628 Home Nature-Study Course, 



Facts for teachers. — If comparison of the wild and cultivated sorts is prac- 

 ticable, sliow the pupils that the strawberry in its wild or natural state has always 

 five white petals set on short claws within a calyx made up of five, pointed, green 

 sepals, outside of which is another row of five, leafy green bracts. JNluch tillage 

 and excess of food has caused a tendency to " double " in the cultivated ones, 

 and , though many blossoms have the usual number of petals, others may have 

 seven or eight. The writer found one flower this past summer which had twelve 

 petals. Also the wild flowers are usually " perfect,'" that is, the central, green 

 button with its many pistils is always surrounded by a fringe of many, slender 

 filaments, each tipped with a golden anther pollen-box. But in many cultivated 

 varieties the pollen and the pistils are borne on different flowers. Teach the 

 children that it is necessary that some of the dust or pollen from the stamens 

 should fall on the stigmatic surfaces of the "imperfect" flowers to enable them 

 to bear fruit, so that in planting, about one plant in five should be staminate. 

 Bees will carry the pollen. Growers think that pistillate varieties resist frost a 

 little better than the others, besides being very prolific. 



The blossom-stem of the strawberry is round, smooth, and quite strong, 

 holding its branching panicle of flowers erect, though later the heavy fruit weighs 

 it down ; it is usually shorter than the leaf-stems among which it nestles. The 

 flowers open in a series, so that ripe and green fruit, flowers and buds may often 

 be plucked on the same stem. Only the petals and stamens wither and fall away, 

 the green calyx remaining as the " hull " which holds the green central knob full 

 of pistils which swell and ripen into the juicy fruit. 



LESSON LXXIII. 



THE FRUIT. 



Purpose. — To help the children to see for themselves what is the real 

 frtiit or seed of the plant. 



Material. — One of the fruits on the desk of each child, if possible. 

 A hand lens is most desirable for this lesson, and a very serviceable one 

 may be bought for fifty cents. 

 Observation.'^ by pupils. — 



(i). Are the fruits all of the same shape and color? 



(2). Is the pulp of the same color within as on the surface? 



(3). Has the fruit an outer coat or skin? 



(4). What are the specks on its surface? 



(5). With a pin point remove one of the tiny pits or seeds. What is 

 its shape? If possible open one of the little shells, look at it with a lens 

 and describe what you see. 



Fads for teachers. — To the botanist the strawberry is not a "berry," that 

 definition being limited to fruits having a juicy pulp containing many seeds and 

 surrounded by a skin or pericarp, like the currant, grape and tomato, while the 

 strawberry is a fleshy receptacle, acidly sweet in taste, bearing seed in shallow 

 pits on its surface. These seeds arc so small that they are not noticed when 

 eating the fruit, but each one is a tiny nut or akenc, almond-shaped, and contain- 

 ing within its tough, little shell a starchy meat for the sustenance of the future 

 plant which it enfolds. It is by planting these seeds that growers obtain new 

 vari'Jies. About three years are needed to bring such plants into bearing, and 



