CHAPTER VII. 



SOME EARLY FLOWERS. 



The aim of this chapter is to teach the structure and function of 

 flowers. Of course the children will need to become thoroughly 

 familiar with the technical names of the parts of the flower, before this 

 or succeeding chapters can be easily followed ; any simple available 

 flower can be used for drill in names. The fact that the parts of the 

 flowers are modified leaves, is not suggested in the Reader except in 

 the peony illustration, Nos. 1-6. If it seem best to develop this idea, 

 the peony affords good material. Some of the sepals are very similar 

 to foliage leaves, others are obviously the expanded petioles of simi- 

 lar leaves with the foliaceous part wanting, while the petals are so 

 similar to these latter sepals that they can sometimes hardly be dis- 

 tinguished from them. The evolution of stamens is not so obvious ; 

 at first thought one might infer that the filament is the petiole, and 

 the anther the blade of the leaf with its interior cells developed as 

 pollen grains ; but forms intermediate between stamens and petals, 

 as No. 2 in the drawing, indicate that the anther rises between the 

 petiole and the blades, the blade being usually wanting ; there are 

 traces of blade in such anthers as the violet has. Cultivated roses, 

 indeed most double flowers, more commonly than the peony, show 

 organs in this transition stage of petals from stamens. It is not diffi- 

 cult to imagine a pistil of the peony as a leaf folded on the midrib, 

 and bearing ovules on its margins ; but botanists by no means agree 

 as to what part of the leaf is modified to become the ovary. Some hold 

 the theory that the base of the petiole becomes ovary, the remain- 

 der of the petiole, style, when it is present, and the blade, stigma. 

 The evolution of compound pistils is explained by various theories ; 

 so, since the botanical doctors disagree on this point, it seems best for 

 all-round teachers to avoid putting any theory dogmatically. 



When we consider the function of flowers, there are plenty of defi- 

 nite, universally accepted ideas to develop and emphasize. Formerly, 



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