CHAPTER XIV 



FLOWERS AND THEIR PARTS 



To understand the parts of a flower, it is better to take those 

 of the veld. Roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, and dahHas 

 of our gardens delight us with their glorious masses of colour, 

 but by long cultivation they have lost some of the characters 

 which Nature originally gave them. Chrysanthemums (the 

 gold flowers), it is said, have been in cultivation for over two 

 thousand years. Enthusiastic cultivators have so put their 

 hearts into showing what a range of colour and size is possible 

 in these old garden favourites, that the flowers themselves have 

 yielded up their own golden hearts to the cause. The centres 

 have grown out into flattened petals, which gradually reveal 

 all the colours they have caught from the sun. 



"The lovely wild flowers are the flowers which God has 

 made." We repeat Jean Ingelow's thought when we come 

 upon heaths, Nerine, and orchids in some hidden inaccessible 

 place. But garden flowers have their beauty too — beauty 

 obtained by care and skill of those who love them. The wild 

 flowers were so made that they can change most wonderfully 

 under cultivation, and lend added cheer and colour and 

 interest to the lives of those far from heath-covered hills or 

 Disa-bordered streams. 



If you examine the flower of Crasstila, you will find 

 on the outside a circle or whorl of green leaves — the calyx ; 

 each leaf is a sepal. The calyx is the cover of the flower. 

 In Dianthiis (Carnation), Datura^ and Hibiscus the sepals 

 have grown together, forming a cup. When sepals have grown 

 together, the calyx is said to be gamosepalous. 



