens for dissecting and examining the smaller parts of plants. +B + +2 + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +widens at the base, and so protects a little Bud growing in its corner or Azil. The buds of this plant, especially if it has grown in the shade, sometimes take the form of little balls, drop off and grow into new plants, and are a kind of Bud; but bulbs are buds which are generally produced underground, as by a Tulip or Snowdrop. The blade is the flat, green part of the leaf, and as the stalk carries but one blade, it is called a Simple Leaf. + +The function of the TENTATIVE ORGANS.--The fine thread-like rootlets serve to draw up moisture and several things dissolved in it from the soil, with which the plant is partly nourished; but the club-like roots are little store-rooms full of its prepared food, laid by last year. If you examine them, after the plant has flowered, you will find them partly shrivelled up, while other clubs will have begun to form around and above them in the summer for next year's use. Or else they may become detached and grow into several distinct plants, because each of these clubs carries a bud at the top. + +The Leaf is one of the most important parts of a plant, for by means of it the plant digests its food, which has been partly drawn up by the roots, dissolved in water; but it also takes in and lives upon the impure air (called carboide and gas) which we breathe out of our lungs; and as long as there is sunlight, leaves and other green parts of plants continue to purify bad air by breathing out, in exchange, the pure air (oxygen) which we breathe in. This only goes on during the day. At night plants breathe in, as do we; so that it is very useful to have plenty of trees and shrubs in a town; + +THE PLANT AND ITS PARTS. +3 + +but it is bad to sleep in a room with many green plants in it, or with many strong-scented flowers. + +THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF THE LESSER +COLLARD (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is a proper part of the plant which bears Flowers. As the use of flowers and fruit is for the purpose of setting seed to reproduce the plant, these parts are called Reproductive organs. + +Gather a Flower. Look at it upside down. You will see three little greenish-yellow parts. Pull them off, place them on a sheet of paper by themselves and write under them—"The three Sepals of the Calyx." + +Next, you will come about bright green yellow parts. Remove these parts and under them—"The eight Petals of the Corolla." As the sepals are all alike, and the petals all alike, we say of the Calyx and of the Corolla that they are both regular. Observe a tiny hollow place with what looks like a little petal in front of it, near the bottom of each petal. It often has a drop of fluid in it. It is shown in Fig. 1.* This is called a Gland. Glands are for the purpose of secreting honey for bees to collect. + +Now remove the small yellow-stick-like things. Each of these is called a Stamens (see Fig. 2). The yellow top is made of two longish bays standing back to back, and which burst by long slits. They are called the two Cells of the Anther, while the stalk which carries it is the Filament. The continuation of the filament between the anther cells, which connects them together, is called the Connective. When the bays burst, a yellow powder falls out; this is called Pollen. Place all the + +* The figures of parts of the flowers are nearly always enlarged. +B 2 + +4 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +stamens together, and write under them—"The Sta- +mens, each of which is made of a Filament which bears +the Anther; the two Cells of which are joined by the +Connective, and shed Pollen." + +There yet remains one more part of the flower, called +the Pistil. This is made up of a great many little +green bag-like bodies, with rough tips to them. You +will require to magnify them a little. Each is called a +Carpel (Fig. 3), and within the lower, enlarged part of +each, called the Ovary, is a little body, or Ovule, which +in time would become a Seed; then the carpels shall +have ripened, and you will find that they have all fallen +to ripen in this plant. You may generally see the ovule +through the carpel by holding it up to the light. Place +the carpels of the pistil together on the paper and write +below them—"The Pistil made up of many separate +Carpels." + +Lastly, the swollen end of the Flower-stalk, which +carries or receives the parts of a Flower, is called the +Floral Bepulpe. Place it by itself, and write below it— +"The Floral Bepulpe." + +If you can draw, try to copy a sepal, a petal, a +stamen, and a carpel, as shown you in the enlarged +Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Indeed, you should learn to draw +everything you examine. + +These four parts, or Calyx, Corolla, Stamens, and +Pistil are called the four Floral Whorls. + +**THE USES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.—Let** +us now see what are the uses of all these parts. The +Calyx was of use before the flower opened, as its three +sepals wrapped up the young flower bud and carpel, and +so protected them. The Corolla is now of use, for it + +THE PLANT AND ITS PARTS. +5 + +m...ees the flower very bright, and easily seen by bees, +which come to suck the honey from the glands of the petals. The Stamens shed the dust-like pollen from the anthers; and the powdery pollen is a most important substance, for without it there can be no seed; +for it is found that some of the flower mae fall on to the tip of each carpel, which you can see looks rough, and which is called the stigma; it is also sticky, so as to catch any of the pollen dropped upon it. While there, +it has a curious effect—each ovule inside the ovary below—that is, the young seed; and unless the pollen do fall on the stigma, the carpels will shrivel up, and the ovules will perish with them. But if it fall on the stigma, though all the rest of the flower will fall off, the little carpels will remain, as they have now been fertilized, and grow bigger and bigger, so that when a Buttercup has "gone to seed," you can take these round heads away by slightly rubbing off all the thin rinded case which will be detached, and each one will be found to contain a seed within it. Each of such seed-like fruits is called an achene (pronounced alsen). + +6 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +CLASS I.—DICOTYLEDONS.* +SUBCLASS L.—ANGIOSPERMS.* +THE BUTTERCUP FAMILY. +THE BUTTERCUP OR CROWFOOT. + +If you begin to learn Botany in May or June, you should take up by the roots a true Buttercup, having found one which has a solid Bulb or Corm, from which the roots hang below, and with leaves growing from the top. The corm, like the club-shaped root of the Lesser Celandine, is formed during the summer, as a store-room of nourishment for the next year's flowers. +The blade of the leaf looks as if it were nearly cut into several pieces. These are called the Segments of the leaf, and are hairy, so do not at all resemble the leaf of the Celandine, which is quite smooth. As, however, the parts of several segments of the blade are all joined together below, it is still a simple leaf. + +You will notice how the leaves seem to get smaller and smaller, and their stalks shorter, and the segments fewer, as you pass up the stem towards the flowers. These imperfectly formed leaves are called *Bracts*; and we shall find in most plants that wherever flowers are borne, then the leaves in their neighbourhood, or out of the axis of which these flower-buds arise, will be very often much smaller than those which precede them. In some plants they are scarcely visible; while in others they are not unfrequently brightly coloured, +* The meaning of these terms will be explained hereafter. + +Plate 1 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of a plant, likely a buttercup, with a large flower at the top, several smaller flowers along the stem, and detailed leaves and roots below. + + +Buttercup + +1 +2 +3 +4 + +Samuel Kneebone + +. . . + +THE BUTTERCUP OR CROWFOOT. 7 + +like a corolla. In all cases they are called *Brads*, or, at least, if very small indeed, *Breadles*, or little bracts. + +Now examine the flower. The stalk is furrowed. +The sepals* are fine, and bent back upon the stalk (Fig. 1). +The corolla has fine petals, each with a gland at the base (Fig. 2), forming a little hollow or depression, as in the *Celandine*, which you will remember differ from this plant in having only three sepals but eight petals. The stamens and pistil are much the same as in that flower.* + +Another kind of Buttercup is a good deal taller than this - *Bellflower* - its blossoms appear rather later, in June and July. You may know it at once by being the greater height, but by its having the sepals not bent back upon the stalk. The stalk, too, is not furrowed, but round and smooth. The leaves are larger, and if you lay one of them on a sheet of paper and draw pencil lines from tip to tip of the longest segments, it will make a *freedood figure*. Lastly, there is no corolla, but a *Breadle*, or rather thick stem covered with the withered leaf-stalks of last year's growth. + +A fourth kind of Buttercup is often found in waste places, and blossoms from May to August, and may be known by its having long *Runners*, like a Strawberry plant. These are long branches which strike root and then throw up leaves and flowers, and so form a great number of separate young plants. + +There is yet another kind, which differs from these three in having white flowers; it grows in ponds and rivers, and is called the *Water Crowfoot*. It has often + +*For a full account of the parts of the flower must read the descriptions given under *Celandine* and apply to the other plants. +† Fig. 3, a corpet opened to show the ovule; Fig. 4, an anther opened to show the seed. + +8 + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +two kinds of leaves; those which float being roundish and green, while all that are quite under water are finely divided into thread-like segments. It sometimes has its leaves submerged, and then there are no broad green leaves at all. + +Now these five kinds of Crowfoot or Buttercup may always be known by the particulars I have described, and botanists say they are so many species of one genus. The Latin name *Ranunculus*, and the English Buttercup, or Crowfoot, is that of the genus, while the other four are "Tall," "Short," "Tall Field," the "Creeping," with its runners, and the "Water Crowfoot," are separate species of Buttercup. There are about sixteen species of Buttercup in all in Great Britain. + +There are many plants which agree with the Buttercups in having a large number of stamens (which, with the sepals and petals, all fall off in the fruiting state), and mostly with several carpels which turn to achene; such as the Traveller's Joy, the Wood Anemone, the Phacelia Eye, and the Memorex. But these plants whose carpels are not so numerous, and turn to little Pods with many seeds (instead of having one only, as the achene). These pods burst down one side only, and are called *Follicles*. The following plants agree with the Buttercups in many respects, but differ in the fruit; the Marsh Marigold, the Larkspur, the Columbine, the Aconite, and the Pansy. They differ, it is true, in the calyces and corollas (by which each of these genera is known), yet they agree in their flowers being almost domed and many other particulars; thus nearly all have the + +*Genus* is the plural of genus. + +THE BUTTERCUP OR CROWFOOT. +9 + +leaf-stalk sheathing at the lower part, and their leaves with their blades divided into segments, the Lesser Celandine and Marsh Marigold being exceptions to this rule. Again, all, excepting the Water Crowfoot, are more or less poisonous, especially the deadly Monkshood or Aconite. All these plants, then, having so much in common, botanists group together, and say they make a Family, of which each of the above-named is a Genus; each genus including one or more Species. + +If you have been able to get all or some of the plants here mentioned, and have carefully examined them together, you will then understand how we can now write down a General Description of the Buttercup Family. That is to say, we can group together all the characters which the different genera have in common, not noticing for the time any exceptions which may be found in particular genera of the family. Thus we may write down the following facts as:— + +The General Description of the Buttercup Family + +Herbs with a poisonous juice. +Leaves with divided blades and sheathing stalks. +Flowers, sepals and petals very various, but pecu- +liar to each genus; stamens, many; carpels, many or few. +Fruit either of many one-seeded achenes or of a few +many-seeded follicles. + +Of the Buttercup Family, several are cultivated as +garden plants, such as Bachelor's Buttons, a double +form of the Field Buttercup; that is to say, in the +place of stamens are carpels, there is a dense mass +of yellow petals. Of these there are many kinds, +some with seed and some without. Then there are Columbines, Larkspurs, Monks- + +10 +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +hoods, and Pomeous. All of these are poisonous, +but especially the Monkshood. Hence you should +never put leaves or petals in your mouth, as you +cannot tell, till you have learnt more about plants, +whether you may not accidentally poisoning yourself +or not, as, indeed, many persons have done. Tramps, +however, have been known to rub the juice of the +Traveller's Joy (also called Clematis) and of Buttercups +into their arms to create sores, in order to excite com- +passion, and thus obtain food from the poor people. +Though so very poisonous, the Aconite, or Monkshood, +or Wolf's-bane, for it is called by all three names, is a very +valuable medicine when used carefully and in very +small quantities. + +**THE CRUCIFER FAMILY.** + +**THE COMMON WALLFLOWER.** + +The name Wallflower is given to this plant, which +blooms in May, as it is often found growing on old +ruins; and as it is said that the flowers of a crox, the +family to which it belongs is called *Cruciferae* or "Cross- +bearers"; but you must not suppose that all flowers +with four petals must therefore belong to this family. +Observe how the expanded flowers surround a dense +cluster of closed buds in the middle; and as fast as +the latter burst into bloom, the stem which carries them +continues to grow; hence very soon the old flowers are +left behind, and while the younger ones are rapidly carried up, so that they also soon fall off; you +see a very long stalk called the *Peduncle*, with the +pod-like fruits all the way up it, each fruit being +carried at the end of its own little stalk, called the + +Plate 2. + + +A black and white illustration of a wallflower plant with three flowers blooming. The leaves are long and slender, with some showing a slight curl at the tips. The flowers have five petals each, with the central part of the flower being more detailed than the outer petals. + + +WALLFLOWER. + +Handwritten script: Extracts + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +THE COMMON WALLFLOWER. 11 + +Pedicel. Botanists make use of the word *Inflorescence* for the whole stalk covered with flowers and taken all together. As flowers are often clustered in various ways on a common stalk in different plants, they have proposed different names for the several kinds of inflorescences. That of the Wallflower is the same as of a bunch of Curtums, or of the Lily of the Valley, and is called a *Baceme.* + +The Petals do not spring out of the axils of bracts, as in the Buttercup (p. 6), and is as usually the case with flowers; bracts in the Crucifer Family being, as a rule, entirely wanting. + +Now let us dissect a flower carefully, and you will find there are four sepals, the front and back ones (that is, as you look at a flower while still upon the peduncle) overlap the two side ones. Whenever the parts of any whorl overlap one another by their edges, they are said to be *imbriicate.* The side or lateral sepals have little pouches between them to contain a drop of honey. Round these sepals, and new leaves may now be clearly seen to be fixed by long, slender stalks, called *Claws,* the broad part being called the *Limb* of the petal. Next observe that there are six stamens, of which the two outer stand at a lower level than the four inner ones, and are rather shorter than these latter, and observe too, that the two former rise from dark-green cushion-like glands, which secrete honey, + +*Glands are not always of the same nature; but they all secrete honey.* In some plants they are found in the petals. In the Geranium they take the form of round knobs on the receptacle; and in the Wallflowers as cushion-like structures at the base of the stamens. When the glands are continuous and form a cup-like plate ring, dish, or cupular mass, it is called a *Cup.* + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower. + +12 + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +which is then caught and kept ready for insects in the tiny pouches of the lateral sepals just below them. +If you have now removed everything thus far, there will be nothing but the pistil remaining in the middle. The stout lower part is the ovary, which bears a very short style, as the support to the two stigmas is called. +These two stigmas show that the pistil is really made of two carpels joined together, or as botanists say, are coherent. In order to understand how this coherence has come about, we must first see how it is made (two pods: split them open, but down one edge only—namely, that which carries the peas: half the peas will be found clinging to one edge, and half to the other edge. Treat a second pod in the same way; and now place them face to face, and if the two pairs of edges which now meet grow top-tier, we should have a pistil such as that of the Walflower; only there is in the latter an extra growth proceeding from the joined edges. These growths proceed from the opposite sides met in the middle (while it is still a small bud), there they join together and so make a sort of dividing plate across the middle of the ovary from top to bottom, the four rows of ovules being left behind where the edges first met. As this peculiar structure is much better seen when the pistil has ripened into a fruit, I will suppose you to have found the dry, ripe, pod-like fruit, which is called a Silique,*, and you will see how two strips from the backs of the two seeds peel off from below upwards. This strip is called a Fallopia; and then remains a sheet of long and narrow framework, formed + +*A Latin word, used by the poet Virgil in speaking of a Bean-pod.* + +THE COMMON WALLFLOWER. 13 + +of the *Placentas*, which carries a thin shiny plate, like a dull glass pane in a narrow window-frame. This plate, called the *False Dissepiment*, is the "extra growth" spoken of above. + +The seeds spring from the frame-like placentas in four rows, though apparently forming only one row on each side of the dissepiment. If, however, you examine it very carefully, you will see that the seeds of each row spring alternately from opposite edges of the frame; so that, strictly speaking, there are four rows of seeds. + +It will be interesting to compare this flower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, rarely, if ever, any honey, and the stigma is of a round button-like shape. When flowers of the Crucifer Family have large corollas, are brightly coloured, and often scented and secrete honey, they have two stigmas, and insects visit them; but when they have no honey and fruit the Wallflower with those of the very common weed called Shepherd's Purse. The flower of this plant is of course much smaller than it, but its parts are mainly the same as that of the Wallflower in all the above particulars, except in their form. There is, however, + +We must now compare the fruits. The long pod-like + +14 +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +fruit of the Wallflower is called a *Silique*, but the little wedge-shaped pod of the Shepherd's Purse is called a *Silicula*, which means a little silique. The valves are like little flat pouches, and separate from a very narrow dissepiment, on which the four rows of seeds are very easily seen. Lastly, compare the fruit of the Shepherd's Purse with that of the " Whitlow Grass," which grows abundantly on the tops of walls and on banks, and blossoms in May. The fruit of this latter is also a silique, only the dissepiment is broad and the valves oval and not pouches. + +**GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CRUCIFER FAMILY.