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TALKS AFIELD

ABOUT PLANTS AND THE SCIENCE
: OF PLANTS

BY

L. H. BAILEY, JR.
LIBRARY

~ 2

BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
Che Riverside Press, Cambridge
1885

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Copyright, 1885, “ie
By L. H. BAILEY, JR. a eh ae

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Colinas :
Blectrotyped and printed by H. 0. Houghton and Comp: any ‘e

ig Pr a

THE author has written this little volume
for those who desire a concise and popular
account of some of the leading external fea-
tures of common plants.

8°” "3. *a78 ©

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

THE following figures have been copied by permis- o
sion from Bessey’s ‘‘ Botany,’? Henry Holt & Co. :
44, 60, 61, and the larger portions of 41 and 425 is
and the following from Wood’s “ Botanies,’”? A. S. _
Barnes & Co.: 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34, 48, and 58. : a :

CONTENTS.

—_—e—

PAGE
INTRODUCTORY ; 3 1

THE LEADING eat eases OF THE Wisse aves
KiIncGpom . 4
Fungi P - : 6
Algze — Sea-Weeds 15
Lichens i 19
Mosses . 21
Ferns 23

SOME OF THE MOST INTERESTING FEATURES
OF FLOWERING PLANTS.

THE FLOWER 29
THE STEM 36
THE ERaieck eh OF oy en aaa. 41
THE RosE FAMILY . 54
THE ComMpPosITE FAMILY 60
A PEEP AT THE INSIDE. 68
THE SEXES OF PLANTS 77
Cross-FERTILIZATION . ; ‘i 81
HippDEN FLOWERS 94
THE ARRANGEMENT OF aevin 4 98
THE CoMPASS-PLANT . F 104
How SoME PLANTS GET UP IN THE Woes 106
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS ‘ 118
THE SMALLEST OF FLOWERING ‘Beane F - 130
WitcH-HazEL 133

A THISTLE Heap .

' _ ate 2 Ad oe Nats =
vl CONTENTS.

Wikiow PWIGs a a Be Ss

A TALK AxBouT Roots . F : _
THE IMPORTANCE OF SEEING CoRnnOTLY
How PLANTs ARE NAMED . u .

A CHAPTER ON PLANT NAMES . 2 ,

ou
Oe
re
: +
ar Y

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

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1. Embryo of Bean . : : E : A : 2 @
2. A Bean Seedling . é 3
3. Cross-Section of Seed of Ping: > . 5 =
4. Spores of Puff-Ball . ; : , : : . Q
Meee led SORE des! wl! a le Be eee
6. Bacteria . : 7 ; : . : 6
7. Bacteria from the AR : : - F : wis
8. Yeast Plants . . ‘ ; - é : z 9
9. Bread Mould : : ‘ ; . ‘ 4 10
10. Cheese Mould . é 10
11. Grape Leaf with Spots of Mildew . 10
12. Fragment of Grape Mildew, much earner 11
13. Fruit of Plum-Knot F 12
14. Polyporus from a Tree Trunk, — ee view 12
15. Mushroom Spawn : 14
16. Mushroom 14
17. Desmids Paty

18. Diatoms .

19. Red-Snow Plant.
20. Zygnema.

21. Lichen E
22. Gonidia from a Pinter : : ;
23. Liverwort - ‘
24. Pigeon-Moss . : : .

bo Dr HH
Ce SSaan

25. Capsule of Moss . ; ° . ° = ° 23
26. Polypody Fern ; . . : : 25
27. Fruit Dot of Polypody, eee VEOW (esti 'e . 2

Vili LIST

28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40. ;
. Staminate Flower and Catkin of Willow :
. Pistillate Flower and Catkin of Willow . .

. Section of Corn-Stalk.

. Section of an Oak Trunk : :

. Section of Cherry Flower . ; : : :
. Section of Apple
. Section of Strawberry Flower

. Section of Rose Flower with Petals folanired
. Flower of Wild Aster

. Section of a Head or ‘‘ Flower” of Gorcapadi
. The Two Kinds of Florets in the Coreopsis

. Anthers of a Composite .

. Floret of Canada
. Fruit of Beggar’s-Ticks, showing Pensa’
. Fruit of Dandelion with Pappus

. Involucre of a Composite

. Head of Burdock
. Pith Cells

- Wood Cells

. Vessels : ‘
. Hairs from Punpkda: Vile . .
. One-Celled Hairs , :
. Outlines of Epidermal Cells : :
. Cross-Section of a Leaf .

. Stomata

. A Pollen Tube.

OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fruit Dot, —side view .
Flowering Fern . : {
Camptosorus or Walking-Leaf en °

Schizza
Club Moss

Equisetum or Scouring Rash. ° : 4

Apple Flowers
Anther

Flowers of Marsh: Matigola. —* ‘Cowslip * ~
Pods of Marsh-Marigold : :

Morning-Glory
Mint Flower
Flower of Ash .

Flower.

Thistle

Pollen Tubes entering a Stigma .

‘a

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1x

67. Pollen Grains: 1. Musk-Flower. 2. Wild Cucumber.
3. Marsh-Mallow. 4. Lily. 5. Chicory. 6. Pine.

7. Evening Primrose. (After Gray) . : fap OD
68. Grass Flower. The Feather-like as ae : - 85
69. Vallisneria or Eel-Grass : : 3 é 87
70. Section of Flower of Figwort . : J0 a
71. Sections of the Two Kinds of Flowers of Partridge-

berry as ° : ‘ - : ° 91
72. Laurel Flower . ; F = = ° - - 92
73. Pea Flower . : . : 92
74. Hidden Flowers of the Headed Violet : : - 95
75. Elms. ‘ : P : : , 2 : 98
76. Alder ‘ A , ; ‘ : ‘ . - 99
77. Apple . , . ‘ ; : anes - 100
78. Honeysuckle .. a Re eT ers:
79. Galium . ; a ; . : ‘ : - 103
80. Larch 3 , . ; ; ‘ PP ae - 108
$1. Pine. ; <5 Sp ° ‘ ° - 103
82. Clematis Leaf : ‘ 2 , - F . 107

83. Echinocystis or Wild Gian - 2 : Bone 185 16 7
84. Virginia Creeper . ‘ . ; : : » 1i7
85. Sarracenia or Pitcher Plant . : : 7 Rae

86. Darlingtonia Californica . : . . : - 123
87. Drosera or Sundew 3 . - - <> Te
88. Dionza or Venus’ Fiy-Trap : = . , . 129
89. Lemnas . ‘ . . = : aa) ae
90. A Lemna aad P ‘ . 130
91. Wolffia. A, natural size; B, ‘sued magnified C,
cross-section of plant in flower . : 131
92. Witch-Hazel . : 2 ; ‘ - 134
93. Seed-Pod of Witch-Hazel : ; : F - 134
94. Fruit of Thistle with Pappus . - ; : . 138
95. Young Squash Plant . ; 140
96. Squash Plant, showing Manner of Growth of Stem
and Roots . 4 Steg ‘ . 141
97. Root-Hairs_ . ; 7 ° => ae
98. Sucker-like Roots of Peraatee : ‘ 3 , . 151
99. Pocket Lens . - : ? : - 2 a: rs

100. Reading-Glass . : Soa 2 aes : . 155

TALKS AFIELD.

