128 The Flower 



CHAPTER XV 



THE FLOWER 



Lesson 1. THE PARTS WHICH GO TO MAKE UP A 

 FLOWER. 



Season. First week in June. 

 Materials required for each pupil. 



One whole bunch of horse-chestnut flowers. One of 

 each of the following flowers : hawthorn, wild hyacinth, 

 laburnum, sycamore (one male and one hermaphrodite), 

 beech (one male and one female). 



The great object in the life of all plants, if their 

 kind is not to die out altogether, is to produce young 

 plants which will grow up and in time take the place of 

 the old ones. In the case of trees this may be done in 

 several ways. Shoots called suckers may grow out from 

 the root and become separate trees, or if small twigs 

 are cut off and placed in the ground these cuttings 

 will send out rootlets from the cut end and will grow 

 into young trees. Just, however, as with nearly all 

 other classes of plants, a tree's usual way of reproducing 

 itself is by means of flowers and seeds. Perhaps until 

 you looked at catkins last term you hardly realised that 

 trees do bear flowers. Every tree, growing in a climate 

 that suits it, flowers sometime during the course of its 

 life, although in most cases the flowers are so small and 

 inconspicuous that, unless you knew what to look for, 

 you might never know they were there. As the life 

 of a tree is so long, there is no need for it to flower 



