NUMBER XII 

 SUMMER FLOWERS 



A FLOWER is usually made up of four different 

 kinds of parts, arranged in circles or whorls, 

 one within the other. Outermost are the sepals 

 making up the calyx ; they are usually firm and 

 green ; they protect the bud and steady the opened 

 flower. Next come the petals, making up the 

 corolla ; they are usually delicate and coloured, 

 often fragrant, and often making nectar ; they thus 

 attract insect visitors, and they are also useful in 

 protecting the even more important parts farther 

 in. The third whorl consists of the rod-like stamens, 

 whose heads or anthers make the golden-yellow 

 fertilizing dust or pollen. The innermost parts 

 of the fourth tier are the carpels, which bear micro- 

 scopic egg-cells, each of which, if fertilized, will 

 develop into an embryo plant. Or, to put it in 

 another way, the carpels bear possible seeds or 

 ovules, which become real seeds when the fertilizing 

 golden dust penetrates into them. 



It was a very important discovery, in which the 

 poet Goethe had a large share, that the flower is 

 really made up of four tiers of transformed leaves, 



78 



