Teachers' Leaflet. 557 



LESSON CXXVL 

 the tulip. 



Purpose. — To familiarize the pupils with the various forms found in 

 the tulip flowers. 



The single tulips are best for beginning the study ; they have usually 

 what the children will naturally call six petals set in a double row. 

 This is an excellent opportunity for teaching the pupils that the parts of a 

 flower are not always what they seem, for, strictly speaking, the three outer 

 ones are sepals and the three inner ones petals, but they are colored alike 

 and the botanists do not separate them into petals and sepals, but take 

 them together and call them the perianth, and the parts are call segments 

 of perianth. Thus the perianth of the tulip has six segments, three 

 outer and three inner ones ; these segments are beautifully colored and 

 are thin, smooth and silky in texture. Note that the segments of the 

 perianth in some tulips are short and round and in some they are long 

 and pointed ; in some the perianth opens wide, like a shallow cup, in 

 others it is deep with a constricted opening. Note there are six stamens 

 about the single pistil and that the latter has a three-parted stigma set 

 very directly upon the ovary or seed box. The tulip seeds very freely 

 but it should not be permitted to do so, for it cannot mature both seeds 

 and new bulbs. One or two plants may be saved for seed, so that the 

 pupils may have an opportunity for studying the curious three-sided 

 seed vessel with its numerous flat seeds. 



LESSON cxxvn. 



tulip leaves and bulbs. 



Purpose. — To cause the pupils to study more closely and in detail the 

 tulip plant. 



Observe that the leaves are thick, smooth, veined lengthwise, and 

 that the inner ones are folded within the outer ones. The leaves are 

 quite broad and seem to have a crease or fold in the middle ; some are 

 straight edged, others are slightly curled or ruffled. Besides the large, 

 broad leaves from the center of which the flower springs, there are 

 smaller ones which grow on alternate sides of the thick stem. Note 

 that the bulb is formed of several coats or layers, each one of which 

 when it extends upwards grows into a leaf. This shows that the bulb 

 is made up of leaves which are thickened by the food stored within them 

 to be used for future growth. In the heart of each bulb is the flower 

 bud, sheltered and protected by the stored food, which it will use later 

 in its development. Note that the true roots are white and thread-like, 