As the casual observer considers the plants
about him he is impressed by the great dif-
ferences between the common species, and
he is perplexed in an attempt to find any at-
tributes or characters which will serve to as-
sociate naturally one plant with another.
He may have a remote knowledge that bota-
nists have arranged plants into certain great
natural orders or families, but he is at a loss
to discover upon what characters these fam-
ilies rest. The sizes and shapes of plants,
the forms of their leaves, the shapes and col-
ors of their flowers, are so extremely varia-
ble that they appear to differ much more
than they agree. What similarity, other
than that which one shrub bears to another,
has the willow, laden with its ‘“ pussies” of
silver and of gold, to the alders and the
poplars and the birches which grow in the
same tangle? Or wherein lies the kinship
between the buttercup of the meadow and

1

2 TALKS AFIELD.

the clematis that clambers over our door-
way ?

Notwithstanding the great external dis-
similarities of plants, the botanist is able to —
trace relationships which are decisive. The
characters which determine these relation-
ships are not confined to any organ or to
any part of the plant: they may exist in the
roots, in the stems, in the leaves, in the gen-
eral habits of the plants, but especially in
the flowers and the fruits.

This leads us to a definition of the term
fruit. The botanist uses this word in a very
general way. It is applied to the seed-case
and its contents. The fruit may be a pop-
py-pod with its innumerable seeds, a pea-pod,
a rosy berry like the currant, an orange, a
pumpkin, a beech-nut, an acorn, a walnut, a
spore-case of a fern or a moss, or a grain of
wheat. The contents of the seed-case are
not always true seeds, and we must now de-
mand a definition of a seed. If
we remove the thin outer cover-
ing of a bean and pry apart the
: halves of which it is composed,
Fig-1. an object like Fig. 1 will be pre-
sented. Between the large separated por-
tions is a little object not unlike a bud, and

FRUIT AND SEED. 3

below it is a minute projection. If the bean
were placed in moist sand and allowed to
germinate this bud would be seen to de-
velop into two green leaves and the little
projection to push downward into a root.
The little leaves con-
tinue to grow and the
old halves of the bean
are pushed up into the
air as shown in Fig. 2.
These dry halves soon
fall away; but they
have performed an im-
portant function in fur-
nishing food to the
young plant while it was germinating and
establishing itself in the soil. They are
therefore like leaves in some respects, and
they are called the seed-leaves or cotyledons.
These thick cotyledons with the little bud
and the initial stemlet constitute
the embryo. Sometimes this em-
bryo does not occupy the whole of
the seed, but is imbedded in a mass
of starch, which contributes to its
support when it germinates. This
is illustrated in the seed of the pine, Fig. 3.
The seed, then, consists essentially of an em-

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

4 TALKS AFIELD.

bryo or initial plantlet inclosed in an integu-
ment. ‘There are other bodies in the lower
plants which possess the functions of seeds
in reproducing the plant, but which are en-
tirely different in their structure. These
bodies are the spores of ferns, of mosses, of
moulds, and other low plants. They are
commonly simple and very minute cells, and
they contain no embryo. The dust that flies
from a common puff-ball is made up of
spores, as represented at Fig.
4. Some spores are made up
of two or more cells, as shown
in Fig. 5. Spores are usually
borne in some kind of a spore-case.

With an idea of what con-
stitutes a spore, a seed, a fruit,
and with a common knowl-
edge of flowers, we are pre-
pared to understand in a gen-
Fig. :. eral way

The Leading Subdivisions of the Vegetable
Kingdom.

Botanists commonly recognize two great
sub-kingdoms of plants, known as the flower-
less and flowering plants, or the eryptogams
and phenogams. The flowerless plants are

CLASSES OF CRYPTOGAMS. 5

spore-bearing, while the flowering are seed-
bearing. The flowerless plants are far the
more numerous, and the greater part of
them are as yet very imperfectly understood.
On account of our imperfect knowledge of
them, together with numerous difficulties in
the way of studying the lower species, there
is no generally accepted method of classify-
ing them. For our purpose it is sufficient
to say that flowerless plants are divided into
Fungi, Algz, Lichens, Mosses, and Ferns.
There are two important facts, which we
may profitably consider, relating to the
methods by which these plants gain sus-
tenance. There are two classes of plant
foods: one is composed of substances which
are found in the earth and the air, such as
water, carbonic acid gas, lime, potash, and
ammonia, commonly designated inorganic
substances ; the other is composed of mate-
rials which are made out of these inorganic
substances by the plant itself, such as woody
fibre, starch, and other vegetable or organic
products. Most of the plants which we ob-
serve possess the power of making over in-
organic or earthy materials into organized
or vegetable materials; or, in technical lan-
guage, they assimilate. All such plants con-

6 TALKS AFIELD.

tain green or red coloring matters. Some
plants, however, of which mushrooms are
examples, live entirely upon organic matter
in something the same manner as animals
do; they must therefore live upon decaying
substances, when they are known as sapro-
phytic plants, or upon live plants or ani-
mals, when they are known as parasitic.

In a general way we may say that the
lowest class of plants are the Funer. The
plants which are commonly included under
this term are exceedingly numerous, and
their individual characters are extremely va-
riable. Some of them are so small as to
be seen with difficulty through the best mi-
croscopes, while the largest are gi-
) ant puff-balls which weigh many
pounds. The fungi all live upon
organic matter, — they are either
saprophytic or parasitic. Most of
them are grayish or neutral-tinted.

