158 



FIKST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



the garden, 

 plants, like 

 birds, refuse 

 garden pets. 



Some wild 

 some wild 

 to become 

 Try to grow 



Fi& 117 

 Sturt's desert pea. 



any of your favourite wild 

 flowers, and you may find 

 this out. Sturt's desert 

 pea is a good plant to try, 

 because, with pains, you 

 may succeed*. 



7. How the Wheat 

 Plant is being i m - 

 proved. More important 

 than all these fruits and vegetables is the improve- 

 ment man has made on the wheat plant. And still 

 the work goes on. The wheat seeds of many lands 

 are being tried in Australia to find the plant best 

 suited for us. Nay, more ; new kinds of wheat are 

 being raised here to meet the needs of a new land and 

 a new climate. The pollen blown from one kind of 

 wheat to another may chance to make a valuable new 

 plant ; and man has copied Nature in this method of 

 getting new kinds. 



8. Let us say that a certain wheat is a great bearer 

 and does not suffer much from the rust disease, but is 

 too weak in the stalk to stand up against the spring 

 gales. Then, if a flower of this wheat be dusted with 

 the pollen of another good wheat that has a stout 



*The seed should be sown whore the plants ore to grow ; on raised earth 

 ■where the plants will not be disturbed and will not get any water except 

 the rainfall. It is worth taking pains to grow this flue pea-flower (Ciuuithtts 

 Da^npieri). It is named after Dampier, who found it in N.W. Australia in 

 1699, and presented a specimen to the British Museum. It was thus pro- 

 bably the first Australian flower to be seen in England. 



