202 APPLIED BIOLOGY 



in order to reach nectar. Pollen rubbed on the insect's body 

 while in one flower will be brushed off when crawling past 

 the stigma of another flower. Many such peculiar arrange- 

 ments are described in Charles Darwin's great work on " Cross- 

 and Self-fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom." 



195. Structure of Various Flowers. (L) In addition to some 

 simple flower, and the bean flower previously studied ( 74), the 

 student should study a number of other types. If this work is left 

 for the spring of the year, a few collecting excursions will furnish an 

 abundance of materials for study (trillium, buttercup, mustard, apple 

 or pear or cherry, dandelion, violet, anemone, hepatica, adder's tongue, 

 dogwood, spring-beauty). Any such flowers may be collected 

 in the proper season and preserved in a solution of five parts 

 commercial formalin in one hundred of water, in fruit-jars. In 

 winter there are scillas, tulips, hyacinths (especially white Roman), 

 snowdrop, narcissus, freesias, fuchsias, and primroses available in 

 greenhouses, some of them at small cost, especially if arrange- 

 ments are made with gardeners for growing ordinary varieties. 

 Plants with bulbs can easily be brought into flower in schools by 

 planting the bulbs in pots or boxes in early autumn, leaving in a cold 

 cellar or buried outdoors for two months, and then bringing into 

 warm and light rooms. Or if planted in gardens according to direc- 

 tions in dealers' catalogues, they will bloom in very early spring. 



The time available for laboratory study of flowers should be used 

 in careful examination of as many kinds as possible, comparing with 

 flowers previously studied, and making brief notes and simple 

 sketches. Only a small proportion of the time should be used for 

 making notes and sketches ; it is better to understand the parts of 

 a dozen types of flowers than to have made a beautiful drawing 

 in detail and have studied only one flower. 



It will be well to read the following pages in advance of the labora- 

 tory study, and then later study the text carefully in the light of the 

 facts learned by examination of flowers themselves. 



It is recommended that, beginning with the first flower studied, 

 a record be made in the note-book of answers to the following 

 questions : 



Are sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil present in flowers examined, 

 and how many of each ? Record your observations in tabular form 

 under headings such as the following : 



Name of flower Sepals Petals Stamens Pistil 