The lowest and the most minute
}, of all known organized structures
are the Bacteria. Under this de-

3, bers of microscopic plants, which
Fig.6. ane very imperfectly understood.
They are simple in structure, each individ-

nomination are included great num-°

BACTERIA. 7

ual consisting of a single cell. (Fig. 6.)
They are often united into chains or masses.
A bacterium multiplies by dividing into two
individuals, these two individuals again di-
viding, and so on in a geometrical progres-
sion. A simple calculation will demonstrate
how enormous must in a few days be the in-
crease if this progressive breaking in two
continues unmolested at intervals of an hour
or two. Professor Cohn calculates that
from one of these minute organisms suffi-
cient numbers will have been reproduced in
five days to fill full the oceans of the world!
Ordinarily these plants are not more than
seo0 Of an inch in thickness, while many are
much smaller. Indeed, it is highly probable
that there are many species so minute that
our best microscopes have not yet revealed
them. Of the ordinary kinds an aggrega-
tion of from one hundred to three hundred
placed side by side would not exceed in
length the thickness of this paper. Most
bacteria, and perhaps all, have the power of
moving spontaneously. They whirl, quiver,
move slowly and steadily, or perhaps dart
rapidly across the field of the microscope.
In color they are usually white, although
some species possess beautiful tints of red,

8 TALKS AFIELD.

of blue, of yellow, or even green. Occasion-
ally the housewife is arrested in her work
by the appearance of blood-colored spots on
cold potatoes or other articles of food, and
as likely as not she half accepts the old su-
perstition which supposed them to indicate
the anger of God; she does not suspect that
the spots are aggregations of many minute
living plants which have come from the air.
Bacteria are nearly everywhere present, in
the air, in all stagnant or impure water, in
all fermenting and decaying substances, and
often in the human body. When moist sub-
stances in which they grow become dried
up, they wither and escape as dust into the
atmosphere to be revivified when again they
fall under favorable conditions. In the air
near the suburbs of Paris M. Miguel finds
an average of about eighty bacteria to every
square yard of air. Some of these, mag-
nified a thousand times, are
shown in Fig. 7. The floating
dust in the sunbeam is com-
posed of larger bodies than
these bacteria. It is made up
largely of fragments of lint, of
spores of moulds, and of pol-
len of flowers. It is clearly demonstrated

BACTERIA— YEAST PLANTS. 9

that to the bacteria are due many diseases
of man and the lower animals, and perhaps
of common plants as well. Among such dis-
eases are anthrax and splenic fever in cat-
tle, and small-pox, scarlet fever, and proba-
bly consumption, cholera, and other scourges
of the human race. Pure water contains no
life, but the water of ditches, of stagnant
pools, of impure cisterns, contains myriads
of these minute plants. The souring of
milk and many changes of fermentation are
due to them. They are also the cause of de-
cay. While they themselves depend for life
upon the organic products of other plants
and of animals, they are the direct means of
reducing all organic life to decay and disin-
tegration. They hold the keys of life; they
complete the grand cycle of nature by which
all living things return to the earth from
whence they came.

A little higher in the scale of existence
are the Yeast Plants. These _ ‘
minute bodies are propagated (9% @
rapidly in yeast and other
ferments, and by their physi-
ological action produce im- Fig. 8.
portant chemical changes. The invisible
plants which spring up in bread yeast give

10 TALKS AFIELD.

off carbonic acid gas and alcohol, which, in
their escape, puff up the dough, causing it
to “rise.” A yeast plant magnified nearly
eight hundred times is shown in its differ-
ent stages at Fig. 8.

The Moulds which grow on nearly all de-
caying substances have a greater
external semblance
to the common idea Q
of a plant than have
the yeast plants and
bacteria. Fig.9
represents the bread

Fig. 9. mould magnified,
the spores escaping from the
apex. Fig. 10 shows the cheese
mould
with the fruit borne
in a different man-
ner.

Under the com-
mon denominations
of Rust, Mildew,
and Slight are in-
cluded many very
dissimilar kinds of
fungi. They are
parasites, which commonly attack the leaves

Fig. 11.

MOULDS AND RUSTS. 11

and young shoots of flowering plants, often
causing great annoyance to the farmer.
The grape mildew is a familiar example.
When the leaves are attacked they show the
disorder in yellowish-brown patches on the
upper side, and soon after they become sere
and dead. The under surface of the leaf
will reveal to the searching eye the cause of
the trouble. There will be seen thin, frost-
like patches, as represented in Fig. 11. Un-
der the microscope, each of these patches is
seen to be made up of a .
forest of such objects as
appear in Fig. 12. This
picture represents a grape
leaf cut across, the line
nm m showing the upper
surface, and o p the
lower surface of the leaf.
Among the cells of the
leaf the root-like threads
of the fungus, ¢ c, are
searching for food. The
tree-like object above bears numerous globu-
lar buds, which drop off and act as spores
in reproducing the plant. These buds are
killed by the action of frost; they are there-
fore often called “summer spores.” The

Fig. 12.

12 TALKS AFIELD.

genuine spores, or “resting spores,” are in
the substance of the leaf itself. The rust of
wheat, the scab on apples, and many other
forms of plant diseases
are similar in nature to
the grape mildew. The
manner in which the
spores of some fungi are

borne is shown in Fig. 13, which represents -

a magnified cross-section of the plum-knot,
so much dreaded by horticulturists. In the
peculiar club-shaped receptacles or asci are
seen the spores.

The Polypores include those peculiar
shelf -like fungi
which grow on
logs and decaying
trees. They may
be recognized by
a reference to
Fig. 14. These
fungi are pecul-
iar in having a
hard and dura-
ble substance, al-
though a few of
them are soft in
texture. The genus Polyporus comprises

Fig. 14.

MUSHROOMS. 13

the greater part of our common shelf-fungi.
The polypores are so named from the nu-
merous pores which sharp eyes may often
discover on their under surface. In these lit-
tle holes the spores are borne. Some of the
soft polypores are edible, while some of the
corky ones are tough enough to be cut into
excellent razor-strops. Some of the larger
species attain a horizontal diameter of three
or four feet. A beautiful species in Guinea
is worshiped by the natives.

