0°^ 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



schemes and ambitions and try to find 

 out the secrets of their Hves. 



It is always fun to collect something, 

 such as stamps, coins, postcards or dried 

 flowers. But let us begin a new kind of 

 collection^ — one composed of the mechan- 



ORCH15 SPECTABILIS 



ism of the tlowers. This will consist of 

 sketches of the various parts, showing- 

 how they work, and before the season is 

 over we shall have a line of inventions 

 and discoveries to rival the Patent Office. 

 We shall find the stamens and pistils of 

 our plants exhibiting extraordinary vari- 

 ety and modifications, and will discover 

 that each grotesque twist and distortion 

 of these organs is to help along the main 

 purpose of the cross-fertilization of the 

 flower 



In the sketches here given will be seen 

 several stamens and pistils of quaint and 

 odd forms. In May you will find several 

 flowers which bear their pollen on one 



plant and form their seeds on the other. 

 Gather and examine some jack-in-the- 

 pulpits and you will find minute pistillate 

 flowers on the "clapper'' of one bell and 

 staminate flowers upon another. The jack 

 which makes the pollen fades before the 

 season is far advanced, while the pistil- 

 late flowers develop into gorgeous bunch- 

 es of red berries. 



Examine the barberry flower with a 

 strong magnifying glass and you will 

 find it to be arranged like a minute sea 

 anemone. Gently introduce the point of 

 a pin into the cup of the flower and you 

 will observe the spreading stamens curl 

 toward the center as if alive and they will 

 shed their pollen on your pin as they 

 would do upon a bee's head. This bar- 

 berry flower is a veritable sensitive plant 

 and thus senids its charge of pollen away 

 to another flower upon the furry coat of a 

 faithful messenger. 



In May, too, we have the showy orchis 

 whose lovely blossoms with purple hoods 

 and white bibs suggest the head of a 

 monk with his cowl. Here the pollen is 

 in the form of two clubs, and these are 

 found in two small pockets where they 

 can attach themselves to the head of an 

 insect visitor You can "play the bee" 

 by using the point of a match or a pencil 

 and can withdraw the pollen masses from 

 their pockets just as the insect does. 



Next month we will take up in greater 

 detail the ways and means of cross-fertil- 

 ization of the flowers, and study their 

 msect friends as well. 



The roots of forest trees begin to grow 

 in April and continue up to winter until 

 the soil becomes too cold. During dry 

 summers, there may be as much as five 

 weeks of resting period when no growth 

 occurs. 



A single bullfrog, Raaa catcshiana, is 

 reported by a correspondent of "Science" 

 to have been seen to stalk and devour 

 five black swallowtail butterflies within 

 a half-hour. As the insects hovered 

 about the bank, the frog left the water, 

 crawled toward its prey, covered the last 

 foot of distance with a single jump and 

 caught the butterfly in its mouth. The 

 observation is claimed to be unique. 



In coronation robes 



The sunset clothes our heights, 

 And the moon with them doth share 



The splendor of her nights. 



— Emma Peirce. 



