ATTRACTIONS OF PLANT LIFE. 



299 



sweetly, the darker colours less so. And there are great 

 families of plants that do not flower; the acrogens, which in- 

 clude with others the ferns, mushrooms, lichens, mosses, and 

 many more, are a most interesting host. 



Flower Development. Flowers mean much to the 

 botanist the gardener, the florist, the bee keeper, the 

 farmer, and all who take a real inter- 

 est in plant growth. That is, who 

 look upon them as things of life in- 

 terest as well as things of beauty or 

 of profit. The colour of flowers that 

 open at night is generally white, that 

 night flying moths see and come for the 

 sweets in them. Pale red flowers are 

 liked by bees, and flies and beetles 

 in Flower. also search them for sweet sap ; brown 



flowers are attractive to wasps ; and pink, red, yellow and 

 white flowers ; by pollen storing and pollen eating insects. 

 Bees gather the floury substance actively, and carry it home 

 as food material for their young. And while doing this, 

 they also fertilize the plants they are collecting from, and 

 so aid in giving us flowers and fruit. The pollen is the 

 active fertilizing material of plant life, but it must come 

 in contact with the pistil, the central organ seen in the 

 accompanying illustration, and bees and other insects, the 

 winds and other agencies, help in the process. Thus the 



"fruit" of botanists, that is the 

 seed, is formed below the pis- 

 til. But some plants notably 

 some varieties of strawberries 

 have not got both of these 

 organs. Some have the pol- 

 len, others have none. The 

 former are termed staminate, 

 (with stamens), or pollen bear- 

 Development of Seed, ers. Those without pollen, 

 are termed pistillate. While referring to the strawberry, 

 and the rule applies to other plants as well, it becomes 

 useful in the practical sense to know that l>oth kinds of 

 flowers are necessary in order to get crops of fruit ; and 



