184 



GARDENERS' CHROMCLE 



greenish-yellow gland containing nectar which is of 

 no direct use to the flower itself, and is a part of the 

 lure to entice the desired visitor. Standing directly 

 above this is an indefinite number of bodies called 

 stamens, each consisting of a threadlike stalk termin- 

 able by an anther or case containing a powdery sub- 

 stance known as pollen. The anthers, when ripe, open 

 to allow the pollen to escape. 



Inside the stamens is the pistil, consisting of (a) a 

 basal portion usually rounded, known as the ovary, 

 enclosing the ovules, which if fertilized will become 

 seeds, while the ovary itself will become the fruit ; 



(b) an erect, tubular portion, known as the style; and 



(c) a sticky apex more or less differentiated from the 

 style, called the stigma. For reproduction to take 

 place, the pollen from the stamens must reach the 

 stigma, and some flowers are so constructed that it 

 is impossible for this to take place without the aid 

 of outside agencies, such as wind or insects. Such 

 may be flowers in which the pistil comes to maturity 

 before the anthers, and is ready to receive the pollen 

 before the anthers of the same flower have opened 

 to shed it, and vice versa ; e. g., some mallows, gera- 

 niums, campanulas, plantains, and magnolias. In 

 these, if seed is eventually to be formed, pollen must 

 be brought to the stigma either from an older or a 

 younger flower as the case may be. Or, again, we 

 have moncecious plants which have the pistil in one 

 flower and the stamens in another, like the mealie 

 and arum: or didecious, where the staminate and pis- 

 tillate flowers are borne on difterent individuals, as in 

 the case of the paw-paw. castor oil, pepper tree. etc. 

 In these cases, if no outside agency comes to the 

 rescue, of course pollination is not effected, the flow- 

 ers simply withering and falling to the ground after 

 a short time without producing fruit. In this connec- 

 tion the flowers of the wild fig (Bosvijge) and of the 

 bread fruit are interesting as showing how absolutely 

 dependent a plant may be on insect visitation for the 

 production of fruit. The flowers of the fig are either 

 staminate or pistillate and borne inside a case, through 

 an opening in the top of which the insect has to enter. 

 If a tree be unvisited. the ground beneath at flowering 

 time will be found strewn with blossoms, which ap- 

 parently began well and then made a sudden stop; 

 while those of a tree which is in the running with in- 

 sects will have sturdy well developed flowers still on 

 their stems and on the way to ripen into fruits. Some 

 trees, like the maple, are polygamous, bearing all three 

 kinds of flowers — those with pistil and stamens, and 

 those with stamens or pistil only. Some of the Chen- 

 opodiums bear cm the same i)lant perfect and pistillate 

 flowers. 



The transference of pollen from one flower to the 

 ripe stigma of another either on the same or on a- 

 dift'erent plant is known as cross-pollination, and it is 

 obvious that in most of the instances mentioned above 

 the flowers themselves seek it, and it is Nature's way. 

 Rut even where the flowers are possessed of both 

 stamens and pistil, it has in many cases been proved 

 that a greater number of healthv seedlings are pro- 

 duced from the plant when the seeds are the result of 

 the union of foreign pollen with the stigma. The 

 flowers of some varieties of apple can use their own 

 pollen or that brought by insects, in which case the 

 seedlings produced are healthier and more vigorous ; 

 recent investigations have shown that some species 

 are self-sterile and so altogether dependent on foreign 

 pollen. As the bee pushes about in the flower either 

 to gather the pollen for bee-bread or to find the honey, 

 he gets his body well dusted with the grains which 



are often provided with ridges and otherwise rough- 

 ened surfaces to make them adhere. Flying to an- 

 other apple blossom, where his body comes in con- 

 tact with the stigma, the pollen gets transferred and 

 cross-pollination is eft'ected. 



In primroses, peiitanisias, and other flowers we find 

 styles and stamens of varying lengths. Flower A will 

 have long styles and short stamens, while B will pre- 

 sent long stamens and short styles. In the case of A 

 it will be seen that self-pollination is out of the ques- 

 tion, and at the same time it has been determined that 

 the greatest number of fertile seeds are arrived at 

 when pollen from the long stamens is made (by insect 

 agency or otherwise) to pass not on to the short- 

 styled stigma of the same flower but on to the long 

 styled stigma of a different flower. There is the same 

 difiiculty in securing union between a short stamened 

 and a long styled primrose as there is in effecting a 

 union between two distinct species. The union may 

 take place, but it will either prove barren or the quan- 

 tit>" of seeds and the vigor of the resulting seedlings 

 be diminished. 



Primitive flowers were evidently cross-pollinated 

 ])}• means of wind, like the fir. Insects have appar- 

 enth- played a large part in their evolution, helpmg 

 to determine the lines on which such evolution took 

 place. They probably first visited flowers for the sake 

 of pollen, which, in wind pollinated flowers, is pro- 

 duced in great abundance. The amount of pollen then 

 became more restricted, the plant expending its en- 

 ergy on the provision of special organs for the secre- 

 tion of attractive juices: after which came conceal- 

 ment of honey, so that there would be no chance of 

 the visitor escaping with his booty without fulfilling 

 the purpose for which the fluwer attracted him, and 

 lastly the apjiearance of gailv colored and protective 

 corollas. — South African Gardening and Country Life. 



THE ROCKGARDEN AT LINDENHURST 



iCoiiliuuid from pa^c 179 1 

 over, the arrangement ofl^ered constant opportunities for 

 manifestation of visual sensitiveness in regard to color 

 blendings. Taking all these in account, it seemed that 

 the ambition of 'Sir. Dodds in attaining a full effect the 

 first season, was well nigh verging on the impossible. 

 Xevertheless he succeeded. The rich floral color display 

 of the new rockgarden at Lindenhurst during May, 

 1916, six weeks after ]ilanting. was the achievement of 

 an enthusiast : the professional exploit of a gardener with 

 an inborn love for the work he does. Granted, the con- 

 struction, just as well as the arrangement of the planting, 

 are open for criticism. But after careful weighing of 

 local advantages and disadvantages, we have been work- 

 ing under, is there not always room for improvement on 

 things conceived and executed by human beings? 



Since its introduction in 1916, the vernal glorv of the 

 rockgarden at Lindenhurst has been exerting its charm 

 every ensuing season. Not the exotic beauty of 

 most of the inmates seen in our regular flower gar- 

 dens, but pre-eminently the beauty of the blossoms of our 

 native .shrub and herb vegetation as thev are ushering 

 in the Springtime on distant hillsides and .giving cheer 

 to the desolate aspect amid our weird mountain regions 

 of high altitudes. It is this extremely hardv creeping and 

 crawling herb vegetation which so readily and quickly 

 forms a unit with the rock work. The typical rockgar- 

 den denizen is the medium for establishing a dense ground 

 covering apt to keep the weeds down. According to ob- 

 servations of the superintendent of Lindenhurst, the care 

 of rockgardens requires only one-third of the time neces- 

 sarv for the same area within ordinarv flower gardens. 