The Puff-balls, Mushrooms, and Toad-
stools are remarkable for their rapid growth,
and often for their great size, peculiar colors,
and curious shapes. They are widely dis-
tributed over the earth, but are most abun-
dant in moist and warm climates. They
grow upon nearly all kinds of decaying mat-
ter. Occasionally they prove the presence
of decaying substances where one would
least expect it; they spring up in a night,
from dry pastures and lawns. The genus
Agaricus includes the mushrooms, of which
there are no less than a thousand species.
The Agaricus campestris, ‘* field agaric,”’ is
now extensively grown in vegetable gar-
dens. If we were to examine critically this
mushroom in its early stages of growth, we

14 TALKS AFIELD.

would find a mesh of underground root-like
fibres, with little mushrooms
springing from them, as in
Fig. 15. This mesh is
known to gardeners as the
“spawn,” and it is what
they plant; to the botanist
it is the mycelium. A full-
grown mushroom is shown

i dE in Fig. 16. Underneath
the conical top are shown the “ gills” upon
which is borne the fruit.
Many of our common
mushrooms and similar
fungi are highly esteemed
as articles of food. There
is no criterion, however,
by which the non-bota-
nist can distinguish the
good species from the
noxious ones. It is prob-
able that the poisonous

character of many of Ne |

them has been much exaggerated, although
there is no doubt that some of them are
dangerously noxious. M. A. Curtis, a well-
known Southern botanist, subsisted largely
upon fungi during the straitened periods of

a

SEA-WEEDS. 15

our civil war, and he urged the soldiers to
resort to mushrooms instead of poor beef.
In North Carolina he found seventy-eight
edible species.

The Ate# include the sea-weeds and
many minute or inconspicuous green plants
which inhabit pools and lakes. Here are
included plants which, in varieties of size, of
shape, and of structure, exceed the wildest
pictures of the imagination. Microscopic
diamond-shaped or globular or irregular and
curiously marked objects which swim in
ponds and deep seas, more like animals than
plants; delicate threads of green, more slen-
der than a spider’s web, which form the
scum on ponds and the green tints on old
boards and roofs; fairy-like feathers and
tresses of beautiful red, which make up the
“flowers of the ocean;” broad, leathery,
and sombre “ devil’s aprons,” large enough
to load down a man; curiously punctured
“sea-cullenders;” great tree-like plants
which make forests under the seas ;— these
are some of the forms of alge. The ocean has
a wonderful flora, and scarcely less wonder-
ful is the varied plant-life of every pond and
pool. The ocean and fresh waters support
their peculiar kinds of these flowerless plants.

16 TALKS AFIELD.

They all agree, however, in possessing the
one important power of assimilating, of ob-
taining their living from the inorganic mat-
ters which are contained in water, and they
therefore necessarily contain leaf-green or
other equivalent coloring matters. In the
power of assimilating they differ essentially
from all fungi.

Peculiar to fresh water are the Desmids, a
few species of which are highly magnified
in Fig. 17. These microscopic

ae i; plants are composed of one cell,

and are bright green in color. On
we account of their spontaneous move-
ag ments they were long regarded as
animals, but their methods of re-
Fig. 17. »roduction class them with plants.
The power of moving from one place to
another is not now regarded as at all in-
compatible with the idea of a plant. The
desmids, as well as many other of the
lower plants, have two kinds of reproduc-
tion: one is a dividing of the plant into two,
and the other is a reproduction by means of
spores.
The Diatoms are much like the desmids,
and for a long time they also were supposed
to be animals. From the desmids they dif-

DIATOMS. 17

fer in their yellowish-brown color and their
very peculiar siliceous shells. When the
plant dies the shell remains and settles to
the bottom of the ocean or the lake. Ag-
gregzations of these shells harden into rock.
Many durable flint rocks of dry lands are
found to be made up entirely of them, the
same as chalk is known to be composed of
the shells of minute animals. In some
places the floor of the ocean is now being
slowly covered with these remains,
which will gradually harden into im-
pervious rock. Of all plants, the ,
diatoms are the most widely distrib-
uted. They abound amid the ice in
the polar seas, in hot springs, at a
depth of two thousand feet in the
ocean, sometimes on mosses and other
plants which grow in moist places, and every-
where on submerged sticks and stones, upon
which they often make a slimy covering.
In the ocean the diatoms are eaten by mol-
lusks, which in turn are eaten by fish, and
the fish are eaten by birds. The little shells
are often found intact in beds of guano.
Many interesting species have been discov-
ered in the stomachs of fish.

One of the most marvelous of all plants is
2

18 TALKS AFIELD.

the so-called Red Snow of the arctic regions
@ and high mountains. (Fig. 19.)

This “snow,” which has been so
Fig. 19. long regarded with wonder, is an
aggregation of immense quantities of a mi-
nute red alga, known to botanists as Proto-
coccus nivalis. It is almost incredible that
at such low temperatures any plant can grow
so rapidly. The red snow was known to
Aristotle, and was probably observed by him
on the mountains of Macedonia.

Among the visible alge are numbers of
species which form the slime on
stagnant pools and the green films
on flower-pots and boards. A
thread of the common zygnema,
which makes much of the seum on
frog-ponds, is magnified in Fig. 20,
and the spiral band of leaf-green
which imparts the characteristic
color is plainly shown. Every one
who has wandered on the beach of
the ocean is familiar with numer-—
ous forms of the higher and larger
alee. These curious and often
beautiful plants lend a peculiar
charm to the sea; they force upon
one the thought that many wonderful pro-

i

¢
ig)
a oo

w
—

Fig. 20.

LICHENS. 19

ductions are entirely hidden from human
sight, and they afford a proof that organic
life is universally distributed. Our com-
mon sea-weeds do not grow at great depths ;
they abound along the coast, where they
cling to rocks, to shells, and to each other.
In warm temperate and tropical countries
the red species are numerous and very beau-
tiful. The waters of the Great Lakes are
remarkable for their entire lack of visible
algze. Many sea-weeds are edible, the most
widely known being the Irish moss.

The LicHEns include a great variety of
peculiar plants which
are In many respects
like fungi. They dif-
fer from the fungi in
not being saprophytic
or parasitic, and in
growing much slower
and enduring longer.
Every one knows the dry, gray “ moss” on
stones, logs, and the trunks of trees. (Fig.
21.) Nearly all lichens draw their nourish-
ment from the air and rain, although a few
live in water. In the interior of the gray
mass of the lichen are green or yellowish
granules, which possess the power of assimi-

Fig. 21.

20 TALKS AFIELD.

lating. These granules, or gonidia, are rep-
resented thy the black dots in Fig. 22. A

peculiar discussion has
arisen in late years, in
regard to the true nature
of these gonidia, and
some botanists contend
that they are not a part
of the lichen at all, but
are algz, and that the surrounding gray por-
tion is a fungus which draws its nourishment,
in a parasitical way, from these alge. This
view does away with the great group of
lichens, and resolves these plants into fungi
which are parasitic on or about alge. We
will follow the old and common method,
however, of calling these plants, with their
gonidia, lichens. Lichens are reproduced
by means of spores in very much the same
manner as many fungi. Of all visible
plants, lichens possess the power of adapting
themselves to the widest differences of cli-
mate and surroundings. They are at home
under the snows of the polar regions, and
equally so in the burning sun of warmer cli-
mates, where they wither in drouth and re-
vivify in rain. They increase as we travel .
northward or southward from the equator.