** + +*Herbs*, none poisonous. +*Inflorescence*, racemes of flowers without bracts. +*Flowers*, sepals, 4; petals, 4, clawed; stamens, 6, of which two are short and four are long; pistil of two coherent carpels. +*Fruits*: a silique or silicula, with a dissepiment, burst- ing by two valves, and with four rows of seeds. +No plants of the Crucifer Family are poisonous, and many are very useful for food. The Wild Cabbage is a plant of the genus *Brassica*, with a number of rather large, thick leaves, growing on the chalk cliffs by the sea, in the south-east of England, near Deal, and elsewhere. It is the origin of all our many garden varieties. When we eat the leaves they are called "green," or "cabbage," but when we cook them, however, we look the flower-seeds in bud, we call them "broccoli" or "cauliflower." The Turnip is another species, while the seeds of a third yield Colza oil, useful for lamps. Other useful plants which eat are the foliage of Water-cress, the young seedlings of + +THE COMMON WALLFLOWER. 15 + +Mustard and Cress, the scraped underground stem or *Rhizome* of the Horse-radish, the blanched *leaf-stalks* of Sea-kale, &c. Of garden flowers we have the Stock, which is found wild on some of our sea-shores; the Virginia Stock; Honesty, with its large, broad silicles, as big as halfsemen; Candy-tuft, and several others. +They all agree with the flowers of the Wallflower, and you should make a point of dissecting and comparing together as many different kinds as you can find of this, as, indeed, of all other familiar plants. + +Now let us consider how the parts of the flower of the Wallflower just what you did with those of the Celadine; and you must always do the same for every flower that you examine. + +Placing the two outer, that is, the front and the back sepals together, write under them:— + +"The front and back sepals, which overlap the side ones; so that the sepals are imbricate." + +Next place the two side or lateral sepals by them-selves, and write: + +"The lateral sepals with honey pouches." + +Then put the petals together, and write as follows:— + +"The four clawed petals." + +Now we come to the stamens, and first the two outer and shorter, of which you must write:— + +"The two outer and shorter stamens which rise from honey-glands." + +Then for the four other stamens, add the words:— + +"The four inner and taller stamens." + +Lastly, for the pistil, write:— + +"The pistil, made up of two coherent carpels." + +If you have examined a ripe fruit, remove the two + +16 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +valves, place them by themselves, and the placenta and seeds by themselves, and write:— + +The Fruit or Silique, bursting with two Valves, leaving a frame-like Placenta and false Dissemination with flowers of the same plant. + +I will not repeat this exercise for other flowers; but your Teacher will show you how you must write it out for every other flower and fruit you examine. + +**THE VIOLET FAMILY.** + +**THE SWEET VIOLET.** + +There is but one genus of this family in this country, which furnishes us with all kinds of Violets and Pansies. + +Before we examine the flowers of the Violet, which blossoms in March and April, let us note a few things about the plant itself. There is a rugged-looking creeping stem, or rhinome, from which issue Runners, which bear young plants, as in the creeping Buttercup and in the Strawberry. From this stem the leaves arise, and it seems to be covered more or less with pointed Scallops. The way in which the leaves have their edges folded up, before they are fully expanded, is peculiar. Indeed, the manner in which leaves of different plants are folded up in the bud form a very interesting study, and you should always look to see how it is done when examining any plant. Thus, in the Oak and the Lime tree, the two halves of the leaf-blade are folded flat together; while in the Vine, Beech, and Currant the two halves are similarly pressed + +Plate 3. + + +A black and white illustration of a violet plant with leaves and flowers. + + +VIOLET. + +Handwritten: Luigi Scialti + +. . . + +THE SWEET VIOLET. +17 + +together, but crumpled, like a fan. The leaf of the Cherry tree is rolled round and round like a roll of paper; and in Ferns, each little piece, as well as the one at the end of the blade, is rolled in upon itself, like a Bishop's crozier, or like a watch-spring. Several other kinds might be mentioned. It is an excellent practice to take any bud, cut it sharply across, and then try and draw the appearance of the cut edges. Thus, the leaf-bud of an apple-tree cut across would be represented by the following figure: + + +A diagram showing a cross-section of a leaf bud, with the cut edges drawn to resemble a Bishop's crozier or a watch-spring. + + +The next thing to note, is that the leaves have all got what are called Stipules. They are the pointed scale-like little leaves more or less covering the rhizome. There are two to each leaf, the leaf-stalk rising out from between them. The stipules are much larger in the Pansy, when growing on the flowering stem of the plant, and almost give the appearance of three leaves together, but they are not hard to see; for the three, is the true leaf. These appendages to a leaf, or leaves, do not occur on all plants, but are peculiar to certain families, and often take very different forms, and have very different duties to do. Thus in the Garden and Sweet Pea they are very large, and answer all the purposes of leaves; but in the wild pea they are much smaller, as you may see in Plate 8. + +In the common or False Acacia (as a tree is popularly called which has white flowers, resembling those of the Laburnum in shape), there are sharp-pointed spines, which take the place of stipules. In the Oak + +C + +18 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +and Lime trees, all the stipules have to do is to form **bud scales** to protect the little delicate folded leaves from the frost. I shall have further occasion to allude to stipules. + +You should always make a point of searching in the fields, when you go out for a walk, for all these things that you read about, and never rest satisfied with merely reading about them. + +We will now proceed to examine the flower. The stalk carries two little bracts, but they are doubtless a pair of stipules without any leaf belonging to them, the leaf itself having got its place at a lower level. + +The flower of the Violet is very curious in several respects. In the first place, it is upside down, as the stalk is twisted. The five sepals are attached to the stalk a little above their base, so that each carries a sort of little green tail behind (see Fig. 1). The corolla is clearly very *irregular*, that is, the petals are of different shapes, one petal having a long pouch, called a *spur* (Fig. 2). There are five stamens, of which three are joined together by a slender covered petal carry each a little tail which lies within the spur (Fig. 3). These tail-like glands secrete honey, which the spur catches. Cut the spur open from the end, upwards, with a pair of finely-pointed scissors, and you will see the antler-tails lying hidden within. The other three stamens have no tails (as in Fig. 4), and all five cluster round the ovary, covering it above with their orange, three-cornered, flap-like appendages. We now come to the pistil. Observe how the style is bent just above the stigma, and how it has a little point of springing there. It ends above with what looks like the neck of a bird. It has a small hole at the end (Fig. 5). + +THE SWEET VIOLET. 19 + +Any irregular flower, that is, one of which the petals or other parts are not all of the same shape, such as the Violet, you may be quite sure is adapted by its form to receive the visits of insects. In the case of the violet, the insect would pass its proboscis down the spur, and in so doing it passes between the lower stamens and gets dusted with pollen. On going into another flower, some of the pollen would be sure to be caught on the tip of the little "beak," and pass into the little hole, wherein lies the stigma. Nevertheless, from some unknown cause, the flowers of the violet rarely set any seed. But this does not prevent them from being leaved, and you may see some very small buds, as marked by * in the Plate. If you wait till all the larger blossoms have gone, and the plant has apparently done blossoming, when the leaves increase in size and number, then you will find a great quantity of these minute buds, as well as round Capsules, some half-cup, others bursting with three valves (as in Fig. 6) and scattering their seeds. + +Let us examine one of these little buds with a pocket lens (Fig. a). There is a small calyx composed of five sepals, and two petals. The sepals will probably find no corolla, or at least very minute purplish green petals. There are two or more stamens (Fig. c), consisting of an oval part above which carries two little round anther-cells at its lower part. The anthers will be found pressed down together on the top of the ovary (as in Fig. b). The style has no "beak" but merely curls round under the anthers (Fig. d), so that the pollen is directly in contact with the blunt stigma at the end of the curving style, while it still is included within the anther-cell. + +c 2 + +20 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +These little flowers which thus produce seed without the aid of insects are said to be self-fertilizing, and as the union between the pollen and the stigma is concealed within the closed bud, the word cleido-gamous has been invented from two Greek words, meaning "enclosed" and "union." + +Several other flowers have cleistogamous buds as well as conspicuous flowers, such as the Wood-sorrel (Plate 7), Balsam, and a kind of Lamiun. + +The structure of the Heartsease is very like that of the Violet. The flower has a globular "head" instead of a beak-like extremity, and, just as the violet, requires insects to fertilize it; but it never bears cleistogamous buds. Instead of these, there is a small flowering kind, found in corn-fields, with tiny, pale-yellow blossoms. These are capable of fertilizing themselves, as the pollen is able to fall directly into the hole in the head, which leads to the stigma within. + +The fruit of Violets and Pansies is a little dry capsule, which bursts into three valves, each of which carries a cluster of seeds down the middle (Fig. 6). This shows that the pistil is made of three coherent carpels. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VIOLET FAMILY. +Herbs. +Leaves with stipules. +Flowers irregular, with a spurred corolla; stamens, of which two have honey-secreting tails; pistil, with a one-celled ovary with three rows of ovaries. +Fruit, a capsule bursting into three valves, each valve carrying many seeds. +Besides the sweet violet, which is sometimes double— + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower. + +. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +Plate 4. + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Ragged Robin (Lathyrus latifolius). The top part shows a flowering stem with several flowers and leaves. Below that, there is a close-up of a flower bud, followed by a flower bud with its petals slightly open. Further down, there is a flower with its petals fully open, showing the stamens and pistil. At the bottom left, there are three smaller illustrations: one of a flower bud, one of a flower with its petals partially open, and one of a flower with its petals fully open. To the right, there is a larger illustration of the plant's stem and leaves. + + +RAGGED ROBIN. + +Handwritten: Long Branch! + +THE RAGGED BOBIN. 21 + +that is to say, there is a great number of petals standing in the place of the stamens and pistil, neither of which are formed at all--there is the large garden Paney, which is a cultivated form of the wild one. Several foreign kinds are also grown. + +The Violet Family does not contain any plants of much use to man. A few are used as medicine. + +THE PINK FAMILY. +THE RAGGED BOBIN. + +The genera of the Pink Family are divided into two groups, or *Tubus* according as the sepals are *eherent* as in the Pink, or *free* as in the Stitchwort and Chickweed. We will take the Ragged Bobin, which blossoms in May and June, as a type of the first, and the Stitchwort, which flowers rather earlier, in April, but often continues till June, as a type of the second *Tubus*. + +First observe how the leaves are always arranged in pairs, and are said to be *opposite*. Each pair points in contrary directions to that of the next pair above or below it. + +Some leaves of plants spring singly from the stem they are said to be *alternate*, as is the case with the Wallflower and Violet, and indeed, such an arrangement is much commoner than opposite leaves, though these latter are far from being rare. The leaves of all the plants of this family never have any saw-like or other indentations along the margin or edge, hence they are said to be *entire*. + +See, also, how the stem is somewhat swollen at the + +22 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +joints, or Nodes. Both of these features are characteristic of the family. + +Let us first examine the Inflorescence, or the way in which the flowers are grouped together. Notice how the main stem, if you follow it from below upwards, ends above in a flower; then, the next to blossom are two in number, arising, one from each axil of the pair of bracts just below the first. Those two blossom together, and so on: in every case, the Peduncle which arises from any axil ends in a flower, and cannot grow more. + +Now you will remember in the Wallflower the Peduncle did not end in a flower, but kept growing and growing, bearing a long succession of flowers all the way up into its side, but no flower was ever formed at the end of the Peduncle. + +Hence we see, then, that Inflorescences may be of one of two kinds—Indefinite, as in the Crucifer Family, or Definite, as in the Pink Family. Because an indefinite peduncle means one which is not ended in a flower, whereas a definite peduncle is ended in a flower at the end of the peduncle stops its further growth. + +We will now proceed to dissect and examine the flower. + +The Sepals are five in number, as is shown by the five little points on the top of the little tube or cup which is thus made up of five coherent sepals (Fig. 1). The Corolla has five petals, which are fixed, or, as botanists say, inserted by fine or tapering stalks, which you will remember, we called claws in the Wallflower. Each petal carries two lobes: one uppermost at the top of the claw, and below the slashed petal-limb, as + +THE RAGGED ROBIN. + +shown in Fig. 2. Of the ten stamens, five are adhèrent to the petals. See Fig. 2. The other five are free. +You see I have used two words to signify a "joining", or "union"—"Cohesion means "joining together," and is only used when the parts of any one whorl are united together, as the sepals of the calyx of the Ragged Robin. Adherent means "joined to," and is applied to any two or more, but different whorls which are fastened together; thus one of the whorls of five stamens is in this flower fastened to, that is, adherent to the Corolla whorl. +The corolla is slightly raised by the growth of the flower stalk or receptacle. The carpels are five in number, as is easily seen by the five free styles, though their five ovaries are coherent together below, as shown in Fig. 3. The ovary, however, has only one cell. +Cut it straight down, and you will see a column standing free in the middle. Cut the ovary of another flower across, and you will cut through the column, which you will observe carries a quantity of ovules all over its surface (Fig. 4). +The fruit is a capsule which opens by five teeth, which curl back at the top; through the opening thus formed, the seeds drop out (Fig. 5). + +Of our British wild Flowers belonging to this family, there are five genera of the same group with the Ragged Robin. There are several species of Pink, such as the Deptford, the Maiden, and the Cheddar Pink : several others are cultivated under the names of Carnation and Freesia. Then there are the Seawort, Catchfly, Campion, and Nettle; also Corn Cockle. + +23 + +24 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE PINK FAMILY—Continued. +THE GREATER STITCHWORT. + +The genera of the Pink Family which have their sepals free are often leaf-like, and without conspicuous flowers, such as Chickweed, Pearlwort, Spurry, and Sandwort; but the Greater Stitchwort is one of the prettiest and commonest of wild flowers, brightening up our hedge-rows every April and May with its white star-like blossoms. + +Notice the definite kind of inflorescence which was described under the Ragged Robin, and which is just the same as this. The flower-stalks are long, and in a flower, the first to blossom being the single, central one, which ends the main stem; then two together; then four together, two on each of the last peduncles. And if it has strength to produce more flowers there would be eight; but after a time one or more flowers fail to grow. The whole group which makes up the inflorescence is called a Cyme. + +There are five sepals which you can remove separately. Be careful not to mistake the number of petals, for it looks as if there were ten, but there are really only five, because they are joined at the base. Moreover, the petals are not inserted by claws. Of the ten stamens, the five taller ones in front of the sepals shed their pollen first, then those in front of the petals; and about the same time as these last are so doing, the three styles grow and spread themselves out, so that they must generally have pollen brought to them by insects from other flowers. This state of things is very common in flowers with conspicuous corollas, and with two + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower with sepals and petals. + +Plate 5. + +A detailed botanical illustration of Greater Stitchwort (Sedum telephium). The main illustration shows the plant with its long, narrow leaves and small, star-shaped flowers. Below it, there are three smaller illustrations showing different parts of the flower: a bud, a fully opened flower, and a close-up of the stamen and pistil. + +GREATER STITCHWORT. +Scandens-vela Campi Scandens? + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +THE GREATER STITCHWORT. 25 + +whorls of stamens, as we shall find with the Meadow Gomphium. And even when there is only one whorl of stamens, it is a very common thing for the anthers to have shed most of, or all their pollen before the stigmas are sufficiently mature to receive it. Whenever this takes place, the flower is said to be *proterandrous*, a word made out of two Greek words, *proder*--before, and *androus*--which refers to stamens, meaning that the anthers are mature before the stigmas. + +The pastil is composed of three carpels, as shown by the three styles, but the ovary is one-celled, as in the Ragged Robin. Cut it across and you will find the ovules arranged in a single row, which is thus said to be *free-central*, and is similar to that of the Ragged Robin. The fruit is a capsule which bursts into five valves, as shown in Fig. 3, with the five sepals remaining as well. + +There are several species of Stitchwort, of which the Chickwood is really one, though called by another name. This has very inconspicuous flowers; it has only three stamens, and is almost always self-fertilised, especially in the case of the female flowers, which remain closed, like the cleistogamous bolls of the Violet. The stamens, however, have little glands at the bottom of the filaments, as in the Greater Stitchwort (see Fig. 1); so they can probably secrete honey in warm weather, as these tiny flowers are sometimes visited by bees. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PINK FAMILY. + +Herbs with stems having swollen nodes. +Leaves opposite and entire. +Flowers regular; sepals coherent or free; petals + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower with three stamens and a single ovary. + +26 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +clawed or not; stamens often twice the number of petals; pistil with coherent ovaries and free styles. +Fruit, a capsule with a free-central placenta bearing many seeds. + +THE GERANIUM FAMILY. +THE MEADOW GERANIUM. + +We have in Great Britain eleven species of Geranium, of which this one, blossoming from May to July, has the largest flowers. The corollas of the other species decrease in size till the smallest is not more than a quarter inch across. + +Observe how the stems are somewhat swollen at the joints, or nodes, where the leaves arise, and that there are a pair of little scale-like stipules at this place. You see them very well in the garden scarlet Geranium. They act as protectors to the flower-buds, which arise from the axils of the leaves. + +The flowers have all their parts in five, there being two whorls of stamens, or ten in all. * The pistil has five carpels, but only four stigmas. As in the Stitchwort, the five stamens which stand in front of the sepals, shed their pollen before the other five, and it is not till all the anthers have burst, that the stigmas are ready to receive the pollen; which must then be brought by insects from some other flowers. + +If, however, you can get blossoms from a species called G. pyrenaicum, but which has no English name, you will find the pistil is ready for the pollen after the first set + +* Figs. 1 and 2 show the back and front view of a stamen, with the filament inserted into the back of the anther. + +Plate 6 + + +A black and white illustration of a meadow geranium plant with large, round flowers at the top and smaller, more delicate flowers at the bottom. The leaves are long and narrow, with serrated edges. + + +MEADOW GERANIUM + +Smaller than usual! + +. + +THE MEADOW GERANIUM. 