GHAPT Hie sae 
THE FLOWER AND ITS PARTS 
(FERTILISATION) 
AFTER this hasty and rather superficial account of the 
humbler members of the plant kingdom, we come to the 
highest class of all, which includes all the plants we 
know as flowers, all the trees, and all the shrubs, though 
less in number than the alge or the fungi, and not so 
well fitted as they to endure the extremes of hardship 
(no flowering plant could live side by side with the red 
snow—p. 49—nor with that alga which delights in boiling- 
hot springs), their variety and beauty of form, their 
complexity of organisation, and their high average of 
size, give them a commanding claim on our attention. 
The latter half, therefore, of this book will be devoted 
to the consideration of this “sixth form” in the plant 
school. Even then we shall merely have skimmed the 
surface of the subject, and there will be an infinity of 
knowledge still to be acquired. 
If, as I hope, you may desire to learn more, there is 
plenty of literature from which you may make your 
choice. For the mere identification of the various flowers 
one may find in country walks, there is still no handier 
book than the Rev. C. A. Johns’ Flowers of the Field, 
with an Appendiz on Grasses, backed, as it should be, by 
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