THE CYCLE OF LIFE : FLOWERS 55 



QUESTIONS 



1. Supposing that everything else about organisms remained the 

 same, what would happen if every plant and every animal suddenly be- 

 came incapable of dying ? 



2. How does a baby plant originate ? How does it get nourishment ? 



3. How can plants be multiplied without the use of seeds ? 



4. How is pollenation brought about in each of ten plants that you 

 have observed ? 



5. How does the living matter in the pollen grain reach the living 

 matter in the embryo sac ? 



6. What are the advantages or disadvantages of having a very long 

 style (as in the Indian corn, for example), compared to having a very 

 short style (as in the buttercup) ? 



7. In the flowers that you have studied, what distinguishes those 

 with more division of labor from those with less division of labor ? 



8. Many common flowers have their parts in fours or fives ; others 

 have their parts in threes. Can you find any other peculiarities of the 

 plants in one group or the other ? 



9. What are the advantages of keeping bees in the neighborhood of 

 farms and orchards ? 



10. Why do plants that are brought to a new region, with suitable 

 soil and climate, sometimes grow very well but fail to produce fruit ? 



11. In what ways is an involucre like a calyx? In what ways is it 

 different ? What is the nature of the rays on a sunflower ? 



REFERENCE READINGS 



Bergen and Caldwell. Practical Botany, chap, vii. Flowers; chap, viii, 

 Pollination and Fertihzation. 



OsTERHOUT, W. J. V. Experiments with Plants, chap, vi, The Work of 

 Flowers. 



Gave, Selina. The World's Great Farm (extract in C. H. Ward's '' Ex- 

 ploring Nature," pp. 74-75). 



Lubbock, John. Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves (extract in C. H. Ward's 

 ''Exploring Nature," pp. 79-87). 



Weed, Clarence. Ten New England Blossoms. 



Any manual or field book for identifying the common plants by their 

 flowers. 