27 + +of stamens have shed their pollen, and before the second set have done so; so this species can be both crossed and also be self-fertilized. And if we take the smallest flowering species, *G. pusillum*, we shall find that the pistil has its stigma unfolded before any of the anthers have burst. Hence the genus Geranium is very instructive; for it shows us that when flowers are large and very conspicuous they require the aid of insects to fertilize them; but when they are comparatively much smaller and generally inconspicuous and insignificant looking, then they can easily fertilize themselves. + +I have already more than once drawn your attention to these facts, about intercrossing and self-fertilization, and you may begin to wonder what it all means, and why there are such differences. Well, botanists do not yet quite know enough about plant-life to say positively why some plants absolutely require the pollen to be brought to them from other flowers than their own, or they would die out for want of seed, if they could not propagate by any other way; but, again, some flowers are only dependent on visiting insects and partly self-fertilizing; and lastly, why some are quite independent of insects, and can fertilize themselves freely. + +A fact easily to be seen is this: that those flowers which are visited are always attractive for their scent or bright colour, or are large and white. Indeed, they are mostly large flowers, and if, small, they are then massed together as to become conspicuous collectively, as we already see is the case with the Woodruff and the Thyme. On the other hand, those which are self-fertilizing are usually at least as conspicuous, and consequently insects do not, or very rarely, visit them. + +28 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +They, however, set seed abundantly; as every gardener knows how troublesome many weeds are. It seems, therefore, that by intercrossing the plant receives some help, or stimulus, to its growth, so that its offspring become larger plants with more conspicuous flowers; but for merely setting seed, self-fertilizing plants are the best off, since they are not dependent upon the visits of insects; which, indeed, often fail to go to them in cold and wet weather. + +When the flower ripens into a fruit, the carpels detach themselves from below upwards, from a beak-like prolongation of the floral receptacle; each little egg-shaped ovary then bursts and drops its seed out. Fig. 3 shows the five carpels thus breaking away from the central support, the five sepals having remained down below. + +**THE GERANIUM FAMILY—Continued.** + +**THE WOOD-SORREL.** + +This pretty little plant is fond of woods and shady banks. Its leaves are not unlike clover, and, like that plant, "go to sleep" by folding the three leaflets together. Many plants do this, and some will press their leaflets together if you do but touch them. A bough of the common False Acacia will sometimes fall asleep if shaken. But a plant called the sensitive plant, which covers the ground in some tropical countries, will close its leaves even when hot sun glistens on them. + +The five sepals of the Wood-sorrel to be found in May, resemble the Geranium in having all the whorls of the same number, five. The five petals may be seen + +Plate 7 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta) showing multiple plants with their roots and leaves. + + +WOOD SORREL. + + +Sawyer's Gray's Manual + + +. + +THE WOOD-SORREL. + +29 + +in the illustration; and Fig. 1 shows the ten stamens in two sets of five each; five having long filaments, and five are with short ones, all surrounding the pistil with its five long styles. + +This plant is remarkable for having, besides the white blossoms which open, other little cleistogamous buds which do not expand at all, just as in the violet (see Figs. a, b, c, d).* In these the stamens are very short (Fig. e) and not at all elongated, as in the larger flowers (Fig. 1), so that while Fig. 1 shows that the conspicuous flowers clearly require insects, as the stamens are long and exposed, whereas Fig. e shows how, in the cleistogamous buds they lie in close contact with them, so that they are entirely self-fertilizing. + +When the little capsules (Fig. d) are ripe, the seeds escape in a curious manner, for they have elastic outer coats which, with the slightest touch, burst, so that the seeds get scattered about. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE GERANIUM FAMILY. + +Herbs; that is, plants with no wood in them. + +Leaves, with membranous stipules, or none. + +Flowers, with whorls in lives; the sepals remaining; the petals overlapping each other in bud; stamens five or more, sometimes fewer or less united by their filaments; pistil of five carpels. + +This is not a family which supplies us with any very useful products, but many are cultivated for their + +* Fig. 1 is very much enlarged. Fig. e is about the natural size. +Fig. 1 is the corolla from Fig. e (with the petals overlapping one another); showing how they are closely pressed together when not yet fully ex- +panded. Fig. g is the pistil and stamens removed from the bud (e), and considerably enlarged. Fig. d is the fruit with scales remaining, +natural size. + +30 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +beauty. The garden "Gernanium," or rather Polar- +gonium, as it ought to be called, furnishes a great +many varieties. They come from the Cape of Good +Hope. Many have beautiful zones, or bands of colour +on their leaves. The garden "Nasturtium," with its +large yellow or orange spoured flowers, is a member of +this family, the leaves of which are supported in the +centre by their stalks, hence they are called *petate* +leaves, i. e. shield-like. Several species of Oxalis, yellow, +crimson, and violet in colour, are cultivated ; as also the +curious Dicentra, with very irregular spurred flowers, +and of which the capitate stamens clasping into five +valves, which screw themselves up on being touched, +thereby scattering the seeds to a distance. + +THE PEA FAMILY. +THE MEADOW PEA. + +The Meadow Pea, blossoming in July and August, +the Sweet Pea, or the Garden Pea will do equally well +for examination. They all have very weak stems and +compound leaves that, there is more than one blade +to each leaf. At the base of the least stalk there are +in the Kitchen Pea two large extra blades of a different +shape from the others; in the Sweet and Meadow Pea, +these extra blades are much smaller. They are the +Stipules. The upper ends of the leaf-stalks are changed +into Tendrils, but in the Meadow Pea there is only one +thread-like tendril; in the Sweet Pea and in the +Garden Pea, each of the twisted thread-like branches +stands in the place of a small blade or leaflet. + +Plate 8. + + +A botanical illustration of a meadow pea plant. + + +MEADOW PEA. + +Sandorla Gray's Botany + +5 + +THE MEADOW PEA. + +I have already described the stipules of the Violet and of the Geranium, and mentioned the Garden Pea as having very large ones, which look quite like extra leaves. Indeed, they do the work of leaves, supplying the place of those leaflets which are now represented by tendrils. + +The use of the tendril is to climb with, and so enable the weak stem to stand upright; to do this the leaf is in constant motion, going round and round by beating in all directions, as far as possible that it may reach neighbouring objects. As soon as any one of its little branches rubs against a twig, it begins to curl round and round till it till has fastened the pea tight to the twig. + +I have said that tendrils have taken the place of leaflets; or we may say that leaflets have turned into tendrils; though this does not, of course, mean that there ever was a leaflet where we now see a tendril, but that little branches on the tendril have grown out what would have been a leaflet had it not been for Nature's change of nature of a certain part of a plant in order to do some different work, is not at all uncommon in plants; and it shows a very curious power which Nature possesses of using the same organ for several different purposes. Thus we have already seen how stamens and carpels can be replaced by petals in "double" flowers, or even sometimes by green leaves, as in the Alpine Strawberry, proving that they are of the same nature really, but have in ordinary flowers a definite unity, or functional unity, so that they can take on a peculiar structure, such as an anther with pollen or a carpel with ovules. So, in the case of the tendril, it + +31 + +32 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +is really a leaf, as you can easily see, but the little blades or leaflets are partly suppressed, while the mid-rib which usually runs down the middle of the leaflet is alone retained, and now becomes highly sensitive to the touch. In the Grape-vine the tendril is not in the place of a leaf at all, but of a flowering branch; and it is very sensitive, just as that of the Pea is; but when the branch bears flowers it, of course, does not climb with its tendrils, but sends out new ones. You may, however, sometimes find a bunch with only a very few buds, say five or six, instead of a large number; and then its branches are larger, and become more or less like tendrils, showing how one kind of function, that of bearing flower-buds, may be stopped, and then the branch begins to assume the other function, that of climbing. Do not forget to hunt for these different kinds when you next see a Grape-vine. + +Now let us examine a flower. The sepals, like those of the Balsam (Fig. 1), are two on each side (see Fig. 1); the five little points show how many sepals there are thus cohering. The corolla is very irregular, the five petals having peculiar shapes, and receiving special names accordingly. Thus, the largest, at the back, is called the Standard (Fig. 2); the two below it, one being on each side, are the Wings (Fig. 3); while the two lowermost, which cohere slightly along their lower edges, form together the Keel (Fig. 4). Removing the petals, you will find ten stamens; one from the upper side being free while the others nine are cohering with their filaments (Fig. 5), the tips of which, however, are free, as well as the ten anthers. The Petals and the stamens, instead of growing directly from the floral + +A diagram illustrating a flower's structure. +14 + +THE MEADOW PEA. 33 + +receptacle, are adherent or fastened to the bottom of the calyx. The long ovary of the pistil is shut up within the, so to say, "split tube" thus formed by the filaments. It is prolonged upwards to a style which protrudes beyond the stamens and ends with the stigma (see Fig. 5). The Pistil consists of a single carpel only. + +When the flower fades, the calyx remains, but the petals fall away. The single carpel enlarges, and becomes the well-known pod (called by botanists a Legume), while its several ovules turn to Peas (Fig. 6). + +If a pea be carefully examined, you will see a little projection at one end of the pod, called the seed scar. This shows where the seed was attached to the pod, while the name Hole is given to this spot or scar. + +If a pea, bean, or almond be soaked in water, so as to remove the Seed-skin, the young plant, or Embryo is seen. It will be found to separate into two halves, which are called Cotyledons, but which remain attached together at one point, as by a little hinge. A little tail-like projection will be found at the "hinge," and which, when covered by the seed-skin, is the little leaflet of the Pod (see Fig. 6); this is called the Radicle: it is connected with a minute bud which lies concealed in a little depression between the two flaky cotyledons. This bud bears the name of Plumule. All four parts taken together make up the Embryo. You should sow some mustard and creas, peas, and wheat, and other seeds, on wet sand or cotton wool, covering them with a bell-jelly, as it is very interesting and instructive to watch the growth of their plants. The mustard and creas produce radicles first, while the tip lengthens into a root, the radicle itself. + +P + +34 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +being the first thread-like stem you see when they are fit to eat. The cotyledons in these two plants are carried up above ground, and turn green, which shows that they are really two leaves; but while within the seed they were thick, and not at all like leaves, their function then being merely to store up food to enable the radicle to grow, until it shall have struck root into the soil, when it would be able to take in fresh food. The little plumule remains idle for some time, and only begins to grow when the seedlings have well rooted themselves; as soon as the plumule has grown out of its young leaves, you then say the Mustard is too old to eat. + +In the Pea and Bean, however, things are a little different; for the cotyledons do not come above ground at all; and, instead, the Plumule starts first into growth. It is the elongated plumule that you first see coming above ground. The radicle at once develops a root underground, and does not grow into a little stem as in Mustard. + +In these plants the embryo has two Cotyledons (see Fig. 7), and all Flowering Plants which have two cotyledons (see p. 6), for all plants which bear flowers belong to this class. + +As the blossom of the Pea shows several peculiarities, it will not be amiss to compare it with a Buttercup. + +THE MEADOW PEA. 35 + +In the first place, the sepals are coherent instead of being free. The petals are irregular, and not regular, as in Buttercup. While the latter flower has many free stamens, the Pea has only ten, of which one only is free, the other nine being coherent. Moreover, in the Buttercup the petals and stamens grow from, or, as we say, are "inserted upon" the floral receptacle; in the Pea they are inserted upon, or are adherent to, the calyx. Lastly, the pistil of the Buttercup has several free carpels, each with one ovule. The Pea has only one carpel, but it contains many ovules. + +The Pea therefore teaches us how Nature is able to bring about so much variety in the structure of flowers; for if we suppose a flower to have, say, five free sepals, five free petals, five or ten free stamens, and five carpels, as the Geranium or Wood-sorrel has; then we see how any whorl may vary in Number, for the Celandine had but three sepals, and the Wallflower four. Similarly, the petals in the Celandine were about eight, but in the Wallflower only four. Again, the stamens are very many in the Buttercup, six in the Wood-sorrel, and two in the Geranium. + +The next point of difference is in the Cohesion of the parts of any whorl; thus the sepal cohere in the Ragged Robin and Pea, but are free in all the other flowers described. Moreover, while in all previous cases mentioned the petals and stamens grew out of the floral receptacle, we have now arrived at a new condition in the Pea, in that they spring from the calyx, having grown to its some extent: this union of two + +* I have described the tube as the mazg, but it may be respected to be a recognizan tube. The same may be said of the Strawberry. + +D 2 + +36 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +different whorls is called *Adhesion*, to distinguish it from the union or *Cohesion* of the parts of any one whorl. Lastly, any whorl may be *irregular* in *Form* instead of regular by having one or more of its parts of a different shape from the others. + +Number, Cohesion, Adhesion, and Form are therefore called *Principles of Variation*, and the great variety of flowers and the differences of their structure can almost always be explained by one or more of these four principles. + +The Genus or Furu, the Broom, Rest-Harrow, and two others much less common, differ from the Pea, Clovers, Vetches, Linerne, Sainfoin, and other genera of the Pea Family by having all ten stamens joined together, instead of there being one free, as in the latter genera. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PEA FAMILY. +Leaves compound, with stipules, and sometimes tendrils. + +Flowers with coherent calyx; petals irregular; stamens united into one bundle, or nine coherent and one free; pistil of one carpel. + +Fruit, a Legume. + +The Pea Family is one which supplies mankind with more useful *products* than any other family of the whole Vegetable Kingdom, which contains some hundreds of families, each, of course, composed of genera, and the genera of species. It has many very nutritious and wholesome seeds, as Peas, Beans, Lentil, &c.; medicines, as Sena; dyes, as Logwood and Indigo; as well as fibres, timber; gums, resins; and other things too numerous to mention. + +. . . + +Plate 9. + +STRAWBERRY. +Snowdonia Garden Press + +THE WILD STRAWBERRY. 37 + +**THE ROSE FAMILY.** + +**THE WILD STRAWBERRY.** + +The Strawberry plant, which blossoms in May and June, is remarkable for its long runners, which are branches with very long internodes, as the parts of a stem between the leaves are called, and which strike root from the nodes or joints where the leaves arise. These give rise to new plants by sending out new shoots, finally separating themselves from the parent plant by the decay of the internodes. The same thing occurs in the Creeping Buttercup and in the Violet. + +As in the Pea, the calyx of the Strawberry has five coherent sepals, and, in addition, carries five small *bracts* outside (see Fig. 1). They are regarded by some botanists as being *stipules*, for every leaf in the Rose Family has two stipules, one on each side of each sepal (respectively), but these are small, which have no use to make one of these five bracts. You may sometimes find them *forking*, or showing their two points. + +By cultivation, the Garden Strawberry often has the number of sepals and petals increased. The petals are properly five, but the stamens are too many to count. Now particularly observe that the petals and stamens do not rise out of the floral receptacle, free from the calyx, as in Buttercups, but are inserted upon the calyx, just as in the Pea, and form a ring round the border of a juicy Disk which secretes honey. This is therefore, a case of *Adhesion* between different whorls. The pistil resembles that of the Buttercup, for it is also + +A diagram showing the structure of a strawberry flower. + +38 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +composed of a great many minute carpels. The re- +ceptacle is also raised above the calyx, and when it +passes into a fruit, it swells very much, becomes globular, +and turns scarlet, while the now ripened achenes— +popularly called "seeds"—stand further apart in little +depressions, and appear scattered over the juicy red +receptacle which you call the Strawberry fruit. +Fig. 2 represents the flower seen from below, to show +the calyx with the five stipular bracts alternating with +the sepals. + +Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the flower, to show how +the stamens and petals adhere to the dish-like base of +the calyx; the elevated receptacle is in the centre. + +Fig. 3 is a stamen, and Fig. 4 a carpel, more enlarged +than Figs. 1 and 2. + +THE ROSE FAMILY—Continued. +THE DOG-ROSE. + +In June and July we may find the Dog-rose in +blossom; it is a woody shrub. It has compound leaves, +and stipules like little wings attached to the leaf- +stalks. + +Observe that the flower-stalk is swollen under the +flower; and if you cut the flower down the middle, it +will be found that the stalk is really the floral re- +ceptacle, but is hollowed so that forms a cup, called +the receptacle-cup (see Fig. 1). The cup contains five +free petals, and the large number of stamens, all springing +from the rim of the cup, which is lined by an orange- +coloured disk. The separate hairy carpels, as in the + +Plate 10 + +Dog Rose illustration with three smaller illustrations of different parts of the flower. +Dog Rose. + +Standard Oil Prod. + +6 + +THE DOG-ROSE. 39 + +Strawberry are seed-like, but with long styles (Fig. 2). They are fixed to the bottom and sides of the cup-like receptacle (Fig. 1); so that while in the Strawberry the receptacle is raised into a globe above the level of the calyx, in the Rose it is hollowed out of the stalk, below the calyx. It forms the scarlet "haw" when ripe (Fig. 3). + +It is worth while comparing the Rose with the Apple-blossom, though they will not be in bloom at the same time. + +There is in the Apple, or Pear, a thickened top to the flower-stalk, as in the Rose, but it carries five co-herend sepals, which thus form a sort of saucer on the top, lined with a honey-disk, to which the five petals and many stamens are adherent. Cut this thick re-ceptacular tube across, through the part just below the calyx, and you will find it is not quite so hollow as in the Rose, but nearly filled up with soft flesh, in which are embedded the five carpels, which seem to be the true Apple-seeds, or "pips," which they contain. The core" (that is, the five carpels, with two pips or seeds in each ovary) is plunged into the juicy tissue of the swollen stalk or receptacular tube. The styles and stigmas are elevated more or less above the level of the calyx, while the petals and stamens are all adherent to the rim of the saucer-like calyx. + +When a fruit has the calyx, and often the stamens re-maining withered on its summit, as have Apples, Pears, Curtums, etc., it is called a "core"; but it is not an inferior fruit, for it appears to be below the calyx. If, however, the ovary has never been sunk into a receptacular tube, it will, of course, remain above, and quite free + +40 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +from the calyx. Such a fruit is called *superior*, and can never carry the withered calyx at the top. Thus Achenes, Siliquea, Legumes, Plums, Cherries, and Grapes are examples, as are all other fruits hitherto described in this book. Such fruits when *juicy* are called "superior berries," while Curtains and the like are called "inferior berries"; the special kind, as an Apple or Pear, is called a *Pome*. + +Yet another distinction may be made, namely, with the Plum; for this too belongs to the Rose Family. Nearly all the genera of which agree in having five sepals, five petals, and a large number of stamens, which together with the petals, are *adherent* to the calyx. (In the Rose alone are they almost, if not quite, free.) + +The Plum exhibits a superior fruit of a remarkable kind. + +In the blossom of the Sloe, Plum, or Cherry��for they are three species of the same genus—the calyx has its five sepals coherent, but the little "cup" (the word calyx being used here in its botanical sense) is quite free from the single carpel which stands at the bottom. As the ovary swells to become a Plum, the withered calyx becomes detached at the bottom, and is squeezed off and over the top of the ovary like a cup, and in so doing, though dead and shrivelled, often protects the young ovary from the nipping frosts of spring. When the single carpel has ripened into a Plum, it will be found to consist of a feely eatable part, protected by a skin, and having a stony inner part—the three parts, or layers—called *endosperm*, which forms the stone. The *endosperm* is the seed, and *seeds*, of course, an ovule. Such a "stone" fruit, which is a kind of superior berry, is called a *Drupe*. + +1 + +Plate II + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Bryony, showing leaves, stems, and flowers. + + +BRYONY + +Samuel John Bailey + +THE WILD BRYONY. +41 + +The Raspberry and Strawberry, both members of this Rose Family, agree in having several carpels, and are also superior fruits; but while in the Strawberry the little carpels dry up, and so cling tight to their single seeds and make achesen, in the Raspberry they form miniature drupes. