118 FIBST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



(4) Take a gorse flower that is not yet exploded ; press down 

 gently with your finger on the wings and keel and watch what 

 happens. Make experiments also with the lupine and the common 

 lucerne (using pencil or straw). 



(5) Take a "spent" flower-cluster of the white clover and find 

 the ripening pods. Examine with lens. How are the pods pro- 

 tected while ripening ? 



(6) Note how in foxglove, salvia, and snapdragon the calyx is 

 strengthened to support the " door-step." 



N.B. — The grubs found when shelling pea-pods are due to eggs laid by 

 flies in the ripening pod. Come pea-flowers have a plan for guarding 

 against this. 



Composition Exercise : Tell the story of a white clover 

 cluster from the time the flower-stalk pushes it up to the time 

 when the pods are ripe. 



Drawing Exercise : Draw side by side a regular tubular 

 flower and an irregular tubular flower. 



XX.— THE FLOWER.— Pakt VI 



More about the Flowers' Debt to Insects. 



1. We have seen what the scarlet geranium owes to 

 insects. Let us now see what other flowers owe to 

 them. 



2. Honey-guides. In our geranium you were 

 delighted to find grooves leading to the hone_y-door. 

 If you look at nasturtium, violet, gladiolus, and some 

 of the Japanese lilies, you will be still more pleased. 

 In these, and in many other flowers, the lines are like 

 finger-posts bearing the words : " This way to the 

 honey ! " And these guide-lines and spots and 

 grooves make the flower more beautiful. How fine 



