The Fascination of Flowers [327 



the out-of-the-ordinary stalk with four leaflets, you need to practice 

 looking for a square pattern in a carpet of triangles. Stand erect 

 and scan the clover design; where one four-leaf specimen is found 

 there are apt to be more. 



MILKWEED AND ITS STRANGE SECRETION 



This plant has two products that fascinate children L__itS 

 milky juice of rubber-like composition and its skeins of shining 

 silk. To see the "milk," all they need do is break the stem of the 

 plant or cut across a leaf. 



The "milk" is a special secretion not the sap of the plant. If 

 you cut across the stem and then blot the end so that you can see 

 the details clearly, you will find that the liquid oozes from a dark 

 green ring around the hollow stem. On a plant that is only par- 

 tially broken or gashed, the "milk" soon heals the wound. 



Murder by Milkweed: The extremely complex flowers growing at 

 the junction of the milkweed's leaf stem and plant stem are 

 fertilized mostly by bees. Every once in a while one of these insects 

 loses its life on the flowers! It is actually trapped by the anther, 

 and this is how: Instead of being free, the pollen is held in paired 

 sacs that are joined in a V-shape. The bee, busy collecting nectar, 

 may stand in the V, and the little sacs of pollen-producing anthers 

 may close on its legs. If the grip is too tight, the insect cannot 

 free itself. 



Milkweed for Life Jackets and Aviators: Once the milkweed 

 flower has been fertilized, the seed pod begins to grow. The fully 

 developed pod bursts apart at the seam, and you can see the 

 brown, overlapping seeds inside with exquisite silk attached to 

 one end of each seed. When the silk is dry, each fluffy mass of 

 threads parachutes off in the breeze carrying a seed with it in 

 some cases for a very long distance. 



Milkweed floss has been used commercially to stuff life jackets 

 it is more buoyant than cork and to line aviators' uniforms, as it 

 is six times lighter than wool, and just as warm. 