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ROSE FAMILY. +Herbs, Shrubs, or Trees. +Leaves compound, or simple. +Flowers regular; sepals coherent; petals, five and stamens many, both being inserted on the calyx. +Fruits various, schenes, drupes, pomes, &c. +This order furnishes us with several sorts of fruit, as all kinds of Plums, Peaches, Apricots, &c., Raspberries and Blackberries; Strawberries; Apples, Pears, Quinces, and Medlars. Many kinds of Rose, Potentilla, and others are grown for beauty. + +THE CUCUMBER FAMILY. + +THE WILD BRYONY. +The wild Bryony, which blossoms from June to September, is the only plant we possess of this family in Great Britain. Like the Plum it climbs by tendrils, which consist of one long thread-like piece, which, as soon as it has caught anything, coils up like a cork-screw, but both to the right and to the left. If you count them by tens of twits, you will find as many go one way as the other. + +The first thing you will discover on examining the flowers is that the pistil is never in the same flower. + +42 + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +with the stamens, nor even on the same plant. You may easily know the flowers apart by the fact that the *pistillate* flowers stand on little balls, which are the *inferior* ovaries, while there are no such balls to the *stamine* flowers. Compare the two drawings on this Plate. Many other plants in this condition have the stamens and pistils on separate plants: thus the common Stinging Nettle, the Willow and Poplar trees, a species allied to the Ragged Robin—all have these organs on separate plants. Others have them in separate flowers, but both on the same plant, as Vegetable Marrow, the Oak and Beech trees, &c. + +Let us first examine a stamine flower. The sepals of the calyx are clearly coherent; so are the petals, and, moreover, the corolla is adherent to the calyx. The stamens, which are adherent to the corolla, are joined together at their bases; though they are five in all really, but they are united in two pairs, together with a single one free. Examine the authors with your lens and you will see they are like the letter S., and have little bright-bead-like cells along the edges (Fig. 1). Honey is formed in the middle of the flower, as the pollen must be carried from one plant to another. In the pistillate flowers there are, as observed, no stamens; but the pistil has three styles and stigma (Fig. 2). The little green balls below finally become berries bearing many fruits. + +Cucumbers, Melons, Pumpkins, Gourds, and Vegetable Marrows all belong to this family, and have the stamens and pistils in separate flowers, but not always on separate plants. Thus, in the cucumbers and melons, both pistillate and staminial flowers grow on the same plant. + +THE WILD BRYONY. +43 + +Gardeners usually pluck off the flowers with stamens, and dust the pistil of the others with them. People who do not know how important it is to do this, some- +times wonder why they get no fruit when the plants are grown in closed frames into which bees cannot get access; for these insects will crow the flowers when they can come for the honey. + +It is worth while studying the structure of the fruit of a cucumber plant, a cut slice. The six edges of the three carpels first meet in the middle so as to divide the ovary into three chambers; but they then grow outwards, and finally turn upwards again when they have arrived near the outer wall, so that the seeds attached to the edges point inwards, giving an anchor-like appearance to them. The chambers get filled with pulpy tissue, in which the seeds are em- +bedded. + +**Gynnaal DESCRIPTION OF THE CUCUMBER FAMILY.** + +*Herbe* climbing by tendrils. +*Flowers* with stamens or pistils only. +*Stamens* coherent all together, or in groups of twos, with one free; anthers S-like. +*Fruit* an inferior berry, or Pepo, as Gourds are botanically named. + +A great number furnish useful food, as those men- +tioned above. Some are very bitter, such as the Colo- +cyath, or Wild Vine of Scripture. It is a useful +medicine, and may often be seen in chemists' windows, +resembling peonies. + +Fig. 1 shows two stamens joined together, and Fig. 2 is the pistil, with the calyx and corolla removed. Both +Figs. are enlarged. + +44 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE MADDER FAMILY. +THE WOODRUFF. + +This family is a very large one, principally growing in hot countries, and contains the Coffee-tree and the Cinchona, which gives us the medicine so useful in fevers, called quinine. It is divided into Tribes, one of which--the Madder Tribe--contains the common English plants which belong to this family. We have but four genera, namely, one species of Madder, several of Galium, the Woodruff, and the Blue Sherardia. Notice how the leaves are all arranged in whorls like stars. This is why the name *Stellate*, from the Latin word *Stella*, a star, has been given to them. + +The globular inferior ovary with two cells and the funnel-shaped corolla, are easy to see (Fig. 1); but there is no visible calyx; for it had been present; it would have been at the top of the flower below the corolla; but as it has not grown at all, the calyx is said to have been arrested. Four stamens adhere to the corolla; and a single style, arising from the middle of a cup-like honey disk, and ending above with two branches, complete the flower. In the Madder and Galium the corolla has no funnel-shaped tube, but it somewhat resembles a little five- or four-toothed *wheel*, and is hence said to be *rotule* in shape, from *rotus*, a wheel, in Latin. All four genera form fruits resembling two little ball-joints together; one species of Galium, called "Glaucens," has its fruits covered with hooked bristles. + +Plate 12 + + +A black and white illustration of a plant with a long stem and compound leaves. The top left shows a close-up of the flower, which has five petals and a central cluster of stamens. + + +WOODRUFF + +Woodruff's copy + +--- + +. . . + +Plate 13 + +Dandelion illustration. +DANDELION + +Standard Copy? Hand? + +THE DANDELION. +45 + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STELLATE TRIBE OF THE MADDEN FAMILY. + +Herbs. Leaves in whorls. +Flowers minute, but clustered together; parts in fours or fives; calyx often arrested; corolla regular. +Fruit of two coherent "nutlets." + +The plants most useful to us are undoubtedly the Madder, Coffee, Cinchona, and Ipecacuanha. The Madder yields the red dye of this name. If animals be fed upon the plant, their bones become red! The Coffee bears a brown-red berry, with two seeds in it. It is the seeds which are roasted, which we wrongly call "coffee." It comes from Arabia and Abyssinia, but is grown in Ceylon and elsewhere. The Cinchona trees grow in the mountainous regions of the north-west of South America. Ipecacuanha, like Quinine, is a valuable medicine. Several have very beautiful flowers, and are much prized for their beauty or scent, such as the Gardenia. + +THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. + +THE DANDELION. + +This plant and the Daisy belong to one of the largest of families; and for comparison get as well--as each blossoms in its season--a Thistle, a Cornflower, and the Garden Marigold. Let us begin with the Dandelion, which is one of the earliest, blossoming from May to June. + +You see a quantity of green "breads" below the yellow flowers. These are not sepals, because it is not a single + +46 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +flower, but composed of a dense mass of small but perfect flowers. Cut the Head, as it is called, down the middle. You can then break it up, and pick out the several flowers or florets. Take one from the outside (Fig. 1), and observe the following facts. The ovary is inferior, seemingly forming a support to the flower. On the top you see a ring of hairs; this stands in the place of the calyx, and is called the Pappus, and forms afterwards the Down of the scheme-like fruits (Fig. 2). The corolla rises from the top of the ovary, from within the hairs, as a tube, but soon spreads out like a strap to one side, and then to another, so that they show that it has five coherent petals. There are five stamens; their filaments grow quite freely from one another, but spring from—that is, are adherent to—the tube of the corolla. Their anthers are very long, and all five cohere together into a tube or cylinder by their edges, through which the style, by gradually going upwards, pushes its way, and so sweeps the pollen upwards and out at the top of the anther-tube, which then falls upon other stigmas of the floret around, or is carried away to the receptacle of another floret, then separate—for they had previously stuck together—and so prevented the pollen from touching them—and look at first like the letter Y, the arms of which soon curl back, so it assumes the appearance of miniature ram's horns. +All the little florets are exactly alike; and you now see and can understand why the Dandelion is not a simple flower, as it is composed of many florets, and this is why the family is called the Composite Family. +The Thistle differs from the Dandelion in that the + +THE DANDELION. +47 + +florets are all little tubes, with a regular five-toothed border, and not strap-shaped. Indeed, the florets of the Dandelion only differ in the tube being split down and flattened out. The stamens and pistil are constructed like those of the Thistle. + +In the Cornflower they are all tubes like the Thistle, only those on the outside are very much larger than the rest, and will be found to contain no stamens nor pistil at all. + +When the head of a Dandelion becomes a mass of ripened fruits, a good many changes take place. First, the bracts, instead of being erect, all curl backwards, like the lower ones in the drawing. The corollas fall away, and leave behind them, like petals, the ovary and pappus of Fig. 1. grown and grows till it becomes like a tail, slender rod, and carries the pappus on the top, now spread out flat like a chimney-sweeper's brush (Fig. 2). The ovary has now several little pointed projections which have grown up onto its surface, and which serve as anchors to retain the seed when it falls on the ground, or amongst grass, &c. There is only one seed in each ovary. As soon as it is ripe a puff of wind will detach these little fruits, and they fly away to great distances like natural parachutes. + +48 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE COMPOSITE FAMILY—Continued. +THE DAISY. + +In the three flowers just described, the Dandelion, Cornflower, and Thistle, the whole of the florets are of the same colour; but in the Daisy there is a manifest difference between the white florets and the central yellow one. Of course, we may now imagine the green bracts outside to be sepals, nor the white florets, petals only, nor the yellow ones, stamens only; for it is not a simple flower, but a head of florets, and the ones on the outside are called Ray-florets, those in the middle Disk-florets. The Ray-florets have strap-shaped corollas like the Dandelion (Fig. 2), but the disk-florets are tubular like those of the Thistle (Fig. 1). The Ray-florets, however, have only three petals instead of five, to make the strap with, and, moreover, they have a style passing up in style with two stigma. On the other hand, those of the "eye" or disk-florets are quite perfect, that is, they have both stamens and pistils, as shown in Fig. 1, in which the corolla is laid open to exhibit the stamens attached to it within, and the style passing up the centre. The ovary is supposed to be cut open to show the single erect ovule in the chamber. The figure is much enlarged. + +If we compare the garden Marigold with the Daisy, we shall find that the ray-florets are like those of the Daisy, having pistil without stamens, but the disk-florets have stamens only; they have a style and a globular, not forked, stigma, it is true, but they cannot + +Plate 14 + + +A black and white illustration of a daisy flower with its leaves and stem. The flower has a central disc surrounded by ray florets. Below the illustration, the word "DAISY" is written. + + +Standard's Gray Label + +I + +THE DAISY. +49 + +set seed. The use of the club-like stigma is simply to push the pollen out of the anther-tube, or it would never get digested. + +I have said just now that this is one of the largest families. Indeed, there is scarcely a country where plants will grow at all, that does not contain some one or more. The structure of the flowers of all, however, is the same, and the differences which can therefore be easily recognized. You must not, however, jump to the conclusion that every plant which has its flowers in heads must therefore be a composite; for the prickly Teazles and the Scabious of our fields have heads; but you will notice at once that in these plants the anthers are quite free, and stand out above the florets very conspicuously; whereas in all composites the anthers are coherent together. This is the most obvious feature which distinguishes Compositae from other families. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTIVE OF THE COMPOSITAE FAMILY. + +Herbs, mostly with alternate leaves. + +Flowers, composite in heads, surrounded by bracts. + +Florets with an inferior ovary, bearing a pappus above or not. Corollas all strap-shaped, as in Dande- +lion; or ray only strap-shaped, as in Daisy; or else all tubular, as in Thistles; or the disk-florets only tubular, as in Daisy; stamens with anthers coherent. + +Fruit achene-like, with or without the down or pappus. + +A great number of species are cultivated as garden plants, such as the Dahlia, Aster, Marigold, Chrysanthemum, and "double" Daisy. A "double" composite is a very different thing from a double Buttercup, or other flower; for while the latter is only one flower, + +A page from a book about the Daisy family. + +50 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +with petals in the place of stamens and carpels, a double Daisy is a head of florets, and the change under- +gone is that the little yellow florets of the eye, or disk, have turned into strap-shaped corollas like the ray- +florets, giving the appearance of a mass of petals, like a Bachelor's Button, but being really of a very differ- +ent origin. + +Some species are grown for food, such as the Jeru- +salem Artichoke, the true Artichoke, the Cardoon, +Salsify, and Endive, which is a species of Chicory. +The root of the real Chicory is like a carrot, it is cut into slices, roasted and ground to powder, and used for mixing with coffee. It may be easily known from coffee by laying a teaspoonful on the surface of cold water, when it rapidly colours the water, while pure ground coffee is a long time in giving a dark colour. + +THE HEATH FAMILY. +THE SCOTCH HEATH. + +This common Heath, which blossoms in July and August, is well known as the plant which makes our moors and hill-sides so beautiful. It is generally mixed with another kind, but less abundant, called the Cross- +leaved Heath, the blossoms of which are rather larger and pinker; while a third plant, the Scotch Ling, with very small pink flowers, forms patches intermixed with the former. + +Either of the kinds of Heath will do for examina- +tion. The sepals are four, and very small. The pecu- +liarly inflated corolla, with its little teeth, is very + +Plate 15. + + +A detailed botanical illustration of a plant species, likely a heath, with intricate details of leaves and flowers. + + +SCOTCH HEATH + +Standard's Gray Label + +- + +THE SCOTCH HEATH. 51 + +characteristic of the Heath Family, while the eight stamens quite free from the corolla, is a feature very rarely seen with flowers having coherent petals (Fig. 1). For, when any flower has its petals coherent, the stamens are almost always adherent to the tube thus formed. + +The Heath and the Campaspea Family are the chief exceptions. The anthers are very peculiar. They burst by holes or pores at the top, and have little fringed failds behind (Fig. 2). Lastly, the pistil is quite free in the centre, and is composed of four carpels. It forms a cone when a ripe fruit, which bursts into four parts leaving the middle one in the middle which carries the seeds, as shown in Fig. 3. + +The use' of the tails to the anthers is as follows:— + +The anthers are at first set closely round the style, so that their tails spread out horizontally, while each little pore of the anther-cell, through which the pollen will escape, is at first closed, by pressing upon the pore of the next anther-cell; so in this condition every pore is closed by the neighbouring pore of the next anther-cell. Hence, when the pollen cannot fall out of the flower because downy. If now slight pressure be made upon one or more of the tails, the other end of the anthers is raised, and the whole of them soon separate, and the pollen falls out and upon the bee's head, if it be supposed to have done it. The stigma projects outwards, and will strike the bee just where the pollen will have fallen upon it from a previously visited flower. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE HEATH FAMILY. +*Hoven*, *shrubs*, or *Trees*. +*Flowers* mostly regular, and often with inflated x 2 + +52 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +corolla ; stamens free from the corolla, with anthers opening by pores, and often bearing tails. +**Fruit,** a capsule or berry. +Many of this family are cultivated as ornamental plants, such as the Rhododendron, with slightly irregular flowers; the Arbustus, or Strawberry-tree, found wild in western Ireland. A great many species of very beautiful Heaths from South Africa, are grown in conservatories, the corollas often having a wax-like appearance; but these generally differ from the rest in having an *inferior berry.* It is the genus which contains the Cranberry and Bilberry, both of which are very good to eat, but the family are not of much use otherwise. One species of Heath supplies wood for what are called Briar pipes, the word *Briar* being a wrong pronunciation and spelling, for the French word *Bruyère,* meaning Heath. + +THE POTATO FAMILY. + +THE WOODY NIGHTSHADE OR BITTERSWEET. + +This plant is remarkable as being the very feeblest of Climbers. Its slender shoots can just twine themselves round objects such as nettle stems, &c. In fact, when it grows freely in a hedge, it can hardly be said to climb at all. I have already had occasion to speak of weak-stemmed plants climbing by tendrils, as the Pea and Vine, but not before of *twiners* or *climbers.