NO IV TO KNOW THE WILD FLOWERS 



study of plants to a rank which had never before been accorded 

 it. The Swedish naturalist contrived to inspire his disciples 

 with an enthusiasm, and to invest the flowers with a charm and 

 personality which awakened a wide-spread interest in the sub- 

 ject. It is only since his day that the unscientific nature-lover, 

 wandering through those woods and fields where 



' ' — wide around, the marriage of the plants 

 Is sweetly solemnized — " 



has marvelled to find the same laws in vogue in the floral as in 

 the animal world. 



To Darwin we owe our knowledge of the significance of 

 color, form, and fragrance in flowers. These subjects have been 

 widely discussed during the last twenty-five years, because of 

 their close connection with the theory of natural selection ; they 

 have also been more or less enlarged upon in modern text-books. 

 Nevertheless, it seems wiser to repeat what is perhaps already 

 known to the reader, and to allude to some of the interesting 

 theories connected with these topics, rather than to incur the risk 

 of obscurity by omitting all explanation of facts and deductions 

 to which it is frequently necessary to refer. 



It is agreed that the object of a flower's life is the making of 

 seed, i.e.^ the continuance of its kind. Consequently its most 

 essential parts are its reproductive organs, the stamens, and the 

 pistil or pistils. 



The stamens (p. xxxi) are the fertilizing organs. These pro- 

 duce the powdery, quickening material called pollen, in little 

 sacs which are borne at the tips of their slender stalks. 



The pistil (p. xxxii) is the seed-bearing organ. The pollen- 

 grains which are deposited on its roughened summit throw out 

 minute tubes which penetrate the style, reaching the little ovules 

 in the ovary below, and quickening them into life. 



These two kinds of organs can easily be distinguished in any 

 large, simple, complete flower (p. xxx). The pollen of the sta- 

 mens, and the ovules which line the base of the pistil, can also 

 be detected with the aid of an ordinary magnifying-glass. 



xxii 



