WHAT PLANTS DO FOR THEIR YOUNG. 149 



flowers of the " calla lily." In the greenhouse 

 poinsettia the individual flowers are tiny and un- 

 noticeable ; but they are rich in honey, and round 

 them has been developed a great bunch of bril- 

 liant scarlet leaves which renders them among 

 the most decorative objects in nature. A laven- 

 der that grows in Southern Europe has dusky 

 brown flowers; but the bunch is crowned by a 

 number of mauve or lilac leaves, hung out like 

 flags to attract the insects. A scarlet salvia much 

 grown in windows similarly supplements its rather 

 handsome flowers by much handsomer calyxes 

 and bracts which make it a perfect blaze of splen- 

 did colour. It doesn't matter to the plant how it 

 produces its effect; all it cares for is that by hook 

 or by crook it should attract its insects and get 

 itself fertilised. 



CHAPTER XL 



WHAT PLANTS DO FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



AFTER the flower is fertilised it has to set its 

 seed. And after the seed is set the plant has to 

 sow and disperse it. 



Now, the fruit and seed form the most difficult 

 part of technical botany, and I will not apologise 

 for treating them here a little cavalierly. I will 

 tell you no more about them than it is actually 

 necessary you should know, leaving you to pur- 

 sue the subject if you will in more formal treatises. 



The pistil, after it has been fertilised and ar- 

 rived at maturity, is called the fruit. In flowers 

 like the buttercup, where there are many carpels, 

 the fruit consists of distinct parts, each one-seeded 