* Much better examples of these than the Bittersweet are the Bindweed or Convolvulus plant, and the Honey-suckle; it is an interesting thing to notice how shoot keeps bowing in all directions, sweeping round + +Plate 16. + + +A black and white illustration of a plant with long, narrow leaves and small, clustered flowers at the top. + + +WOODY NIGHTSHADE + +Stanford's Camp Extract + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +THE WOODY NIGHTSHADE OR BITTERSWEET. 53 + +and round in large or small circles, searching for an object as a support, against which, as soon as one is found, the twining stem presses itself, and then climbs up it spirally by merely continuing to bow. You can easily imitate it by holding one end of a piece of string in your left hand and the other end in your right, and then make your right hand describe circles above the left. Now let someone else hold a rod in front of you, and you will find the string winds itself spirally round it as you make it describe circles. + +The shoots of the Hop take between two and three hours to turn their heads so that although you cannot at once move, if you note the direction in which it is pointing, say, at ten o'clock in the morning, look at it afterwards at noon, and it will be pointing in a quite different direction. + +We will now resume our observations on the Bitter-sweet. Note how the flower-stalks spring from the middle of an internode instead of from an axil of a leaf. This is due to the fact that the stalk is united to the stem for a considerable distance above the leaf. + +The calyx is very small, but bears five distinct points, showing that there are five sepals (Fig. 2). The purple corolla is also divided into five parts, each of which has five stamens, with rather larger and prominent anthers in the middle. These are somewhat united together, so as to make a sort of cone; and, instead of bursting by slits, they open by round holes or pores at the top, as in the Heath (Fig. 1). The slender style passes up and out of the middle of the anthers (Fig. 2). There are only two carpels, coherent, which later become the oval scarlet berries, as seen in the lower part of the drawing. + +54 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +The only other wild species we have is the Black Nightshade. It is a herb growing in waste places; has small white flowers, and round purple berries. +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE POTATO FAMILY. +Herbs, often with a poisonous juice. +Flowers regular, bell-shaped or rotate; the whorls in five; stamens adherent to the corolla. +Fruit, a two-celled capsule or superior berry, with many seeds. +This family contains several useful plants, but almost all are poisonous. Still some of these give us useful medicines, such as the Tobacco, the Hambane, and Belladonna, the dark purple berries of which have often poisoned children. On the other hand, the Potato from South America, and the berries of the Tomato and Capsicum, which furnishes us with the hot-tasting chilies and cayenne pepper, are exceptions to the rule of the family being poisonous. One plant, about which very absurd stories are told, is the Mandrake. It is another species of the same genus as the Belladonna. The root is forked like a badly-grown oar-staff; hence it was supposed to be a convenient instrument to a man, and it was thought that when it was pulled up it greased and shrieked, and whoever heard the shriek or groan would die; if, however, the plant could be secured it would be a charm against demons. The way to get it was to dig a trench carefully round the root so as not to injure it; the bunch of leaves on the top of the root was then tied to the tail of a dog, which was whipped, when his cries helped to drown the groan; and on its trying to escape, up would come the Mandrake! When you are old enough to read Shake- + +. + +Plate I7 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of a primrose plant. The main illustration shows three flowers with five petals each, surrounded by large, deeply lobed leaves. Below the main illustration, there are four smaller illustrations showing different parts of the flower: +1. A long, tubular stamen. +2. A circular pistil. +3. A shorter, more robust stamen. +4. A shorter, more robust stamen with a bulbous base. +The text "PRIMROSE" is written below the illustrations. + +Stanford's Own Land + + +THE PRIMROSE. +55 + +spearo's plays, you will see that he more than once speaks of the Mandrake. Thus he says:- +"Shrikes like mandrakes" torn from the earth, +That bring sorrow, bringing loss, the road!" + +Tobacco is a plant which has been smoked for ages in America. It was brought to England about the year 1560, by Sir Walter Raleigh, from Virginia. It met with extracts from the leaves of the English. The Sultan forbade its importation into Turkey, and condemned to death all guilty of smoking. So did the Grand Duke of Moscow; or, as a milder punishment, smokers should have their noses cut off! Our own King James wrote a book against smoking. Notwithstanding all this, smoking has become quite general. + +Of all plants of this family the Potato is the most useful. It grows well in South America, but the tubers, or potatoes, are very small, not much bigger than nuts. The large size they now have is due to careful cultivation. + +Their usefulness consists in the great quantity of Starch they contain, which, though not very nourishing in itself, makes them valuable as a vegetable with meat. + +THE PRIMROSE FAMILY. +THE PRIMROSE. + +As the Primrose is one of the earliest of flowering plants, blossoming in April and May, it is a good example to study well. You must dig it up by the roots, and you will find it has a thickish, rugged under- + +56 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +ground stem, called a Rootstock. From this spring the cord-like true roots. From the top of the stem grows a tuft of leaves; and as they seem to rise up from the root (but you must understand that the rootstock is not a root but a real stem) such leaves are called radical. Similarly, the flower-stalks rise from the root-stock. + +Now let us examine a Flower. The tube-like calyx has five tapering points, which show that it is composed of five coherent sepals. Cut it open and you can remove it, leaving the rest of the flower untouched. The corolla consists of a slender tube with five broad, notched petals, which together make the limb of the corolla, each of the five pieces being called a lobe. Look down the tube from above, and observe whether you can see five anthers, or whether you see a globular stigma instead; for if you gather blossoms from several different plants, you will soon discover that some bear only one anther, while others have two or three other plants have them like Fig. 3. In the first, the stamens are situated just at the entrance to the tube, while in the other kind the stamens are much lower down. The lengths of the styles of the pistil also differ; for in the first case the stigma is low down, for the style which bears it is short, while in the latter it is as high up as the style is long. Now, place one of each kind of flower side by side, and you will find that the stigma of one is higher than that of a level with it at the same height as, the stamens of the other. Hence, when an insect comes to search for honey, its proboscis gets dusted with pollen on a certain spot, and then flying away to another flower, the stigma will now rub + +THE PRIMROSE. +57 + +exactly against the spot where the pollen has been deposited from the first flower. + +There is another point to be noticed, and that is that each whorl of petals is exactly in front of a petal, not between the lobes or petals of the corolla, as in other flowers; for the rule is that the parts of each whorl of any flower should alternate with the parts of the next whorl, but the Primrose Family is an exception. The explanation is that there ought to be two whorls of stamens of five each, for you will remember we had ten stamens in Ragged Robin, Geranium, Pea, and others; but one of these whorls has not grown at all, so as to be lost, say, had been arrested, so that the next whorl, i.e. the wheel of stamens now present, are in front of the petals. + +If we represent the parts of a flower as follows, as if it were cut open and spread out, you will see how it happens. Let S stand for sepal, P for petal, St for stamen, and C for carpel. + + + + + + + + +
SPSPSP
SStSStSC
+ +The **S** stand where an outer wheel of stamens ought to be, but are wanting, so that the second whorl of stamens (S) are now in front of the petals (P). + +The pistil has another peculiarity besides the one mentioned, in that the ovary is only one-celled, but carries a ball-like *placenta* in the middle, the surface of which is covered with ovules, just as has been already described in the case of the Ragged Robin and Stitchwort. Cut the ovary across, and you will see it as + +58 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +represented in Fig. 2. Moreover, as the stigma is quite globular, I cannot tell you of how many carpels it is composed; still, as the fruit forms a little capsule in almost every member of the Primrose Family, and often opens with five little teeth, as shown in Fig. 4, we may suppose that there are five carpels really; but there is nothing else to indicate the number. + +Though the capsule of the Primroses and many others opens by little teeth, which curl back to let the seeds drop out, that of the Scarlet Pimpernel or "Poor Man's Weather-glass"—a common corn-field weed, with opposite leaves and small, bright scarlet flowers—bursts in a very different manner. The whole capsule swells and the top comes off like a lid. The capsules of the Henbane of the Potato Family, as also that of the common Plantain, on the seeds of which we feed our canaries, splits in the same way. As they thus look like little boxes, botanists have called them by the Greek word for a box or pyxis. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PIMPERNOLE FAMILY. +Herbs with opposite or alternate leaves. +Flowers regular; the petals with a stamens in front of each. + +Fruit a capsule opening by teeth or splitting all round, with many seeds on a free-central placenta. + +The Primrose and Cowslip (the flowers of which agree with the Primrose in the particulars mentioned) may sometimes be found with pink or crimson-coloured flowers. These varieties have been cultivated, and thereby much improved in size and colour, the Cowslip being then called Rhodanthus. The Garden Primrose is mostly double—that is to say, the stamens and pistil + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower. + +THE PRIMROSE. +59 + +have become replaced by a bunch of petals, so that the corolla looks something like a miniature rose. The Oxlip, found in several parts of England, is supposed to be a hybrid—that is to say, the pollen of a Primrose has probably fertilized the pistil of a Cowslip, or else that of a Cowslip has fertilized the pistil of a Primrose, because the Oxlip resembles the Cowslip in having what is called an umbel of flowers, or a number of flowers on little stalks, all of which are borne at the top of a larger one. It, however, has a much larger corolla than the Cowslip, and so more resembles a Primrose. It is thus liable to cross, which is not offering of a horse or bull, but differs from this Mule bears no offspring. It more nearly resembles so many of our peaseants, which are said to be often hybrids between two or even three kinds or species, and all lay plenty of eggs. + +Several other plants of the Primrose Family are cultivated in flower-gardens, such as the Auriculas, with their peridoid-looking leaves, as well as other species of Primroses. Then there is the pretty Cyclamen, which has its flowers in a cup-like calyx; the sepals down, the long petals being twisted behind. Several very pretty small-flowered species are Alpine plants, one of the prettiest of which is called *Soldanella*, and has blue flowers with fringed petals, often grown on rockwork to imitate its original home on the Alps of Switzerland. + +60 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE LABIATE FAMILY. +THE WHITE LAMIUM OR DEADNETTLE. + +The White Lamium, blossoming abundantly in May and June, is generally called Deadnettle, because the square stem and opposite leaves, as well as their shape, resemble the stinging nettle; but unlike that plant this does not sting. The flowers are totally different, and indeed the two plants have nothing to do with each other, being of quite different families. + +The Lamium has a long, creeping, perennial underground stem, from which numerous flowering stems arise. The flowers are produced in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves, and look as if they formed a ring or whorl round the stem, hence they are called *False*-whorts, but no flowers grow from between the two opposite leaves. + +Pick out a flower. The calyx is like a little funnel with five pointed teeth. It is therefore made up of five colored sepals. The corolla is decidedly irregular, and it is composed of three parts: a short tubular lip or tube, and two lateral petals; but if you remember the rule, mentioned in describing the Primrose, that petals should alternate with the sepals, you will see that the notched front piece or lip of the corolla, as it is called, stands just between the front sepals. Hence the lip, though cleft, is really one petal. Next, observe the two little points, one on either side of the tube of the corolla. These stand over the spaces between the sepals at the sides; hence each point stands for a petal. Lastly, as there is one sepal exactly at the back, the hood-like petal, + +A diagram showing the structure of a flower. + +Plate 18. + + +A large illustration of a plant with serrated leaves and a dense cluster of small flowers at the top. +Below the illustration, two smaller illustrations are shown: +- A leaf with serrated edges. +- A bud or flower structure. + + +WHITE LAMIUM. + +Standard copy! Rev' + +1 + +THE WHITE LAMIUM OR DEADNETTLE. 61 + +which you might very likely think was only one, is really composed of two; so that now we have the right number, five, complete. As all the flowers of this family have the *hip*, the family is called "Labiates," or *lipped* flowers. + +We must next examine the stamens. There are only four, and they are adherent or fastened to the tube of the corolla. You will find that two are longer than the other two, and when you pull the tube away from their anthers to their points of attachment, you will find the longest come from the front, and the shorter spring from the back. There ought to be a fifth, which should lie up the back along the middle of the hood, but this stamen has not grown at all, or has been arrested. + +Observe how the two anther-cells of each stamen, though side by side at first, get separated when they burst, because the upper part of the filament which lies between the two anthers is very much enlarged, and thus makes them stand apart; and to end in consequence. This piece which causes them to separate is called the connective, and was described when speaking of the Lesser Celandine. Fig. 1, which is half of a flower cut down the middle, will help you to observe all these details mentioned. + +The Pistil is peculiar. The ovary is deeply four-lobed, and the best way to see it is to look down a calyx of one of the older flowers from which the corolla has fallen; and you will see that the ovary with a cross-like cleft at its base. Now give the calyx down at the bottom, and you will throw out the four nutlets, into which the deeply four-lobed ovary is now broken. Fig. 2 shows the four ripe nutlets. The style usually + +62 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +comes away with the corolla, but by carefully opening out the tube of the corolla of a flower while it is within the calyx, the slender style with its forked stigma will be seen lying between the filaments, as shown in Fig. 1. + +The flower, being so irregular, is clearly adapted to insects. The lip furnishes an excellent landing-place, and the head of the insect being thrust under the hood in which lies the anther-cell, it gets easily dusted with pollen, and the two long filaments which are ready to lay hold of the pollen, to say, from the bee's head or back, which it has already collected from some other flower. + +The flower of the plant called Salvia, several kinds of which are often grown for their beauty, for there are red, yellow, blue, and white flowering species, is most peculiar in its structure; for though it agrees with the Laminum in the calyx, corolla and pistil, there are only two stamens instead of four. The filaments are very long and slender, and they carry upon their tips, long filament-like processes, which you might readily fancy were the real filaments themselves; but you will find that they each carry only one anther-cell, at the top, which produces pollen, under the hood; while the other anther-cell is at the other end, at the bottom, overhanging the entrance to the tube of the corolla, and is like an empty spoon, and produces no pollen. This long process is the connective; it is the same thing as described above in the Lamium; only now it is not a bar but a cross-bar with the filament something like the letter T, the upright stroke being the filament, the cross-bar is the con- + +A diagram showing a flower with a calyx, corolla, and pistil. The anther-cells are located at opposite ends of two long filaments. One filament has a long filament-like process at its tip. + +THE WHITE LAMIUM OR DEADNETTLE. 63 + +nective, and the two ends of the letter may stand for +the anther-cells. +What is the use of all this? If you +imitate a bee by pressing down upon the two lower +empty anther-cells with a pencil, you will find the +other pair immediately swaying forwards and downwards +and strike the pencil, dusting it with pollen. Had it +been a bee, the insect would have received some on +her body, but in addition to which showers of pollen! +Flying away, the anther recover their position under +the hood. The stigma projects forwards, and is situated +so as to hit the bee's back on her entering, just where +the pollen has been deposited from a previously visited +flower. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LABIATE FAMILY. +Herbs with square stems. +Leaves opposite and scented. +Flowers in flat heads; corolla labiate; stamens, +four, two lower than two only; ovaries deeply +four-lobed, with a slender style and forked stigma. +Fruit of four nutlets. +Most of the genera of this family are peculiar for +the strong scents they possess. These are produced by +little glands filled with oil in the foliage and elsewhere, +so that many of them are useful; several, such as +Thyme, Sage, Basil, Mints, &c., are employed as +kitchen herbs; others, such as Patchouli, Lavender, +Rosemary, Peppermint, &c., for their scents; but none are poisonous. + +64 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. +THE BISTORT OR SNAKE-WEED. + +A great number of plants have no corolla, and some- +times even no calyx, so that they are then said to be +incomplete. The Bistort, blossoming from June to +October, the Nut or Hazel, and the Willow, are +selected to illustrate this group of plants with incom- +plete flowers. + +The first point to notice is the membranous sheath +surrounding the stem at the bottom of the leaf-stalks. +This is composed of stipules. The flowers are brightly +coloured, but it is only the calyx, there being no corolla +at all. It is not an uncommon thing for the calyx of +a flower to be coloured, instead of, or as well as, the +corolla. Thus, the Marsh Marigold, which resembles a +large Buttercup, has a bright yellow calyx, but no +corolla; so too, the bright-flowered garden Anemones +and Clematis have no corolla; so also the Larkspur and +the Monkshood; but these are only two examples, but +still these blue flowers are mostly indebted to the calyx +for their conspicuous appearance. + +The stamens of the Bistort are eight in number, and +at the base of the filaments are little glands which +secrete honey, as this species, being conspicuous by the +number of flowers grouped together, attracts insects. +Fig. 1 represents the calyx and stamens laid open, and +shows the gland at the base of each filament. Fig. 2 +is the pistil, with its three slender styles, which indi- +cate the number of carpels; and Fig. 3 is the thre- + +A diagram showing the structure of a plant's flower. + +Plate 19. + + +A black and white illustration of a plant with large, oval leaves and a tall, dense inflorescence at the top. Below the main illustration, there are three smaller illustrations showing different parts of the plant: a cluster of flowers, a single flower, and a bud. + + +BISTORT. + +Standard Copy 1 + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +THE BISTORT OR SNAKE-WEED. +65 + +cornered fruit, similar in shape to that of the Buck-wheat. