PART VIII 



THE WORK OF FLOWERS 



I — ^What Flowers are for 



Now at last we come to Flowers, and to their work 

 in life. All that we have heard so far about Roots and 

 Stems and Leaves leads up to those lovely blooms, 

 which are — at least in our eyes — ^the crowning part of 

 the structure. Not that they can be looked upon as 

 its highest aim; for it is they who have to work out 

 that aim ; it is they who have to bring about the chief 

 end and object of the plant's being. 



We love them for their beauty, their wonderful forms, 

 their colouring, their delicacy, their tenderness, their 

 grace, their perfumes. They seem to belong to us ; to 

 be what S. Francis of Assisi would have called " Our 

 little Sisters." 



Great as is the variety found in kinds and sizes and 

 shapes of leaves, the variety in flowers is even more 

 astonishing. 



They range in size from some so tiny as to be almost 

 invisible, to others which are enormous. Some of 

 these huge specimens are never to be seen in Britain; 

 a fact that need not trouble us, for the largest are by 

 no means always the most beautiful. 



In the tropical parts of America grows a plant ^ 



^ An Aristolochia , 

 114 



