CHAPTER Vll 



bulb resting in water is a very pretty, interesting process, and can 

 be easily watched in the schoolroom. The story of the pollination 

 of the iris has been often told. Briefly it is as follows : The way to 

 the honey is marked by conspicuous beards on the reflexed sepals ; 

 the petals are the three ascending, inflexed, floral leaves. The three 

 innermost leaf-like organs that curve outward and downward toward 

 the sepals, are styles ; beneath their bifid tips are small white shelves, 

 whose under surface is stigmatic. The anthers also lie close beneath 

 the styles and dehisce downward. Now if a guest is large enough to 

 be of use to the flower, he must, on entering, via the honey guide on a 

 sepal, strike his head against the stigma and immediately afterward 

 brush it against a fresh supply of pollen from the overarching anther. 



Of the other early wild flowers likely to be encountered in col- 

 lecting for this lesson, those on shrubs or trees will be treated in the 

 next chapter and its supplement, some having been already noted in 

 Chapter V ; others will form the subjects of succeeding chapters. 



The miner's lettuce, or Indian lettuce, Cl&ytonia perfoliata, Donn., 

 grows always in shady places, and is easily recognized from its succu- 

 lent leaves, which are united at the bases forming little saucers, the 

 upper pair holding the cluster of small white or pinkish flowers. In 

 specially favorable places I have seen these flowers large enough to 

 rival their .Eastern cousins, the spring beauties ; these larger flowers 

 were much frequented by bees, and were dependent on them for pol- 

 lination, but usually the flowers are inconspicuous and pollinate 

 themselves. The chickweed, Stellaria media, With., is very ubiqui- 

 tous at this season in shady places, in both cultivated and untilled 

 soil. It is a dainty little plant with its small, white, star-like flowers, 

 which have five bifid petals and usually but three perfect stamens. 

 Along one edge of its weak, four-angled stem is a line of hairs that 

 are very interesting under the microscope, their function being to 

 absorb rain and dew for the benefit of the plant. 



The California four-o'clock, Mirabilis Calif ornica, Gray, is a vigor- 

 ous perennial, growing with the cactus on the hills of Southern Cali- 

 fornia. Its showy magenta flowers are usually out in January. It 

 is a troublesome plant to identify because what appears to be calyx is 

 really an involucre, and the apparent corolla is calyx. It is not avail- 

 able for in-door study, because the flowers open only out of doors ; 

 they open about two or three p. m., one day and close at eleven a. m. 

 of the next. For field study these flowers are excellent; the prominent 

 anthers and stigma lie against the lower part of the flower, the stigma 

 always beyond the anthers, and it is easy to see whether or not the 

 guests pollinate them. 



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