MOSSES. 21

Some of the lichens are edible and others
are medicinal, while a number are important
sources of dyes.

Under the general term Mossrs or Musctr
are included two very dissimilar orders of
plants. One order, known as Liverworts or
Hepatice, includes plants which have little
or no distinction of root, stem, and leaf.
The frond or main portion of the plant
spreads out over the ground much after the
manner of a green lichen, and from this

Fig. 23.

shapeless form the fruit stalks arise. One
of the commonest species is figured, about
natural size, in Fig. 23. On account of the
many different forms which this plant as-
sumes, it is known as the “many-formed
Marchantia,” Marchantia polymorpha. The
fertile or spore-bearing plant is shown at

22, TALKS AFIELD.

the right in the figure, and the sterile at the
left.

The true J/osses are familiar to all.
They are widely distributed over the earth,
abounding most in cool and moist woods.
Their graceful forms and crisp appearance
have always won for them a place in popu-
lar favor. We can all recall scenes of cool
and quiet woods where

Cleanly moss in patches lay
In darksome nooks unseen ;

And murmuring rills with laughter play
’Mid mounds of freshest green ; —

Where Nature clothed her scars and dross
With bright and seemly mats of moss.

About nine hundred different species of
mosses occur in North America north of
Mexico. The structure of a moss may be
readily learned by a reference to Fig. 24,
which represents the common pigeon-wheat
moss that grows on dry knolls. At the top
of the thread-like stem is seen the fruit.
The stem at the left shows the immature
fruit, which is covered by a hairy cap or ca-
lyptra. As the fruit matures this calyptra
falls off and discloses the capsule or pod as
represented at the right. An enlarged cap-
sule is shown in Fig. 25. On its top is a
lid or cover which falls off when the fruit

FERNS. 23

is fully mature, and lets the many minute

\

EZ

Fig. 24.

spores escape.

The highest of the
large divisions of flow-
erless plants are the
Ferns. Of all plants,
these are probably the
most generally ad-
mired. Among é
them are to be 7/7™
found the great- |
est variety of |f
forms, of size,
and of texture.
The little Tri- Fig. 25.
chomanes Petersii of
Alabama is scarcely an
inch high, while some
of the species of the
tropics are in size and
appearance like trees.

. Some creep along on

the ground and over
rocks, while others
climb high on bushes.

They inhabit every cool retreat in wood and
glade, and offset, by their delicate texture,
the aspects of coarser plants. The species

24 TALKS AFIELD.

which occur in the United States east of
the Mississippi are over one hundred and
twenty-five in number. Of these probably
the greater part are not recognized by the
casual observer. A few of them grow in
dry and open places and in sunny swales
where they are popularly known as brakes.
Three or four of them are troublesome weeds
to the farmer. Some of them are evergreen
and may be seen in winter protruding from
the snow on hillsides. When transplanted
to the garden many of the species grow well
and are highly ornamental. It is impera-
tive, however, that they be planted in a
shady place which is protected from strong
winds. In former years the propagation of
ferns was regarded as a great mystery. No
flowers or seeds could be detected by the
curious. In Shakespeare’s time the mystic
“fern seed’? was supposed to be a potent
agent in the incantations of witches. The
whole process of the reproduction of ferns
is now understood, and nearly every one is
familiar with the peculiar dots of fruit on
the backs of the fronds or leaves. Fig. 26
illustrates the fruit-dots on the common rock
polypody. If we magnify one of these fruit-
dots we find it to be composed of many

Sy Saat

bees
SSS
LLIN TPP

a leaf.

FERNS. paz

globular bodies as in Fig.
27. By taking a side view
we discover that each of
these bodies is raised on a
stalk. (Fig. 28.) Inside
each of these bodies are
born nu-
merous
spores.
Fotre
quently
occurs foe
that the Fig. 27.

fertile leaf, that which bears
the spore-cases on its back,
is oddly contracted and
rolled up, so that it loses
nearly all resemblance to

Ferns
with the
fertile
frond transformed in this
manner are often called
“ flowering ferns.” One
is represented in Fig. 29.
One of the most peculiar
of all ferns is that known

26 TALKS AFIELD.

as the walking-leaf fern. (Fig. 30.) The
tips of the slender fronds bend to the ground
and take root. This interesting species is
common in many parts ot the Central States.

Another fern of our cool woods bears little
bulblets on the frond, and these bulblets fall
off and reproduce the parent. The odd lit-
tle schizea, perhaps the rarest of ferns, a
plant for which the collector searches indus-

CLUB MOSSES—EQUISETUMS. oT

triously in the low pine barrens of New Jer-
sey, is pictured life-size in Fig. 31.
There are a few remaining small
orders of flowerless plants, but with
two exceptions their members are
not sufficiently known to warrant a
description here. These two excep-

the Equiserums or Horse Tatts.
Club mosses are largely used for
decorative purposes at Christmas
time ; indeed, they furnish almost the entire
supply of winter “evergreen ” in the East.
There are less than a dozen species in the

Fig. 31.

‘ ,
i. a

23 TALKS AFIELD.

eastern United States. A reference to Fig.
32 will show how they differ
from true mosses: the fruit
is borne in a peculiar spike,
which is made up of many
spore cases. The Horse
Tails are often known as
scouring rushes, from the
use to which they
are put on ac-
count of the great
quantity of silex
Z contained in their.
7 stalks. They are
odd-looking plants,
readily recognized by a reference to Fig. 33.
In former ages plants similar to these at-
tained to the size of trees.
Having taken a cursory glance at the
flowerless plants, we will now turn our atten-
tion to

Tig. 33.

Fig. 32.

AN APPLE FLOWER. 29

SOME OF THE MOST INTERESTING FEA-
TURES OF FLOWERING PLANTS.

Our first duty will be to find out what a
flower is, and to do this’ we must pull one
to pieces and see of what it is composed.

