24 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



MAKING PLANT STRUCTURE TRANS- 

 PARENT. 



In early spring, in certain localities, 

 the pretty little flower popularly known 

 as bluets, sometimes as innocence, 

 blooms so profusely in meadows and 

 low-lying fields, that the mass reminds 

 one of a delicate cloud of tender blue 

 just touching the tips of the grass blades, 

 while in other places the flowers appear 

 in patches and tufts "like little puffs of 

 blue smoke along the ground." 



The plant is interesting botanically be- 



A BLUET "CLEARED" TO SHOW DETAIL. 



cause nature has so prepared it that cross 

 fertilization is assured. Some blossoms 

 have the anthers set high on the corolla- 

 tube so that they project from the throat, 



YAID 

 THE LENS 



while the style is short, the two stigmas 

 therefore being held within the tube. 

 This form is shown in the photograph. 

 In the other variety, the style is long, 

 the stigmas projecting, while the anthers 

 are set low and included within the 

 throat.- The arrangement makes it cer- 

 tain that a small insect visiting the high 

 anthers will carry the pollen to the pro- 

 jecting stigmas, and that the pollen from 

 the low anthers will be placed on the low 

 stigmas. The two kinds of plants 



always grow in separate groups, which 

 appears to be another effort to assist in 

 cross fertilization. 



The flowers are no more transparent 

 than those of any other plant, but the 

 reader will perceive that the photograph 

 shows one enlarged and so transparent 

 that not only are the ovules visible 

 within the ovary, but the botanical struc- 

 ture, and even the spiral vessels forming 

 the veins, are plainly discernible, while 

 within and at the top of the corolla-tube, 

 on both sides, pollen grains are so dis- 

 tinctly defined that they may be counted 

 with a low-power pocket-lens. The 



method by which this was accomplished 

 was until a few years ago, a mystery to 

 those microscopists that bought the 

 beautiful preparations from the dealers, 

 who had nothing to say on the subject 

 when questioned. It is possible that 

 they were only "middle-men" and were 

 themselves ignorant of the process of 

 preparation, which the writer has acci- 

 dentally discovered, and here repeats, 

 hoping that the microscopical reader will 

 find it useful, not only for small flowers, 

 but for leaves, to which it may be applied 

 with equal assurance of success. 



The process destroys most of the color, 

 but it leaves the structure practically 

 unaltered and perfectly transparent, so 



