196 
evanescent, Yet it is in this family of Crypto- 
enduring of all vegetables are to be fo 
Some of those organisms which look like mere 
ey or orange stains upon the rocks, have 4 
vitality which puts to shame the e growth 
of the forest. Man's life is so fleeting, that we 
require many generations of botanists to record 
it. In the year oo Dr. Thayer, 4 Philadel- 
tohes of a 
made, fructification had not yet 
half ce 
the type 
would have become a vigorous acorn-bearing tree. 
In olden time, when books were few and readers 
not over-critical, travellers and would-be philo- 
sophers stuffed their The 
appetite for eye-openers t 
grossest falsehoods were copied from one writer to 
t do Bu 
student of science who is the tru ne 
the better sense, revealing to his 7 the . 
of the world in which we have our being. It is not 
very many years since the true meanirg of 860075 
was made plain to us. Forme 
tion 
reproductive organs. ust the faculties of a 
be made for plants, which are stationary. One such 
provision d 2 action of insects 
flying from flower to flower, and carrying t 
pollen, or in ¢, 75 one to the recep- 
tacle of other, thus securing cross-fertili- 
sation, nts have been ena to mak 
worth the while of inse it them, by 
the power of secreting honey in their blossoms, 
scription of the various devices of advertisement. 
Another, equally large, would be required to describe 
the varieties of mechanism intended to prevent the 
removal of honey without disturbance of pollen-cells, 
and to en 2 the visitor carrying some of the oe 
lising dust to the next flower it enters, Show 
colours, attractive forma and streaks and ee 
shape are some, but not all of the methods of adver- 
tisement. The odours of flowers, which men con- 
ceitedly suppose to have been devised for their special 
delectation, are intended to attract insect visitants, 
THE GARDENERS 
The odours are not always agreeable, The giant 
Rafflesia, with flowers fully a yard in diameter, stinks 
like putrescent meat, and attracts swarms of carrion- 
loving flies, necessary to its proper fertilisation. 
Thatis a tropical plant ; but in English gardens some 
grown i in the open air, notably 
m, which practise 
en esembles a gaping wound, 
lurid with pleri nearly a foot long. 
Dr. Wallace, has shown how, in those islands of 
the South Pacific, which possess numerous humming 
p and fly ing insects, the flowers are brilliant and 
n great variety and profusion ; whereas in the Gala- 
* Islands, where there is a total absence of 
CHRONICLE 
[Fesrvary 16, 1895, 
troublesome insects, so it displays in its orifice the 
likeness of a large spider. 
“It is difficult to account for such an ingenious 
Ebd Plants, we must believe, have no intelli- 
gence the Ruler of the Universe occupy him- 
ay will directin ni x 
n of the unmistakable sep ph 2 in these 
veh. It can scarcely be no n an accident 
that the prese of mock- tgs? an ae spiders, pro- 
tecting the * — from the visits indispensable to 
the vigour of most races of plants, should coincide 
with an extremely rare property of self-fertilisation, 
To explain ‘the puzzle in that way is to as 
Fic, 27.—GRass ARE (XANTHORRH#A HASTILIS), IN THE DURBAN BOTANIC GARDEN, NATAL. 
humming- birds and insects, all the flowers are in- 
conspicuous, and d depend entirely on the winds to 
waft pollen from one to the other, 
ut some flowers, on the other hand, form a 
striking exception to this rule of cross- fertilisation. 
The Bee and Fly: Orchids, for example. which would 
much more commonly seen on our English chalk 
downs but for the ravages of greedy collectors, ferti- 
lise 1 and do not want to be bothered by 
buzzing be ees and flies. So, look you, what a cun- 
10 abe W gorios i to the nerves o- 
e 
accept a belief infinitely more difficult than the on 
we are told to reject. d 
Some flowers are so amall that, if they ire 
singly, they might despair of attracting pre 2 
instead of enlarging themselves they ma 
display by collecting themselves into groups. il 
re those known as the Umbelliferse, of which fam 4 
Hemlock, Goutweed, Parsnip, an A 
familiar examples, But a m 
ce in 
development of vegetable communism 1 
the Composite order, of which the D sisy immense 
an 
type. In these plants you will find : 
number of Tepa but very small, flowers, he Tansy, 
one hea Inth 
seen in 8 
Trangemen 
g single Asters. 
ng 
the Daisy, Cari reste cas 