Let us pick a cluster of flowers from an
apple-tree. The first thing that attracts our
attention in this cluster is the beautiful
color, the delicate blush or pure white of the
flowers. The first glance may discover no
other parts in the flowers than these showy
“leaves.” A closer look will reveal five

30 TALKS AFIELD.

green “leaves” beneath the colored ones, as
shown in the half-opened flowers in the clus-
ter. To distinguish these two distinct sets
of floral leaves, botanists designate the
showy ones petals and the green ones sepals.
Both together they constitute the floral en-
velope. The petals and sepals appear dis-
tinct enough from each other in the apple
flower, but we shall find flowers in which
they are very much alike. In the centre of
each blossom are delicate threads. A flower
eut in two lengthwise (as in Fig. 46, page
56) will disclose these inner organs. Of
these organs there are plainly two kinds.
Those on the outside bear yellow boxes on
their ends. These threads, with their boxes,
are the stamens; the boxes are the anthers.
If the anther is enlarged, as in Fig.
30, it is seen to be composed of two
boxes lying parallel to each other,
each one opening by a slit on its outer
side. From this slit the pollen, a fine
yellow dust, is escaping. The inner organs |
in Fig. 46 are totally unlike the stamens.
Of these organs there are apparently three,
all united below into one and to the little
apple which we have cut through at the
base. It is evident, then, that this miniature

Fig. 35.

MARSH-MARIGOLD. 31

apple with its three-parted projection is one
compound organ. This organ is the pistil.
The apple part is the ovary, the parted pro-
jection is the style, and the five little flat-
tened tips are the stigmas. We have now
discovered all the leading parts of the apple
flower, — the sepals, the petals, the stamens
with their anthers, and the pistil with its
ovary, three-parted style, and three stigmas.
We will now apply our knowledge to the
common marsh-marigold or “ cowslip,” which
gladdens every meadow swale in early spring.
(Fig. 36.) In this flower the sepals, appar-
ently, are
not present.
Here we
must re-
member ar-
bitrarily
that when
either row of the floral envelope is wanting,
the botanist supposes that the petals are the
missing organs. It is therefore necessary to
call the showy petal-like leaves of the marsh-
marigold the sepals. Such showy sepals
are petaloid or “ petal-like.” The short sta-
mens and pistils in the centre of the flower
are clearly recognized, but instead of one

32 TALKS AFIELD.

pistil there are many closely packed together
and bearing no styles; all there is to these
pistils is a little ovary and a minute sessile
stigma. These ovaries ripen into pods or
fruit, like Fig. 37. The flowers of the but-
tercup, of the wind flowers or
anemones, of the clematis, of
the pretty hepatica or liver-leaf,
and other plants, are made up in
essentially the same manner as
those of the marsh-marigold, and
they are therefore all united into one fam-
ily, the Crowfoots. If we examine the morn-
ing-glory flower in
Fig. 38 we notice at
once that the petals
are all united into
one bell. Since we
cannot speak of
the petals individ-
ually, we must now
speak of them col-
lectively; we there-
fore call the bell
the corolla. But even if the petals were not
united we could properly speak of them col-
lectively as the corolla. The sepals, taken
together in like manner, may be styled the

Fig. 37.

MINT — ASH — WILLOW. 33

calyx. In the mint flower, Fig. 39, the pet-
als are united in a peculiarly irregular man-

Fig. 39. Fig. 40.

ner. If we were to pick one of the dark
purple clusters which are seen on the bare
twigs of the ash in early spring, we should
discover that it is made up of many flowers.
One of these flowers is shown in Fig. 40.
It has no ealyx, no corolla, simply two sta-
mens and a styleless pistil. We pick a
gold-dusted ‘‘pussy”’
from a willow, examine
it closely, and find it to
be made up of many lit-
tle flowers like ain Fig.
41. Each of these little
flowers is composed sole-
ly of two anthers which
are subtended by a mi-
nute scale! Let us find f
another willow bush @¢ Fig. 41

which bears greener and less conspicuous
3

34 TALKS AFIELD.

‘“‘ pussies.” These “pussies” are made up
entirely of flowers which are composed of
one pistil! (Fig.
42.) Finally, we
inquire into the
ways of the snow-
ball or hydran-
gea in the gar-
den. Each of the
flowers which go
to make up the

Fig. 42. snowy balls is
found to consist of nothing but a calyx and
corolla!

How shall we define a flower? It is not
essential that any flower have showy colors,
or sepals, or petals, or stamens, or pistils.
And we might even take exception to Web-
ster’s careful definition that the flower is
“that part of a plant which is destined to
produce seed,” for the flowers of the culti-
vated snow-ball and the outer ones on the
heads of all sunflowers and the stamen-
flower of the willow cannot produce seeds.
This definition may be regarded as in the
main correct, however, and the so-called
neutral flowers are to be looked upon as
anomalies. Outside the sunflower family

THE FLOWER. a

these flowers are of rare occurrence, unless
they are produced by cultivation, as in the
ease of the snow-ball. If our definition in-
cludes the stamen-bearing flower of the wil-
low we must modify it after this manner:
The flower is that part of the plant which is
destined to produce or to aid directly in
producing the seed. The office which the
stamen-flower exerts in aiding to produce
the seed will be discussed at another time.
(Page TT et seq.)

It now remains to find names for some
of the different kinds of flowers. A flower
which has calyx, corolla, and one or more
stamens and pistils is said to be complete ;
if any of these organs are missing it is in-
complete. One which has only floral envel-
opes, as the snow-ball, is neutral. One
which contains both stamens and pistils is
perfect ; when either stamens or pistils are
wanting it is imperfect. One bearing only
stamens is staminate; only pistils, pisti-
late. When a flower has both calyx and
corolla and the petals are not united, it is
polypetalous ; when the petals are united,
as in the morning-glory and mint, it is yam-
opetalous or monopetalous ; when either
calyx or corolla, or both, is absent, it is apet-

36 TALKS AFIELD.

alous. When all the sepals, all the petals,
all the stamens, and all the pistils are alike,
the flower is regular ; when any or all of
them are unlike, as in the pea and bean, or
when a gamopetalous corolla is not equally
lobed, as in the mint, it is irregular.

In this connection it remains but to be
said that flowers vary as widely in size and
in appearance as they do in essential struc-
ture. The smallest of flowers is that of the
little Wolffia which floats on ponds through-
out most of the Northern States, the entire
plant being smaller than an ordinary pin-
head. The largest flower is that of the Raf-
flesia, a parasitic plant of the Javan forests.
They are sometimes over a yard across.
Many flowers possess no colors other than
green. The flowers of our grasses and ce-
real grains are green and usually inconspic-
uous, and the same may be said of the flow-
ers of most forest trees.

