SOME WILD FLOWERS. 



By L. RODWAY, Government Botanist 



Chapter I. 



THE FLOWER. 



THE name " flower " is a popular one. We know well 

 enough what we mean when we use it, though it might be 

 difficult for us to define. We know it as the first stage of 

 the process by which the plant produces fruit and seed. 

 However beautiful a flower may be, or however sweetly 

 it may smell, we know it is not here simply to please us; 

 it would still bloom if man did not exist. A plant is a 

 distinct living being, and a flower is one of its organs. 

 It has its work to do, just as the leaf and root have theirs, 

 and the ultimate product is seed, and the seed is the embryo 

 of a new generation, just as an egg is the embryo of a new 

 generation in bird life. Examine a flower, and in doing so 

 avoid two sorts : the double flowers so common in the gar- 

 dens, which are monstrosities produced by cultivation; also 

 such as the Daisy, Aster, and Chrysanthemum, which are 

 compounded of very numerous minute flowers. These are 

 composite flowers, and will be treated in a separate chapter. 

 Choose a simple garden flower or a wild one. It will be 

 seen to consist of outer, usually flat, parts, obviously for 

 protection or adornment, within which are two sets of 

 organs, a circle of little pin-like objects, each with a 

 minute head, surrounding a central body, which little 

 experience teaches us will produce seeds. These two inner 

 organs are the essential parts, and are both necessary for 

 the production of young; the other parts are useful when 

 present, but may be absent without the function of the 

 flower being interfered with. Flowers are of most varied 

 forms; not only do the parts themselves vary according to 

 their kind, but some may be absent. A flower may con- 

 sist of a single stamen, or only of the innermost organ, 

 but most of the flowers we meet with are what are called 

 perfect; that is, they consist of all the parts of which a 

 flower may be made up. 