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. +Herbs with swollen nodes. +Leaves with membranous sheathing stipules. +Flowers with calyx, green or brightly-coloured, and no corolla; stamens free or adherent to the calyx. +Fruit, a one-celled, one-seeded, three-cornered nutlet. + +There are several species of Polygonum, the Latin name of the genus to which the Buckwheat and Bistort belong. Another is called Knotweed, and grows on almost every piece of waste ground. In this species there are no glands in the tiny, pinkish-green flowers, and the stamens curl over the stigma, so that these little inconspicuous flowers are quite self-fertilized. + +The Buckwheat, much cultivated on the Continent for its seeds as food for poultry, &c., has two kinds of flowers, some with long stamens and short pistils, others with short stamens and long pistils; just as in the Primrose; so that an insect visiting either kind of flower gets first dusted with pollen in a certain spot on its body, which is afterwards exactly touched by the stigma of the other kind of flower when the insect visits it. + +The three-cornered little fruit of the Buckwheat is full of nourishment, and useful for feeding poultry. + +The Common Dock belongs also to this family, of which the Salad is a member. The Dock has an agreeable taste, flavour, due to the presence of a very poisonous substance, called oxalic acid. This is con- +A small image of a plant. +F + +66 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +tained in a white powder, sold under the name of "Salt of Lemon." It is useful for removing ink-stains, +but it is poisonous. +Rhubarb, of which the stalks of the leaves make excellent tarts and jam, grows wild in Thrace; but the species which gives us the useful but very disagreeable medicine is the root of one which grows in the north of China. + +THE CUP-BEARING FAMILY. + +THE HAZEL. + +Of this family there are the following trees in Great Britain: The Hazel or Nut, the Hornbeam, the Oak, the Beech, and the eatable Chestnut, introduced from the Continent. + +These trees have all got stipules, but of a peculiar kind. I have often spoken of stipules, which you will remember are appendages found at the base of the leaf-stalk, as of the Violet, Pea, and Rose. On the Pea they are very large, and sustain all the functions of leaves. In some plants they protect the little bud in the axil of the leaf, as in the garden Geranium. But in the oak and other of these trees, their use is as bud-scales to protect the delicate parts within from the frosts of winter. As soon as the buds burst open in spring the scales fall off, or are said to be dead-wood, having done their duty. But in some trees they fall into the mistake of supposing these trees to have no stipules, as you may not find them, except for a short time only, and by the side of the very youngest leaves. + +Plate 20. + + +A detailed botanical illustration of hazel flowers and leaves. + + +HAZEL. + +Handwritten: Copy "Sawit" + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] + +THE HAZEL. +67 + +People sometimes fancy that these trees never bloo- +som. It is true they never have large, conspicuous +flowers, but they could not bear nuts, scorns, &c., if +they had no flowers. You must often have seen things +like long tails hanging from a nut-bush, oak, or willow. +These are the stamens, which are the male parts of a great +number of green bracts or scales, overlapping one +another like tiles on a roof. Though you may see them in the winter, they do not open till March and April. +Each scale has two smaller ones underneath it, +together with eight stamens. Each stamen, however, +bears only one another, as shown in Fig. 1. Though +there are eight in all, quite separate, they probably +represent only four really; each stamen having grown +up, as it were, split in half. The Horse-mint, a common +weed in the meadows at Epping Forest, grows with +the Nut in only having leaves; but as true calyx, +protecting the stamens, which in this genus are only partly +divided, the two anther-cells being separated, but both +are supported on one and the same filament. + +To find the pistil, you must examine carefully the +little tuft-like buds on the sides and ends of shoots of +the Nut-tree (see Fig. 2). You will easily know them from +leaf-buds by their having little crimson threads +protruding from their tips. These threads are the long +styles, two of which belong to each pistil, while every +pistil stands for a separate flower. + +If you can manage to remove the little round scales +which make the bud look like a tiny fir cone (Fig. 2), +you will find that each pistil within it is surrounded +by one or two small bracts, as shown in Fig. 3. + +When these little buds become fruits, the outer scales + +2 + +68 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +fall off, the inner bracts grow into the large leafy "cup" which envelop the nuts into which the pistil has now turned; so that the cluster of nuts, each in its leafy cup, often four or five together, which you find in autumn, were all included in the little cone-like bud you examined in spring. + +As all the other trees mentioned above, as well as others of two or three different families, have catkins, these families are sometimes grouped together, and called the **Catkin-bearers**. + +In the Oak, Beech, and Chestnut, each separate staminate flower of the catkin has a true calyx, and not merely a leafy cup; but in the female catkin the stamens are wanting. The pistils are always in separate flowers, but on the same tree as the catkins. In the Oak and Beech the pistil has three carpels united together with three cells in the ovary and six ovaries; but when they become fruits, only one ovule becomes a seed. The fruit of the Beech is called a Mast, of the Oak, an Acorn, and Sweet Chestnut that of the Chestnut-tree. They all have cups. In the Nut and Hornbeam it is leafy, but in the other three it is woody. The cup of the Oak is round, and consists of a great number of small bracts all united together. In the Beech, it is much the same, only the cup is divided into four hard, rough divisions. In the Chestnut it is also divided, and covered with strong prickles. + +You must be careful to distinguish, I mean botani- +cally, an eatable Chestnut from a Horse-chestnut. The former is a true fruit, and contains a seed within it; the outer smooth brown **fruit-cup**, closely fitting upon the inner paler brown **seed-ship**; whereas the bright, + +A diagram showing a chestnut fruit with its outer smooth brown "fruit-cup" and inner paler brown "seed-ship". + +THE HAZEL. +69 + +shiny brown horse-chestnuts are seeds only; the fruit, corresponding to the outer skin of the eatable chestnut, is the large green ball which splits into three pieces as it falls to the ground, when the ripe, polished-looking chestnuts appear. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CUP-BEARING FAMILY. +Trees or Shrubs. + +Leaves, with deciduous stipules for bud-scales. +Flowers, the staminate in catkins, the pistillate separate from these, but on the same tree. +Fruit, a nut, acorn, &c., surrounded by a leafy or woody cup. The seed contains a large embryo. + +This family, which is mainly composed of trees, furnishes us with very valuable timber, especially the Oak, which there is a great number of species of, principally in North America. The bark is variable, for it contains a substance called tannin, with which skins are tanned, and become leather. Tannin has a strong "liking" for iron, and when any solution of iron is mixed with powdered oak bark, it makes black ink. Iron being so common in soils, especially seen as iron-rust whenever sand or soil is red, if oak trees lie buried underground for many years they often turn quite black all through. A great deal is found in Ireland, and called "Bog Oak." The black wood is often used for bracelets, and ornaments of various kinds, and made into walking-sticks. + +4 + +70 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE WILLOW AND POPLAR FAMILY. +THE WILLOW TREE. + +As we have now fair-sited trees to consider, it will be a good opportunity to say a few words about the structure of stema. If you examine the cut end of the trunks of any of our English trees, you will easily observe the following features.—First, there is the Bark, which can be removed from the Wood without much difficulty. This wood exhibits a quantity of rings, these being generally arranged in a circle, one off from year's growth, the oldest being in the middle, the youngest just under the bark. In the centre can sometimes be seen very plainly, as in the Elder, the Pith; but in most trees it is too small to be seen without a lens. Now these three parts, Bark, Wood, and Central Pith, are found in all trees of the Class Dicotyledons, and is another character by which they may be known, as well as that taken from the embryo, as explained at p. 34. There is yet a third, which will be spoken of hereafter, p. 76. + +Like the cup-bearing family, Willows and Poplars have stipules, which are deciduous in many cases, but sometimes foliaceous or leaf-like, and then they remain on the boughs. + +Willows and Poplars, which blossom in April and May, and which together make one family, differ from all the plants hitherto considered (the Bryony only being excepted), in having the stamens, not only in separate flowers from those which contain pistils, but in bearing these two kinds of flowers on separate trees. + +Plate 21 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Sallow Willow (Salix caprea). The top part shows a branch with leaves and catkins. Below, there are five smaller illustrations showing different stages of the flower development. + + +SALLOW WILLOW + +Illustration by Doug Eakins + +--- + +THE WILLOW TREE. +71 + +The clusters which blossom in the spring, popularly called "palms," are *determinate* or *pistillate* *catkins*. Compare the two drawings on Plate 21. On the left hand is the staminate; that on the right is the pistillate tree. The catkins are stalks densely covered with green bracts. There is no trace of a calyx in the Willow (though the Poplar, which agrees in other respects with the Willow, has a small cup-like calyx), or of a corolla, but two or more stamens only stand in the axil of each bract of the so-called staminate catkin, as seen in Fig. 1. It is similar with the pistillate catkin. That is, too, covered with a short stalk covered with bracts, and in the axil of each bract is a pistil composed of two coherent carpels (see Figs. 2 and 3). When they ripen, the catkins fall off, and look like woolly caterpillars, for the little capsules burst, and liberate their hairy seeds (Fig. 4). + +In front of each pistil, as well as in front of the stamen, is a little stump-like gland (Figs. 1 and 2) which secretes honey. This attracts bees, which carry the pollen from one tree to another by the wind also carries the honey, which fertilizes the flowers. + +In examining the Poplar, look first at the way in which the leaves are wrapped up in the bud. Cut one across, and try to copy the appearance of the cut edges, as explained in the case of the Violet. + +Note the peculiar way in which the leaves of the Poplar, when they are fully formed, quiver in the wind. The Aspen Poplar shows this especially well. It is due to the fact that the leaf-stalk is flattened about half-way between its attachment to the twig and the blade. + +72 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +The Poplar differs from the Willow in having a fringed bract, as well as a small cup-like calyx, which includes several stamens on one hand, and a pistil on the other. The staminate and pistillate catkins are on separate trees, as in the case of the Willow. + +As the Willow and Poplar are the only two genera which make this family, a general description will not be needful. + +Many Willows afford useful timber, what are called the White Willow and the Bedford Willow are examples while the Black is said to contain even more tannin than the Oak. The Weeping Willow is not British, having been introduced from the banks of the Euphrates, and only the pistillate tree is known in this country, hence it cannot set seed, but is easily propagated by cuttings. The species used for hampers and basket-making are usually called Oisiers. The bark of several species can be used for a valuable medicine resembling quinine, as it produces a substance of a similar character called salicin. It has, however, been made artificially. + +SUBCLASS II.—GYMNOSPERMS. + +THE PINE FAMILY. +THE SCOTCH PINE, YEW, AND JUNIPER. + +These three trees or shrubs differ from all other British plants in having no carpels, so that the ovules have to receive the pollen at once, instead of its falling first on to the stigma, then waiting its little tube down the style until it reach the ovule within the ovary, + +Plate 22 + + +A detailed botanical illustration of Scotch Fir, showing a branch with cones and leaves. +Below the illustration, four different views of the same plant are depicted, each labeled with a number (1, 2, 3, 4). +The text "SCOTCH FIR" is written below these illustrations. + + +Standard's Camp! + +--- + +THE SCOTCH FIR, YEW, AND JUNIPER. 73 + +as in all other flowering plants. Hence these plants belong to one of four families called *Gymnosperma*, which means naked seeds. We have only those three in Great Britain, but there are several others in foreign countries. + +All other genera of the Class Dicotyledons have their seeds included within the ovary which has become the fruit, as in all the plants hitherto described. Hence, as the Greek word *anoxos* means a seed, the word *Anoxosperma* has been invented as the name of the Subclass I, which contains them, and which stands at the top of page 6. + +In the Scotch Fir (which produces its stamens and pistils in May and June) several stamens (of which Fig. 1 represents one by itself) form little oval, catkin-like bodies, the flap-like ends of the stamens above the anther-cells overlapping one another like tiles on a roof, while these little catkins are themselves crowded in great numbers in the young branches, as shown in the left-hand drawing. They scatter an enormous quantity of pollen, which is sometimes blown by the wind in such a manner as to give the appearance of a cloud of sulphur! + +The young cones (one of which is at the end of the shoot in the right-hand drawing) which carry the ovaules, consist of round, pinkish scales, with two ovaules on their inner or upper face, as shown in Fig. 2. The ovaules are attached upside down, each having a rather large hole at the lower end, into which the pollen grain tumbles when blown towards it by the wind. Each scale which carries the ovaules has a small round bract behind it, as shown in Fig. 3. When the ovaules + +74 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +have been fertilized, the scales close up, press tightly one upon another, and conceal the now enlarging ovaules, as shown in the swelling cone in the right-hand drawing. They all grow together, the scales become woody (the bracts having disappeared), thickening at their tips, while the ovaules become seeds carrying a long, wing-like appendage, which has grown from the upper end (see Fig. 4). + +When the cone is ripe the scales separate again, and spores are shed, and the seeds can escape. Their long wings enable them to fly to a considerable distance, and as soon as they reach the ground the wing becomes detached, and the seeds grow into young plants. When the embryo grows up, a curious difference is observable between it and almost all other plants, in that there appear to be several cotyledons instead of two only as in other Gymnosperms and Dicotyledons, as described in the case of the Pea (p. 94). This appearance is due to the two cotyledons being each divided into several segments. + +In the Yew-tree the stamens are never on the same tree with the ovules, as they are in the Fir-tree. They are curiously like little umbrellas, only with six bags below the hood, which contains the pollen. The ovaules are quite destitute of any special scale or bract like that of the Scotch Fir, but stand in the middle of a little cone-like structure. When they have been fertilized, a green little cup grows up around the seed, and which turns to a bright scarlet when it is ripe. It tastes very bitter indeed, and both these parts within this scarlet cup are poisonous and should never be swallowed, as children have been poisoned by them. + +THE SCOTCH FIR, YEW, AND JUNIPER. 75 + +The leaves of the Yew-tree are also poisonous, for cattle have often died from eating them. + +The Juniper is a shrub or small tree common on moors and downs. It has sharp-pointed leaves, and bears a fruit like a purple berry. It is made up of three feathery scales with three seeds, one to each scale. The scales are open at first at the top, though slightly coherent below; so that the pollen could fall in between them and down upon the three ovules below. The scales, however, close up as soon as the ovules have been fertilized, and then form the so-called Juniper berry. This is a very poisonous, and a good tonic, and are used for flavouring gin. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF GYMNOPHEMBS. +Trees or Shrubs. Leaves evergreen, often needle-like. + +Flowers with stamens and naked ovules on the same or on different plants. + +Fruit of cones or berries. + +There are a great number of different kinds of Pines or Fir-trees, which supply us with very useful wood, called Fir-wood. One of these was famous for the bow made of it in former days. It is one of the longest-lived trees; some trees in England are known to be several hundreds of years old. + +Fir-trees are also useful for the great quantity of Boin and Turpentine they yield. You may often see it oozing out from a wound in the bark. The raw turpentine is distilled, when what is called Spirits of Turpentine is obtained, and Boin is left behind. The spirits of turpentine is used in making paint, and the boin for sealing-wax and varnishes. + +76 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +**CLASS II.—MONOCOTYLEDONS.