BOTANY 



857 



BOTANY 



Mountain 



Laurel 



Cross-leaved Heath 



SOME MEMBERS OF THE HEATH FAMILY 



rose and the yellow rose and the moss rose and 

 the tea rose and the American Beauty and 0, 

 ever so many more." But that is not the end, 

 and that same child might well be surprised to 

 learn that, if the entire rose family were all 

 to be destroyed, he would miss not only those 

 beautiful ornaments of the garden and the 

 florist's window, but the apples, pears, peaches, 

 cherries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, 

 plums, quinces and almonds, as well as the 

 sweet-brier and the bridal-wreath. In this great 

 family, one of the most useful in the plant 

 world, there are resemblances which a child can 

 easily distinguish. The blossoms of most of the 

 fruits mentioned above are, when examined, 

 much like wild roses, after all, and the wild rose 

 is the one true "natural" rose; all the other 

 beautiful varieties have been produced from it. 

 (See illustration, in article ROSE.) 



Other Families. Another family which be- 

 trays its relationships to the careful observer 

 is the pulse family, to which belong the peas 

 and beans, the clover, the locust, the alfalfa 

 and the acacia. If a red clover blossom is 

 examined closely it will be seen that each of 

 the tiny flowerets of which it is made up looks 

 very much like a sweet pea, or like one of the 

 flowers of the scented locust cluster. But sup- 

 pose a, big red peony, a bluish-purple larkspur, 

 a pink hepatica, a white anemone and a yellow 

 buttercup be grouped together would anyone 



ever dream that they were near relatives? 

 And yet they are, and the buttercup has given 

 its name to the family. The poppy family 

 includes the bleeding heart, the Dutchman's 

 breeches, the bloodroot and all the various 

 kinds and colors of poppies; and the heath 

 family is made up of the cranberry, the huckle- 

 berry, the exquisite trailing arbutus and the 

 rhododendron; but perhaps the strangest of 

 all families is one which includes some of the 

 most useful vegetables, a widely-grown, much- 

 loved flower, several troublesome weeds, and 

 a poisonous plant which should be carefully 

 shunned. This is the nightshade family, of 

 which the potato, the tomato, the petunia, the 

 sandbur, the jimson weed and the deadly 

 nightshade are members. 



Explanations as to how botanists have found 

 out these relationships, some of them almost 

 incredible, are impossible in language which 

 anyone not a scientist could understand. It 

 took centuries to work them out, and even now 

 there are differences of opinion as to where 

 certain plants belong. 



Why Plants Need Insects. A very interest- 

 ing phase in the study of plant life concerns 

 their connection with insects. Many insects 

 are pests of the worst kind, doing immeasurable 

 harm to plants, but there are some without 

 which a great many plants could not fulfill their 

 life history satisfactorily. In order to bear 