The manner in which the stems of flower-

ing plants increase in diameter must next |

demand our attention. There are two gen-
eral methods by which this increase takes
place. If we cut off a corn-stalk (Fig. 43)
we observe that there are many threads run-
ning through it lengthwise. A cross-section

ENDOGENS AND EXOGENS. 37

of the trunk of a palm would reveal a simi-
lar structure. Contrast with these stems a
cross-section of an oak, as shown in Fig. 44.
In this section there are conspicuous layers
or rings of wood; the internal threads are
not to be seen. The corn-stalk and the
trunk of the palm increase in diameter by
the addition in the interior of new threads
which stretch out the surface of the stalk.
These plants are inside growers or endogens.

Fig. 43.

The trunk of the oak increases in diame-
ter by the addition of new wood in layers
near its surface. It is, therefore, an outside
grower, or an exogen. In the Northern
United States the endogens are all herbs,
with the single exception of the straggling
green-brier or smilax. In warmer climates
the endogens are represented largely by
palms and similar plants. It is evident

38 TALKS AFIELD.

from the manner in which these inside grow-
ers increase in diameter that there must soon
be a limit to this increase. In tree-like
plants the outside or bark portion soon be-
comes so indurated as to resist further
stretching, and even if this were not the case
it is scarcely conceivable that new fibres could
long be added in the interior. Endogenous
plants seldom become large in diameter.
Most palms are as thick when they begin to
ascend from the ground as they ever will be.
Asarule palms do not branch; they grow
entirely from the terminal bud, and if this
bud be destroyed the plant perishes. Endo-
gens have no true bark, none that can be
readily stripped off, and they have no pith.
The grasses, sedges, the lily tribe, the or-
chids, and the rushes are endogenous plants.
Exogens include our woody plants and our
trees, and also many of our herbs. If we
strip the bark from any of our trees in
spring we shall find a mucilaginous covering

remaining on the wood. This covering is |

being made for the formation of new wood.
It is cellular in character; the walls of its
minute cells are thin, and the cells themselves
contain building materials in the liquid state.
This new layer is the cambium ; upon one side

GROWTH OF EXOGENS. 39

it forms bark and upon the other side wood.
When this cambium becomes hard the wood
portion is called the sap-wood. This sap-
wood differs from the heart-wood in being
composed of thinner-walled cells and in con-
taining more soluble or organic matters, but
it is chiefly distinguished by its lighter color.
In some trees it does not appear distinct from
the heart-wood. On account of the climate
of temperate regions the making of cam-
bium is arrested every autumn, and when a
new layer is formed the next spring a mark
is left which defines the annual increase of
the trunk. In cold and unpropitious seasons
the growth is light and the layer is thin,
while in moist and warm years the layer is
much thicker. These layers are therefore
meteorological records of the years. It some-
times happens that a pinching drouth or
other cause will entirely arrest the forma-
tion of cambium in early summer and subse-
quent rains will cause the growth to be re-
sumed, but between these two layers a mark
will be left and two rings will be formed
in one season. ‘The number of rings, there-
fore, are not always a true index to the age
of the tree. The growth of the trunk causes
the dead outside bark to stretch and split,

40 TALKS AFIELD.

and to form ragged ridges running length-
wise the trunk. The interior of exogenous
stems is occupied by a pith (Fig. 44), and
from this pith lines radiate in all directions.
These lines are the medullary rays. The
interior dark portion is the heart-wood, and
the outer light portion the sap-wood. The
stems of our exogenous herbs increase in es-
sentially the same manner as the trunks of
trees.

It is a singular fact that there are pecul-
larities of the seeds and of the flowers of en-
dogenous and of exogenous plants which dis-
tinguish the two groups as readily as does
the manner of growth. It will be remem-
bered that in our study of the bean on page
2 we discovered two seed-leaves or cotyle-
dons. It is found that the seeds of all en-
dogens contain but one cotyledon, while
those of exogens contain two or more. The
endogens are therefore often styled Mono-
cotyledons and the exogens Dicotyledons.
The parts of the flower in the endogens are
usually in threes or in multiples of three:
that is, there are three, or six, or nine sepals
and petals and stamens and pistils, or some
higher number which is a multiple of three.
It is not necessary that these organs be all

CLASSIFICATION OF PHENOGAMS. 41

present in any one flower, but such as are
present fall under this rule. Thus a lily has
six sepals, six stamens, and a three-lobed
pistil. Exogens, on the contrary, never have
the parts of their flowers in threes but usu-
ally in fives or multiples of five. Aside
from these differences between endogens and
exogens, there is a nearly constant distinc-
tion in the leaves. In the endogens the
veins in the leaf are not usually distinct,
but when conspicuous they are seen to run
parallel to the midrib, — they are parallel-
veined. The leaves are usually long and
narrow like those of rushes, lilies, and
grasses, and their margins are not notched.
There are some exceptions, the most promi-
nent being the leaves of smilax, and of the
trilliums or wake-robins. Most of the leaves
of exogens have netted veins, although the
pinks and some others have not.

The Classification of Flowering Plants.

There is no science in which the arrange-
ment of objects into a series of subordinated
groups is so thoroughly and minutely worked
out as in botany. A knowledge of the
methods by which botanists classify plants
is of vital importance to one who under-

42 TALKS AFIELD.

takes to know much of botany; and the
classification itself is of interest to the logi-
cian, as affording the best illustration of in-
ductive and dichotomous arrangement. The
system of botanical classification is founded
upon the inductive principle of first learn-
ing the characters of individual plants, and
then seizing upon the most salient and per-
manent features by which many plants may
be associated together. Among the appar-
ent confusion of forms and of structures in
plants, it is not strange that the ordinary
observer fails to recognize any general points
of agreement. There evidently must be
more points of agreement than of difference
between two or more plants before we can
group them together. They must agree
with one another, but must differ from other
groups. The two great sub-kingdoms or
series of plants illustrate this proposition:
the flowerless plants possess a common char-
acter of reproducing themselves by spores,
while the flowering plants agree in repro-—
ducing themselves by means of seeds; be-
tween these two sub-kingdoms there is a great
external dissimilarity in this respect. These
characters of spore- bearing and of seed-
bearing are not readily recognized by those