** + +These words mean that we have now entered the second class of the few great groups of families into which all flowering plants are divided. If you turn to page 6 you will see it headed, Class I., Dicotyledons, and the meaning of the word was explained on page 34, where you will find that this name depends upon the structure of the embryo in the seed, the two halves, as of "split-peas," being called cotyledons. The term MONOCOTYLEDONS means that all the plants hereafter to be described have only one cotyledon in their embryos, as will be fully explained in describing the plants on pages 98, 99. + +There is another character of importance by which you may distinguish almost all Monocotyledons from Dicotyledons, and that is by the so-called veins of the leaves, or what makes the *skeleton* of the leaf. In Dicotyledons it is always more or less like an irregular network, but in Monocotyledons the veins run parallel, or straight (or occasionally slightly widening out in the middle, as in the Lily of the Valley) from one end to the other. If you look at a young blade of grass to the light, you will see the nearly transparent veins very plainly. It is the same with the Flag, Daffodil, Bluebell, &c., hereafter to be described. One of the very few exceptions is the *Arum*, as you may see on turning to Plate 28. + +A third distinction between these two classes is to be + +. . . + +Plate 2 + + +A large illustration of a yellow iris flower, with its petals spread out and its long, pointed leaves extending upwards. +Below the main illustration, two smaller illustrations are shown: +- A close-up of the flower's base, showing the bulbous structure and the emerging stem. +- A detailed view of the flower's stamen, highlighting the anther and filament. + + +YELLOW IRIS. + +Staatsbörse Leipzig 1807 + +THE YELLOW FLAG OR IRIS. + +77 + +found in the structure of the wood. When describing the Willow, mention was made of the structure of the stem, which shows a number of rings when cut across, each ring-like mark indicating one year's growth (p. 70). But in no Monocotyledon is this seen. We do not possess any monocotyledonous trees in England, and only one of the grasses, the Asparagus, is called; but the cut end of a stick of Asparagus will answer the purpose. You will see no rings at all, but a quantity of dots; and if you cut the Asparagus down you will find the dots to be the cut ends of cords. Now fancy this stick of Asparagus to be hard instead of soft, these cords would be fine rods of wood, as it were, running through a sort of hardened path. It have an opportunity of examining a piece of the wood of the False-tree--and young ash--about Palm-trees are often used for making umbrellas and parasol handles--you will see it is just the same. They are mostly black or dark-coloured, having fine streaks on the surface, which are the woody cords, while the handle usually shows their cut ends as dots. + +THE IRIS FAMILY. + +THE YELLOW FLAG OR IRIS. + +The Yellow Flag * is one of the handsomest of our water plants, blossoming in June and July. Its long, sword-like leaves grow from a thick, creeping stem, called a Rhizome. The yellow flowers issue from + +* The large purple Garden Flag will do quite as well for examination by the pupil. + +78 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +a membranous sheathing bract. The whole flower appears to be brightly coloured, so that it has no green calyx to be easily distinguished from the corolla; and where this is the case, as with Bluebells, Daffodils, Crocuses, and many others, botanists agree to call the two outer whorls, taken together, the *perianth*, distinguishing the order from the inner whorl. The separate parts of the perianth are simply called Leaves. + +Observe how the leaves of the larger leaves of the perianth are reflexed or droop backward. The three inner, alternating with these, are much smaller, strap-shaped and erect, as shown in Fig. 1. You can also at the same time see that the perianth stands on the top of the thick green ovary, and must therefore be *superior*, while the ovary is *inferior*, as explained when describing the Apple (p. 39). Now look for the stamens. There are three only, attached to the lower, tube-like part of the perianth. There is one stamen arching over each of the three outer leaves. These are shown alternating with the three small leaves of the inner whorl of perianth in Fig. 1. Observe how long the anthers burst on the side away from the pistil they are said to be *exsert*; when, as is more often the case, anthers burst towards the pistil they are called *insert*. + +Now we will examine the pistil. The ovary, as we have already seen, is *inferior*. Cut it across and you will find three cells, each containing two rows of ovules in each cell. Clearly then there must be three carpels. On the top of the ovary, if you have removed the perianth, you will see a short solid style at the bottom, but which soon separates into three + +1 + +THE YELLOW FLAG OR IRIS. 79 + +petal-like arms above, as shown in Fig. 2. These arms bend outwards and press down upon the three outer leaves of the perianth, as seen in the drawing. To find the stigmas you must look just above the anthers on the under side of the broad, curved style, and you will discover a little ledge on each, so that the style looks something like the top of a spoon with the bowl downwards, and carrying a little fringed flap beyond it, which is the stigma. The stigma. As its position is above the stamens, the pollen is hardly likely to fall upon it readily. If, however, a humble-bee alights on any one of the three reflexed outer leaves of the perianth, and forces its way in between the latter and the style, which you have seen is pressed down upon it, the stamen will dust the bee on her back, and when she scrambles into another flower, the spoon-like tip will scrape the pollen off her back on to the ledge-like stigma ; and so the flower will be fertilized. + +Another plant of the Iris Family is the Crocus. It differs from the Flag in having a solid bulb, called a *Corm*, somewhat like that mentioned on page 6, which is peculiar to the Bulbous Ranunculus. + +The six parts of the perianth are all of the same shape and size. It has only three stamens like the Iris, and the anthers are also erect. The stigmas are orange-coloured, and, instead of spreading out as in the Iris, they are erect and form a sort of ball in the middle of the flower. The three unipetaled anthers are also erect, and stand just below the three stigmas. + +If you watch bees visiting the blossoms of the crocus on a warm spring day, you will easily see how beauti- + +80 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +fully the column-like arrangement of stamens and pistil is suited to them. The narrow, funnel-like tube of the perianth prevents the bee from crawling down upon it to the honey, so she alights on the stigmas, and then grasping the anthers and style together with her legs, crawls head downwards. The anthers being extrorse, discharge the pollen upon the under side of the bee, and when she flies away to another flower and alights on the stigmas, she latter brush off the pollen, and so the bee becomes fertilized. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE IRIS FAMILY. +Herbs with bulbs, Corma, or Rhizomes. +Leaves narrow and long. +Flowers with a mostly regular, superior perianth of two whorls; stamens three only, with extrorse anthers; styles petal-like. +Fruit, an inferior cupule, with many seeds. +There are several kinds of Figs grown in gardens, which contain a sweet juice and other contents. A large white one has a rhizome which smells like violetta. It is dried and ground to powder, and gives the scent to what is known as Violet-powder. The scraped rhizome, resembling ginger, is sold as "Orice-root," a word really the same as Iris-root. + +Many species of Crocus are also grown as garden plants. There is one kind from which the orange stigma are cut out, dried, and sold under the name of Saffron. It is used for obtaining an orange dye which it yields. Great quantities used to be grown at Saffron Walden, in Essex, and gave the name to that place. + +1 + +Plate 3 + + +A detailed illustration of a spotted orchis plant. +The main illustration shows a cluster of flowers with spotted petals, set against a green leafy background. +Below the main illustration, there are three smaller illustrations: +1. A close-up of a single flower, showing the spotted petals and the central column. +2. A side view of the same flower, highlighting the central column and the base of the flower. +3. A top-down view of the same flower, showing the spotted petals and the central column. + + +SPOTTED ORCHIS. + +Staunton's Botanical List + +THE SPOTTED ORCHIS. +81 + +THE ORCHIS FAMILY. +THE SPOTTED ORCHIS. + +We have now a very curious flower to dissect. You will find it in perfection in May and June. We must dig it up by the roots. You will find it has two leaves resembling the palm of the hand with a few fingers. One of these two leaves forms the first year, and supplies food for the next year's flowering-stem. It grows from the side of the previous one, just like the club-shaped roots of the Lesser Celandine, mentioned on page 1. + +Pick off a flower from the axil of the coloured bract; it seems to have a twisted stalk, as shown in Fig. 1; but this is really the ovary, and the flower is consequently upside down. The ovary is inferior, i.e. sunk into a receptacle-tube, though in this case it must be very flat indeed; it is aptly called a "pouch." There are six leaves to the perianth--three outer, which you must first remove; then two smaller leaves, arching over the middle; and one large leaf called the lip, which has three segments and a spur. There is but one stamen, of which only the rather large two-celled anther is seen, standing on the top of the ovary. A little white pouch hangs over the entrance to the spur. There is no style, but the stigma consists of a shiny, sticky surface at the base of the entrance to the spur, just under the lip (see Fig. 1). This is called the pollen-sac. The spur is cut open to show the stigma (e); the pouch (p) overhanging it, and the anther is cut away to show how the pollen-masses (pm), as they are called, + +A diagram showing the structure of a spotted orchis flower. + +82 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +lie within it. The pollen is very curious; for, instead of being powdery, the grains are all joined by elastic threads into a club-like mass; the threads uniting together form a "handle" to the club (Fig. 2), ending in a little circular disk; the small ends are hidden in the little pouch, while the thick ends (composed of the united pollen-grains) are within the anther-cells. The pouch is full of gum (Fig. 2). Now take a sharp-pointed pencil, and with your thumb press down on the spur, and in so doing push the pencil lightly against the pouch, as shown by the arrow in Fig. 1. Hold it there a few seconds. Now withdraw it, and you will pull out one or both of the pollen-masses. The gum dries, and fixes them erect. Fig. 2 shows a pollen-mass supported on its little circular disk, which stands on a drop of gum below. Now watch the pollen-masses on your pencil. They will gradually bend downwards towards the point of the pencil, until they lie along it. You must now take a second pencil, and have extracted the pollen-masses on her head. Then, when she flies to another flower, or if you pass your pencil down the spur of another flower, you will now find the pollen will hit against the shiny, sticky stigma-surface, just below the pouch, and which will tear off some of the grains as you attempt to withdraw the pencil. + +Orchids, as botanists call generally the plants of this family, are of all flowers the most curious. Many strangely resemble the forms and colours of insects; hence botanists have named them the Fly, the Spider, the Butterfly, and the Bee Orchis. Then there is the Man and the Monkey Orchis as well. + +THE SPOTTED ORCHIS. 83 + +You should try and get a specimen of the Bee Orchis, which is very common on the chalk hills of Sussex, and on the Cotswolds and elsewhere, and compare it with the spotted Orchis. It has one peculiarity not common in other members of this family, namely, that no other kind can set no seed if it is not visited by insects (for you have seen how the pollen-masses are firmly fixed in the anther-cells, and cannot possibly escape unless they be removed), the Bee Orchis can and does set seed of it abundantly. The means by which it does this is as follows—The anther stands rather high up above the flower, on what is called a column, and the stigma forms the back of an open chamber just below it, and above the humorous upper lip of the perianth. Now the stamens are like a handle "like" the pollen-mass is bent, so that if the plant is shaken, as by the wind, the heavy club-end tumbles out of the anther-cell above, but the other end remaining fixed, the pollen-mass now jerked down swings backwards and forwards in front of the *stigmatic chamber* below, and so the pollen cannot fail to strike the stigmatic surface within. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ORCHIS FAMILY. + +Herbs, often with tuberous roots. +Flowers distinguished by their very curious shapes; petals usually irregular; stamens, one only (two in the Lady's Slipper), the anther being fixed at the back of, or just above, the stigma; pollen-grains coherent into masses. +Fruit, an inferior one-celled capsule with innumerable minute seeds. +A great number of foreign species are now cultivated + +g 2 + +84 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +for their quaint appearance, delicious perfume, or curious and beautiful flowers. In a very large flowering- kind from the West Indies* the lip forms a large bowl, into which it secretes water, and bees, when they fertilize it, are compelled to take a bath before they can escape; and when they do get away the first bee carries off the pollen; but to fix it upon the stigma of another blossom it must have a second bath before it is allowed to pass through the narrow passage where the stigmatic surface is to be found! + +Very few orchids are of any special use. There is only one important article: Vanilla, which grows in the East Indies, of which bean-pods, strong-scented pods, which supply us with the flavour often imparted to chocolate. The tubers of some species of Europe and India are used for making a drink called Salep, formerly drunk in England, but Coffee has superseded its use. + +THE DAFFODIL FAMILY. +THE COMMON DAFFODIL. + +This family only differs from the next, or Lily Family (of which the Bluebell and Lily of the Valley are selected as types) by having the ovary inferior, whereas all kinds of Lilies have superior. Like Lilies, too, many of this family have bulbs under- ground. + +Dig up a plant by the roots, and let us examine the bulb. It is really an underground bud, consisting of a + +*Ornithogalum monopetalum. + +Plate 25. + +A black and white illustration of a daffodil flower and bulb. +DAFFODIL + +Standardis Group + +. . . + +THE COMMON DAFFODIL + +85 + +short, thick stem covered with leaf-scales, containing nourishment for the flower, and are the bases of leaves which mostly have no green tops. Now, observe one of the innermost scales, which bears a leafy top; hold this gently up to the light, and you will see that the veins are straight like transparent lines running side by side from one end to the other, as already mentioned on page 76 as being characteristic of Monocotyledons. + +Before you examine a flower, be sure it is not a "double" one but "single," as all wild specimens are. As they blossom in March and April, they are called Lent Lilies. + +The flower is one very easy to understand. The inferior ovary is obvious, upon which the bright yellow perianth is fastened. There are six sepals, three inner; but they all six spread away much on the same level. In the middle is a long tube with a toothed edge. This is called the corona or crown, and is an outgrowth from the perianth. It is unusually large in the Daffodil, but forms a meniscus in the Jonquils and other kinds of Garden Narcissus. Six stamens are adherent to the perianth within the crown, as shown in Fig. 1, which represents part of the flower, the six leaves of the perianth being cut away. Lastly, the style with three branches is seen at the base of the flower. + +As grown in gardens, the Daffodil is often double, and is then useless for examination, for it has no stamens nor pistil; but instead of these the perianth and corona are repeated over and over again. + +* Fig. 1 shows the inferior ovary cut open, with the corona bearing the stamens within. It is reduced in size. + +86 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +It is desirable to compare the Snowdrop with the Daffodil, as it also belongs to this family. It differs in having the six parts of the perianth quite free; but these are superior on the dark green ovary, as in the Daffodil; and lastly, there is no corona at all. The Snowdrop has a bulb, which, like all others, produces many little bulbs within its scales, and these will all propagate the plant quite as well as by seeds. + +There is but one other plant wild, but not at all common in England, called the Snowflake. It resembles the Snowdrop, only all the six parts of the perianth are white, each of a pure white, with a green spot at the tip. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DAFFODIL FAMILY. +Herbs, often with bulbs. +Leaves straight-veined. +Flowers with a regular, superior perianth of six leaves, coherent or not; stamens, six; pistil of three carpels, with an inferior ovary. + +Several species of this family are cultivated as ornamental plants, such as the White Rose from the Cape of Good Hope. Some, like the Snowdrop, have corona; others, like the Daffodil, possess none. Some are po- +sonous, as is the bulb and perianth of the Daffodil. One of the few of this family of much use to man is the American Aloe, as it is incorrectly called ; for the true Aloe belong to the Lily Family. It is greatly esteemed in Mexico; the juice is fermented, and sup- +plies a drink called pulque; the fibres of the leaves afford a strong thread called vegetable silk, and also a + +- + +Plate 35 + + +A black and white illustration of a bluebell flower. The flower has six petals, each with a central point, and is surrounded by long, narrow leaves. The illustration is detailed, showing the texture of the petals and the veins in the leaves. + + +BLUEBELL + +Stamford's Lamp Yard + +THE BLUEBELL. +87 + +material of which the Mexicans make paper. It is popularly described as flowering once in a century, and then dying. This is true, but it is quite uncertain when it may blossom, for it may be at its tenth, twentieth, sixtieth, or any other year. When, however, it does produce its tall flowering-stem—sometimes forty feet in height, with thousands of blossom—it must die, for it has no other bud except the end one, and when this has ended in flowering, the plant perishes. + +THE LILY FAMILY. + +THE BLUEBELLS. + +Like the Daffodil, the Bluebell, which blossoms in May, springs from an underground bulb, and has long, narrow leaves with the stems running straight from one end to the other without an irregular network. + +The stem in the form of the bulb forms the flower-stalk. Note the two little pointed and purple bracts at the base of each flower. + +There is no distinction between a calyx and a corolla, so we must call the outer whorl a *Perianth*, as in the case of the Orchis and Daffodil. There are three outer leaves and three inner, the six taken together making up the perianth. Each of the perianth-leaves has a stamen adherent to it. There is a free superstructure (Fig. 1). This is called a *Corolla*, which comprehends the whole Lily Family from the Daffodil Family. Cut the ovary across, and you will easily see that it is made of three carpels, as there are three little chambers, + +A diagram showing the structure of a bluebell flower. + +88 + +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +with six rows of ovules in all, two rows in each chamber; just as if you took three pea-pods and put their edges together, and then made them unite by their sides. + +A great number of Lilies, such as the Turk's Cap, the common White Lily, several kinds of Tulips, the Fritillary, and many other genera of this Lily Family, are cultivated for their beauty; while Onions, Leeks, Shalots, and some other species—all having the same peculiar flavors—belong to one and the same genus, called in England Allium. + +The Butter Aloe used in medicine is the juice from the thick leaves of plants from Barbados, the Isle of Socotra, and Africa. These plants, like our garden Yucca or "Adam's Needle," resemble the so-called American Aloe; but that plant, as already described, belongs to the Daffodil Family, because its ovary is inferior, whereas that of the true Aloe is superior. + +THE LILY FAMILY—Continued. +THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. + +The Lily of the Valley, in full bloom in May, has no bulb, but a long, creeping, underground stem. + +Observe how the veins of the leaf run from the bottom to the top, slightly curved in the middle, making these leaves look at that part because veining is said to be curvilinear. It is only a slight change from the straight or parallel-nerved kind common to Monocotyledons. + +This plant is selected as a second type of the Lily + +Plate 27 + +Lily of the valley illustration. +LILY OF THE VALLEY. + +Illustration copy bar + +I + +THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. +89 + +Family, as having its perianth leaves all united, as in the Daffodil; but it has no corona. The stamens are adherent to the bell-like tube, as shown in Fig. 1. The pistil (Fig. 2), as will be seen by cutting the ovary across, is made up of three carpels. It forms a scarlet superior berry when ripe (Fig. 3), and so differs from the fruit of the Bluebell, which is a dry capsule. + +The Asparagus is like the Lily of the Valley in bearing red berries in the autumn; but instead of leaves in the summer, it has long, narrow-like green branches, which do duty for leaves, and give the feathery appearance seen in summer. + +The Butcher's Broom, mentioned on page 77, is a third plant of this family which has berries, and also no leaves; the flat, sharp-pointed, leaf-like structures being really branches, which carry the little flowers and red berries in the middle. This plant has already been mentioned as the only British shrub belonging to the Class Monocotyledons, all other trees and shrubs being Dicotyledons. + +A general description of the Lily Family will be exactly the same as that for the Daffodil Family, excepting in one particular: that whereas in all of the Lily Family the ovary is free above the perianth—that is, *superior*—in the Daffodil Family it is always *inferior* and below the perianth. + +90 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE ARUM FAMILY. +THE SPOTTED ARUM. + +The Spotted Arum, or Lords and Ladies as the plants are often called in the country, springs from a thick, +tuberous rhizome, which contains a good deal of starch, +like the Potato. It was formerly cultivated in the +Isle of Portland for the sake of its starch, but it was +then called Portland Sago. The leaves are arrow- +shaped; and what is particularly to be observed is that +the veining is netted, resembling that of Dicotyledons. +There are only three other British plants which have +so decidedly an irregularly netted leaf, and are at the +same time Monocotyledons. One is called the Black +Bryony, which may be easily known by its very glossy, +heart-shaped, but pointed leaves. It climbs through +and over hedgerows, and bears scarlet berries. The second +is the Hairy Fumitory, which has a leaf of four or more leaves and a single short stem, which bears a green flower at the top. Its fruit is a blackish +berry. The third is the Arrowhead, a water-plant, +with pinkish-white flowers, and with leaves of the +shape of an arrow, much like those of the Arum. +These three plants belong to separate families, not +otherwise alluded to in this book. + +Let us examine carefully the flowers of the Arum. +The large hooded leaf is really a bract, and called a +Spathe. Observe how it is folded in like a fan at one point. Open it out, or cut the spathe entirely away, and you will find a curious stem in the middle, +covered with different kinds of organs, as shown in + +Plate 28. + + +A large leaf with dark spots. +A close-up of the leaf showing the dark spots more clearly. +A cluster of small, round, spiky structures. +A single, elongated structure with a pointed tip. