THE FLOWER 249 



Field Work 



1. The ecology of the flower is so suggestive a subject and so peculiarly 

 appropriate to outdoor work that it seems hardly necessary to point out the 

 many attractive fields of inquiry it opens to the student of nature. In this 

 way alone can experiments in insect pollination be carried on to the best 

 advantage Try the effect of enveloping buds of various kinds in gauze so 

 as to exclude the visits of insects, and note the result as to the production 

 of fruit and seed. Envelop a cluster of milkweed blossoms in this way and 

 notice how much longer the flowers so protected continue in bloom than do 

 the others ; why is this ? Try the same experiment upon the blooms of 

 cotton and hibiscus, if you live where they grow, and see whether the char- 

 acteristic change in color occurs in flowers from which insects have been 

 excluded, and whether good seed pods are produced by them. Try the 

 effect upon fruit production of excluding insects from clusters of apple, 

 pear, and peach blossoms. 



2. Make a list of all the outdoor plants, both wild and cultivated, that 

 are found blooming in your neighborhood, keeping a record of the earliest 

 specimens of each as you find them. The best way is to keep a sort of 

 daily calendar, and at the end of each month give a summary of the species 

 found in bloom during that period. In this way a fairly complete annual 

 record of the flowering time of the different plants for that vicinity will be 

 obtained. The record should be kept up the whole year round. Don't 

 stop in winter, but go straight on through the coldest as well as the hottest 

 season, and you will make some surprising discoveries, especially if the 

 record is continued year after year. Give the common name of each plant, 

 adding the botanical one if you know it. Any facts that you may know 

 or may discover in regard to particular plants, such as their medicinal or 

 other uses, their poisonous or edible properties, the insects that visit them, 

 and in the case of weeds, their origin and introduction, will greatly enhance 

 the interest and value of the record. 



