Cultivated-Plant Study 



645 



Diagram, flower of the horseshoe 

 geranium. 



S, sepals; P, petals; A, anther; F, fila- 

 ment; m, pistil; St., stigma; 

 N, opening to nectar tube. 



do the lower three. Moreover, there are certain hnes on these upper petals 

 all pointing toward the center of the flower; these are the nectar guide- 

 lines, and if we follow them we find a deep 

 , nectar-well just at the base of these upper 

 petals and situated above the ovary of 

 the flower. No other flower shows a 

 prettier plan for guiding insects to the 

 hidden sweets, and in none is there a 

 more obvious and easily seen well of 

 nectar. It extends almost the whole 

 length of the flower stem, the nectar 

 gland forming a hump near the base of 

 the stem. If we thrust a needle down 

 the whole length of this nectar tube we 

 can see that this bright flower developed 

 its nectar especially for some long-tongued 

 insect, probably a butterfly. It is inter- 

 esting to note that in the double geranium 

 where the stamens have been all changed 

 to petals and where, therefore, no seeds 

 are formed, this nectar-well has been lost. 



There are five sepals, the lower one 

 being the largest. But the geranium 

 is careless about the number of its sta- 

 mens; most flowers are very good mathe- 

 maticians, and if they have five sepals 



and five petals they are likely to have five or ten stamens. The geranium 

 often shows seven anthers, but if we look carefully we may find ten 

 stamens, three of them without anthers. But this is not always 

 true; there are sometimes five anthers and two or three filaments 

 without anthers. The color of the anthers difi^ers with the variety 

 of the flower. The stamens broaden below, and their bases are 

 joined making a cup around the lower part of the ovary. The 

 pistil is at the center of the flower and has no style, but at the 

 summit divides into five long, curving stigmas; but again the 

 geranium cannot be trusted to count, for sometimes there are 

 seven or eight stigmas. Although many of our common varieties 

 of geraniums have been bred so long that they have almost lost 

 the habit of producing seed, yet we may often find in these single blossoms 

 the ovary changed into the peculiar, long, beaklike pod, which shows the 

 relationship of this plant to the cranesbill or wild geranium. 



When the buds of the geranium first appear, all of them are nestled in 

 a nest of protecting bracts, each bud being enclosed in its own protecting 

 sepals. But soon each flower stem grows longer and droops and often the 

 bracts at its base fall off ; from this mass of drooping buds, the ones at the 

 center of the cluster lift up and open their blossoms first. Often, when 

 the outside flowers are in bloom, those' at the center have withered petals 

 but are hidden by their fresher sisters. 



It would be well to say something to the pupils about those plants 

 which have depended upon man so long for their planting that they do 

 not develop any more seed for themselves. In connection with the 

 geraniums, there should be a lesson on how to make cuttings and start 



