112 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



ship we must know something of the structure of a flower. We do not 



know all ; wiser heads than ours have failed to penetrate the mystery of 



their entire make-up. " When no man asks me what is Time," says St. 



Augustine, " I know it very well, but I do not know it when I am asked." 



One may say as much of a flower. Tennyson was of this mind when he 



wrote : — 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies, 

 Hold you here root and all in my hand, 



Little flower ; but if I could understand 

 What you are root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is." 



Rousseau defines a flower thus, " The flower is the local and tempo 

 rary part of the plant which procures the fecundation of the germ in or 

 by means of which it is effected." Another botanist says, " A flower is 

 that temporary apparatus, more or less complicated, by means of which 

 fecundation is effected." Still another tells us, " The flower is an apparatus 

 composed of two envelopes, the calyx and the corolla, and the essential 

 oro-ans proper to insure their reproduction." From all of which we learn 

 that plants blossom in order that seed may be produced and perfected and 

 the race perpetuated. It is from the " essential organs " — the stamens and 

 pistil — of the flower that bees derive all that is needed for their own 

 wants and the wants of their offspring. These carry the reproductive 

 organs of the plant, its other parts being mainly protective and ornamental. 

 If we take an ordinary flower and examine it, the first part brought under 

 our notice is a kind of cup — the calyx. In most flowers this is green. 

 Before the blossom opens this cup encloses the internal parts, then in 

 process of development. It protects them in their tender condition from 

 external injury. In time the calyx bursts and reveals the most con- 

 spicuous part of the flower, the corolla. The main function of the corolla 

 is to attract insects. This it does by color and perfume. Within the 

 corolla will be found the anthers, which bear the pollen or male principle 

 of the plant. At the base of the petals and surrounded by them is situated 

 the pistil or female organ of the plant, embracing the ovary or seed vessel, 

 which contains the ovules or seed germs ; these when fertilized and devel- 

 oped become the seed. In order that fertilization be effected and seed 

 developed, it is necessary that the pollen grains come in immediate contact 

 with the ovarian germs. As most plants are hermaphrodite and carry both 

 anthers and pistil, one would think that self-fertilization would be assured 

 in all such cases. So it would in many cases if the two genders were 

 actively co-existent ; but nature has a wonderful fertility of resources in 

 making hermaphrodite flowers practically unisexular, by bringing the male 

 and female organs to maturity at different periods. She employs other and 

 most surprising devices in bringing about the same result, many of them 

 found in the form of the flower. (On this subject Darwin's " Origin of 