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, spiky structure. +A small, round, + + +SPOTTED ARUM. + +Small Circle Group Ltd. + +- + +THE SPOTTED ARUM. + +91 + +Fig. 5, which represents the *Spadix*, as the whole stalk is called, of the natural size. + +Let us begin at the bottom, and work upwards. You first see a number of green pistils (*p*), with round, ball-like ovaries and *stigma*—i.e. there are no styles to carry the stigma, so they are *setted* on the ovary itself. Just above these pistil (each of which stands for a separate flower) there are some smaller pistils with long styles (*a*, *b*, and Fig. 2). Curiously, how- ever, they never set any seed, while the larger ones, without style, do. + +Next follows a ring of purple or crimson stamens (*f*). Each stamen, you will easily see with the aid of your lens, has four anter-cellars, each of which opens by a pore at the top, as shown in Fig. 1. Then come some more oblong pistils, forming a sort of fring just where the spadix is contracted ; and finally, the stem ends with the pink or purple club-like extremity, called the *Appendix*, the whole, as stated, constituting the *spadix*. + +As the stamens are placed above, and not below the pistil, the spadix cannot be a single flower but is an *inflorescence* of many flowers; so that each pistil and each stamen must be looked upon as a flower in itself, but wanting all the other parts which usually go to make up a flower—that is to say, each pistil requires a perianth and stamens, and each stamen must be looked upon as wanting a perianth and pistil. + +That this is a correct idea is seen from another genus—the only one known to me together with Arum Arvense—representing the Arum Family in Great Britain. It is called the Sweet-flag or Reed-mace, a plant with + +92 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +long, narrow leaves, and with a spadix exposed, not being wrapped up in a sheathing spathe. The flowers, however, have all got a perianth, while this includes both stamens and pistil together. + +The process of fertilization of the Arum is somewhat interesting. The stigmas mature before the anthers shed their pollen, and when this does take place the stigmas have withered, so that it cannot fertilize itself. Small insects, however, enter the spathe and crawling downwards on the fringes, which belong to the fringing hairs, which, while it allows them to enter, prevents them from returning. After a time, however, when the insects may have deposited any pollen they brought with them upon the stigmas, then the anthers open their pores; and, furnishing the captives with a new supply of pollen, they are now allowed to escape, as the fringe has by this time shrivelled, and so affords no hindrance to their exit. Sir John Lubbock* tells us that sometimes more than a hundred flies will be found in a single Arum. + +During the summer the spathe gradually withers and falls off; so does the top of the spadix, leaving only the lower part, which bears the large pistils. These swell and grow scarlet, so that in the autumn you may often find a green stalk with a dense cluster of scarlet berries on the top. This is the fruit of the Arum. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ARUM FAMILY. +Herbs with an acrid juice. Leaves often net-veined. + +Flowers on a spadix, with a spathe ; perianth + +* ' British Wild Flowers in relation to Insects,' p. 29. + +. . . + +Plate 29 + +A detailed botanical illustration of a plant, likely a type of sedge, showing its flower head, stem, and leaves. The illustration includes a close-up view of the flower head with numerous small, feathery structures, and a side view of the plant showing its long, slender leaves. + +COTTON-SEDGE. + +Illustration by Doug L. Swanson + +THE COTTON-SEDGE. 93 + +present or none; stamens and pistils together or separated. +**Fruit** usually a superior berry. +Several members of this family are to be seen in hot-houses and gardens, as they principally grow in tropical countries. One, however, the so-called Trumpet Lily, which has a long, rather thick white spathe surrounding a yellow spadix, is a common drawing-room plant. + +There is one plant called *Monarda delicosa*, of which the perfumed spadices are sold in the Mexican markets, and which is said to be equal to the Pineapple in flavour. On the other hand, many are very poisonous. Slave-owners used to punish slaves by making them bite the spadix of one called the Dumb-cane, from the terrible effects it had on the tongue, rendering the biter speechless for some days. + +THE SEDGE FAMILY. +THE COTTON-SEDGE. + +There are two families, called the Sedge and the Grass Families, which differ from the rest of Mono- +cotyledons, not only in having no perianth, but, instead of it, the stamens and pistil are protected by what are called *Glumes*, and which form the dry scales known as *Chaff*, when, for example, wheat is thrashed. Hence these two families are sometimes called *Glumiferae*, or *glume-bearing*. The leaves of the plants of both orders are much alike—long, narrow blades, having + +94 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +The veins running straight from end to end; though the lower part which sheathes the stem is split down the opposite side to the blade in Grasses, but forms a complete sheathing tube in Sedges. + +The inflorescence consists of spikelets grouped in various ways; sometimes tufted, as in the Cotton-sedge; or in long catkins, as in the true Sedges. In Wheat, the little spikelets are arranged in two ranks upon a stem, and so make the Ear. In the Oat they are grouped into a loose bunch, called a Panicle. A spikelet only means little spike, and a spike is a common stalk which bears flowers seated upon it; but without separate spikes their own. Thus, the common Plantain is a dense spike. + +In the Cotton-sedge, which will be found in May and June, each flower of the spikelet consists of a single glume, then a quantity of hairs, at first rather short, and within them three stamens and a pistil with one style bearing three stigmas, as shown in Fig. 1. When the pistil ripens into a fruit (Fig. 2) the hairs grow to a considerable length, and then form the long silky tufts which give the plant its name, and which gives its name. It is often called Cotton-grass, but the word Grass is wrong, as it does not belong to the Grass Family. + +Attempts have been made to weave this hair, but without success. It is useful, however, for stuffing cushions. + +The genus of this family which contains the most species is the true Sedge, or Carex as botanists call it. In this plant the stamens and pistils are in separate catkins; but, with rare exception, both kinds of cat- + +THE COTTON-SEDGE. 95 + +kins are on the same plant. The staminate flowers consist of a glume with two or three stamens, the pistillate, of a glume and a pistil of two or three carpels, as shown by the number of styles, and which is invested by a bottle-shaped structure, supposed to be made of two glumes united by their edges, and so including the pistil between them. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SEDGE FAMILY. +Herbs grass-like. + +Leaves narrow, with a closed, tubular sheath. +Flowers in panicles, &c., perfect, or with stamens and pistil separated in the axis of glumes; often with bristles or hairs surrounding the stamens and pistil. +Fruit one-celled, nut-like, with a single seed. + +There are several genera in the Sedge Family, but few are of any use. A very tall, reed-like plant, growing in lakes and rivers, is called Bull-rush by some people, though this name is more often given to a very different plant, with a tall stem and dense brown end, with the shape of a poker, and which does not belong to the Sedge Family. The name is derived from the rush of the Sedge Family; but for making rush-bottoms for boats yet they are not true Rushes which belong to yet another family. The Papyrus, which grows in Egypt and elsewhere, used to supply a substance out of which a rough kind of paper was made, the word paper being taken from the name of the plant. + +96 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +THE GRASS FAMILY. +THE COMMON WHEAT. + +Wheat, which is in flower in July, and all other kinds of Corn crops, are really Grasses; the Buck-wheat, as we have seen (p. 64), being not really a corn at all. +The stalk of a grass leaf is split on the opposite side to the blade, and thus differs from any plant of the Sedge Family. It also carries a little appendage called the Lippule (l in the drawing). +Grasses agree with the Sedges in having no true perianth; but their flowers are protected by glumes or chaff-scales. The ear of wheat is made up of spikelets placed in notches on the stalk, on opposite sides of it. Pick off one of these spikelets, and carefully remove the chaff-scales. There are two chaff-scales or outer glumes at the bottom (Fig. 1 and 2). Remove them, and then you will see that the spikelet is composed of four or five distinct little flowers or florets placed on alternate sides of the little stalk which carries them. Pick off the lowest floret. There is a glume much like the first you removed. This is called the Flowering glume (Fig. 3). It overlaps another called the Pale (Fig. 4), which, however, differs from it in being of a thinner texture. The little points terminating each floret are called lodges; so the Flowering glume had only one central point. The edges of the pale are like flaps, and so protect the stamens and pistil within them. The next parts are rather difficult to see; but if you hold the floret up, after removing the + +Plate 30. + + +A detailed illustration of wheat, showing a close-up of the grains (wheat kernels) and a larger view of the plant. + + +WHEAT + +Illustration by J. H. B. H. H. H. + +. + +THE COMMON WHEAT. +97 + +flowering glume, you will notice two very small bodies at the bottom, and which face you, just between the edges of the pale. These are called Lodicules (Fig. 5). You may be able to pick them out with a pin. Then follow three stamens, with long, thread-like filaments, and bearing long anthers, which are said to be versatile, because they can swing about very easily (Fig. 6); and, last of all, in the centre is the pistil with its two feathery appendages (Fig. 7). + +Such is the structure of a single floret, and it is the same for the three or four other florets of each spikelet, excepting the terminal or end floret. This one consists of only a small flowering glume and pale, without any thing else, so that it cannot produce a grain of Wheat at all. If, however, only three florets of each spikelet produce grains, and supposing there to be twenty spikelets in each ear, such would produce at least sixty grains; and as one grain sown often carries several seeds, it is evident that a single ear of Wheat may produce some hundreds in one season. + +We will now examine a grain of Wheat, or what would be better still, a well-sealed grain of Indian Corn. You will notice in a grain of Wheat that it is grooved down one side, but rounded on the other, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. The round side has a wrinkled spot at one end. If you cut the grain in two down the groove, you will find that the little embryo has been cut in half, and that it lay exactly under the wrinkled spot, as shown in Fig. 10. The white substance of the grain is composed of a white substance, which when ground in the mill makes flour. This white substance is called Vegetable Albumen, because just as the white + +II + +98 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +of an egg nourishes the young chick in the egg, and is called by chemists Animal Albumen, so does the white flour nourish the little embryo when it begins to grow, until it has roots and green leaves of its own. It so happens, however, that seeds of plants vary very much in this respect. Very many have got albumen round their embryos; others have no albumen, and then the embryos are usually very much larger, and fill up the whole of the space within the seed skin. When a seed has albumen it is called an albuminous; when the embryo is imbedded in the seed it is said to be albuminous. +We examined a Pea, and we found the embryo filled up the whole of the seed skin. It is just the same with Beans, Almonds, Nuts, Acorns, Walnuts, Chestnuts, and many others. As these have no albumen, if they are eatable, it is the large embryo that you eat. On the other hand, all kinds of grains, or cereals as they are called, are albuminous, like the Wheat. Examples of other plants whose seeds have albumen are the Buttercup, the Violet, the Ragged Robin, Primrose, the Barberry, and all the monocotyledons described in this book. +The next point to notice is the structure of the embryo itself. If you can get some Indian Corn from any corn-seller, soak the grains for a few days in boiling water, as they are very hard. You can then pick out the embryo, which you will find lying in a little basin-like depression in the hard, yellowish albumen. The embryo is on one—the outer side—is rounded on the other. Examine it carefully, and you will detect a little slit in the middle. Open it out, and a minute bud lies hidden within the slit. This + +THE COMMON WHEAT. +99 + +bud is the plumule. This outside part, rounded behind and folding over with its two flat edges in front, is the single cotyledon, which thus protects the little plumule within; the lower part being the radical end. This cotyledon takes the form of a little shield, so some call it a scutellum. As there is only one cotyledon, this is of course a Monocotyledon. + +There is a very great similarity in the structure of the florets and fruits or grains of all Grasses. A few points of difference may be noticed. In some kinds of Wheat (as in the common wheat) we see on the side of the flower- +ing glume (Fig. 8, see lower end of the drawing) grown out to three or four inches in length. It then forms what is called an awn, and Wheat with awns is said to be barbed. Barley and Oats always have such awns. In one kind of Grass, called Feather- +Grass, the soft, hairy awn is nearly a foot in length, and forms a pretty ornament when made into bundles. + +As in the Wheat, most Grasses have the stamens and pistil in the same flower, but Indian Corn has them separated by a membrane. The florets are in a large feathery bundle at the top of the plant, while the pistillate spikelets are compacted together into a great solid mass or cob in the axils of the lower leaves. + +GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE GRASS FAMILY. +Herbs with hollow stems, called culms, with solid joints. + +Leaves with a split sheath, and a long, narrow blade with a ligule. + +Florets in spikelets, consisting of flowering glume and pale, excluding lodicules, stamens, and a pistil bearing two feathery stigmas. + +H 2 + +100 + +**BOTANY FOR CHILDREN.** + +**Fruit,** an albuminous grain, with small embryo on the surface of the albumen. + +I need hardly describe the uses of the cultivated Grasses, for wheat and rye bread, oatcake, and barley-meal and other foods are too well known. **Bread** bread is made from the outer part of the grain, sifted from the white flour, which, as we have seen, is the albumen. Millers sift the flour into three kinds— + +*First*, or the central part of the grain; *Second*, or the next to the outermost part; and + +*Third*, or the outermost part. Now the *Second* is really the most nutritious, the *Firsts* being mainly used for making biscuits, the *Thirds* or *Bran* for brown bread ; which, though it contains really more nutritious matter than the *Second*, is yet not so digestible, because the skin of the grain contains *fatty matter*, which is slow and unwholesome. The bright polished look of a straw is due to the flinty substance taken up by the roots, dissolved in water, and left on the surface of the straw. + +The Sugar-cane is a Grass, and differs from others in having its stem solid and full of sweet juice, from which sugar is got by crushing the stems and boiling the juice. + +The Bamboo, which grows to sixty or seventy feet or more in tropical countries, is simply a gigantic woody straw! + +THE PRINCIPLES OF VARIATION. +101 + +THE PRINCIPLES OF VARIATION. + +As we have now examined and discussed some thirty different plants, it will be desirable to group together the different ways or principles by which they vary from some supposed type or example selected to start from. + +NUMBER.—This is the first principle to be considered. In many flowers the parts of the whorls are in threes, fours, or fives, or else very many. Other numbers occur, but are not quite so common. + +COHESION.—This applies to any whorl when its parts are united together, as are the sepals as well as the petals of a Primrose; the stamens of the Broom by their filaments; the stamens of the Dandelion by their anthecium; the stamens of the Lily of the Valley, Flowers of the Willow-Tree, Lamiun, Daffodil, and Bluebell. + +ADHERENCE.—This refers to the union of any two or more whorls together, as when the petals and stamens are both united to the calyx, as in the Strawberry, or as the stamens to the corolla in the Primrose and Lamiun, or to the perianth in the Lily of the Valley. + +SUPERIOR.—When the pistil is quite free and stands above the calyx or perianth, so that its ovary can be cut away leaving the calyx or perianth behind, it is called superior. The calyx or perianth is called inferior, as in Buttercup, Primrose, and Bluebell. + +INFERIOR.—When the ovary of the pistil is sunk into and imbedded in the receptacle, i. e. invested by the re- + +102 +BOTANY FOR CHILDREN. + +Oeptacular tube, the ovary is called inferior, as in the flower of the Apple, Dandelion, Orchis, and Daffodil; the calyx or perianth in this case now becomes superior, and remains on the top of the fruit, which may thus be recognized as an inferior fruit, as are Gooseberries, Apples, Pears, Medlars, &c. + +REGULAR.—When the parts of a whorl are of the same size and shape, the whorl is said to be regular, as are the petals of the Buttercup or Primrose, or the perianth of the Bluebell. + +IRREGULAR.—When any part or parts of a whorl differ in size or shape from the rest, the whorl is called irregular, as the petals of the Pea, the stamens of the Violet, and the perianth of the Orchis. + +If, now, we imagine a flower to be composed of, say, five free sepals, five free petals, five free stamens, and five free carpels, then all flowers can be referred to such a type or imaginary example, their differences as seen in any nosegay being entirely due to different combinations of the above seven principles. + +THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION. + +Plants are grouped or classified mainly by their flowers. We have seen how there are several species of Buttercup, that being the genus; and that several genera are grouped into a Family; and lastly, all the families of flowering plants are grouped into two great Classes, namely, Angiosperms and Monocotyledons; of which may be known by four peculiarities as follows:— + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
1.Flowers with perfect parts (i.e., both male and female).
2.Flowers with perfect parts (i.e., both male and female).
3.Flowers with perfect parts (i.e., both male and female).
4.Flowers with perfect parts (i.e., both male and female).
+ +THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION. 103 + +I. DICOTYLEDONS. + +1. The parts of the whorls of the flowers are generally in fours, fives, or many; as in the Wallflower, Geranium, and Buttercup respectively. +2. The wood of such as are trees or shrubs shows rings when cut across, and there is a distinct pith, wood, and bark. +3. The leaves are net-veined, as of all our trees. +4. The embryo of the seed has two cotyledons or seed-leaves, as in the Pea, or as seen in Mustard and Cress when they germinate. + +Observation.—Three British plants, the Scotch Fir, the Juniper, and Yew, are separated in a Subclass called Gymnosperms, i.e. they have naked seeds with no seed vessel. All other Dicotyledonous plants form the subclass Angiosperms, i.e. seeds in a seed vessel. + +II. MONOCOTYLEDONS. + +1. The parts of the whorls of the flowers are in threees or sizes, as in the Bluebell. +2. The wood of Palms, and of the only British shrub of this class, "The Butcher's Broom," is in separate cords running down the pith, as seen in Asparagus, and there is no true separable bark. +3. The leaves are straight-veined, as of all Grasses. +4. The embryo of the seed has only one cotyledon or seed-leaf, as seen in the Indian Corn, or when an Onion germinates. + +LONDON PRINTED BY EDWARD STEVENS, 50 CHARING CROSS, N.W. + +[API_EMPTY_RESPONSE] \ No newline at end of file