EARLY NOTIONS. 43

unfamiliar with the study of plants, and they
were not hit upon by the early botanists.
The characters employed by the early herb-
alists and botanists in making their classifi-
cations illustrate the extent of the knowl-
edge of plants at the time, and a compari-
son of successive methods of classification
indicates the advancement in such knowl-
edge. For instance, upon being told that
Dioscorides in the first century divided
plants into aromatic, alimentary, medicinal,
and vinous, one is at once impressed with
the thought that Dioscorides studied plants
from a medicinal point of view, and that he
understood their medicinal characters better
than any other features. A very early clas-
sification, and one which denotes a superfi-
cial knowledge of plants, was that which rec-
ognized the three divisions of trees, shrubs,
and herbs, and this classification was not en-
tirely dispelled until Linneus rejected it in
the middle of last century. It is strange
that the forms of flowers did not earlier at-
tract attention. Fuchs, a studious German
whose botanical labors are appropriately
commemorated in the name Fuchsia, was
perhaps the first to define any of the parts
of the flower. He called the anthers the

44 TALKS AFIELD.

apices, and the floral envelope, at least in
some cases, the gluma. Fuchs published a
botanical work in 1542. Hieronymus Tra-
gus, another German, published an herbal in
1551, in which he associates some of the
mints, the mustards, and the sunflowers. The
first indication of a general scientific ar-
rangement of plants occurs in the “ De Plan-
tis Libri” of Andreas Cesalpinus, published
in Florence in 1583. In a vague manner
Cesalpinus pointed out ten classes: the first
included plants which bear but one seed, as
the peach, almond, and cherry; the second,
such as had but one seed receptacle or case,
as the rose; the third, those which had two
seeds ; the fourth, those with two seed recep-
tacles, and so on through those with four
seed receptacles; then followed a class hav-
ing more than four seeds and one having
more than four receptacles. These classes
were largely artificial and arbitrary, but they
brought together plants which have natural

affinities. The plants included by Cesal- _

pinus under Legumina are essentially those
at present included in the order Leguminose,
or the Pea family, and his Bulbacez corre-
spond pretty closely to our Liliacez, or lily-
like plants. John Ray, of England, made

ied Sat”

RAY—LINNZEUS. 45

important improvements in classification in
works which he published in 1682 and 1686.
Ray classified on characters of the flowers
and fruits. In 1690 Rivinius made a dispo-
sition of plants founded upon the character
of the corolla alone. It remained for Jo-
seph Pitton de Tournefort, of Paris, to en-
large this system of classification. In 1700
Tournefort published eleven classes founded
upon the shape of the corolla, and for more
than fifty years these classes were recognized.
This man was an acute observer and an ac-
complished botanist. He is commonly re-
garded as the greatest botanist prior to Lin-
neus. The names of some of his classes still
remain, as the Labiate, Umbelliferz, Lilia-
ceze, Rosaceze.

Linneus is by common consent regarded
as the greatest of botanists. He was a
Swede, and lived from 1707 till 1778. Lin-
nus entered upon his scientific labors at a
time when the knowledge of plants and ani-
mals was vague and superficial, and when
there were no acceptable methods of classi-
fying and arranging either natural objects
or the knowledge of them. He entered the
field as a reformer. In this capacity he was
admirable for his skill, and still more so for

46 TALKS AFIELD.

the success he won. He brought order out
of confusion. His work extended to all
kinds of animals and to minerals. Through
his exertions a new life was imparted to the
pursuit of scientific learning. In this con-
nection we can consider but two of the
important reforms instituted by Linnzus,
but these two are among his most conspicu-
ous labors. He made a radical change in
the nomenclature of natural objects, and he
propounded a new and important system of
classification. We will first speak of the
reform in nomenclature. Before Linnzus
plants were named in scientific works by a
Latin phrase, which was commonly used in
the ablative. Thus “ Acer foliis palmato-an-
gulatis, floribus subapetalis, sessilibus, fructu
pedunculato corymboso” was the name of
the red maple. Mendered into English the
name reads: ‘Acer with palmate, angular
leaves, sessile and nearly apetalous flowers,
and stalked fruit in corymbs.” Acer is the
generic or general name of all the maples, —
the same as the word maple is the generic
name. The different kinds or species of ma-
ples were distinguished from each other by
the descriptive phrases. These phrases were
unwieldy and inconvenient, and Linnzus

BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE. 47

saw what confusion and unpleasantness must
come from a multiplication of such names.
A very small part of the plants of the world,
or even of Europe, were then described.
Linnzus adopted the method of making the
name of each plant consist of two words,
one a substantive and a generic name, the
other an adjective and a specific name.
Thus the red maple became in botanical lan-
guage Acer rubrum. The adoption of this
binomial nomenclature, as it is called, meant
more than simple convenience to the bota-
nist: it gave a fixedness to genera and to
species. The genera of plants were but
vaguely defined before this time. We might
illustrate a vaguely defined genus by sup-
posing that the term maple might include
ashes or other trees beside the true maples,
or that one person might apply the name to
one set of plants, and another person to a
different set. The idea of genus is an im-
portant one. This idea is supposed to have
originated with Conrad Gessner, an obscure
German, who died in 1565; at least most
of the merit of the invention is to be as-
cribed to him. The strictly scientific defini-
tion and use of the genus began with Tour-
nefort, however. A more particular mention

48 TALKS AFIELD.

of the binomial nomenclature will be found
on page 159.

The Linnean System of Classification,
although now wholly superseded by the Nat-
ural System, was an exceedingly important
one, because it first brought strict order into
the arrangement of plants and because it
recognized the presence and importance of
the stamens and pistils. Under the discus-
sion on the Sexes of Plants, this classifica-
tion will be mentioned again. The Linnean
system is strictly artificial, a fact which its
author fully understood, but with the imper-
fect knowledge of the science at that time
he could not aim at a natural classification.
Under his system the knowledge of botany
increased rapidly, and before he died the
beginnings of a natural classification were
made. The Linnean or artificial system
divided the whole vegetable kingdom into
twenty-four classes, founded entirely upon
the number, situation, and connection of the

stamens. Using the Greek word andria, |

man, for stamen, the names of the first thir-
teen classes are made up as follows: Mo-
nandria, flowers with one stamen; Dian-
dria, flowers with two stamens, and so on to
flowers with twelve stamens. Then follow

NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 49

others founded upon the position and other
characters of the stamens. These classes
are divided into orders founded upon the
number of styles or stigmas. Using the
Greek gynia, woman, the ordinal names are
made after the same manner: Monogynia,
Digynia, ete. Linneus observed the dis-
tinction between flowering and flowerless
plants, and originated the names Phenoga-
mia (or Phenerogamia) and Cryptogamia.
His beautiful scheme of classification was
used until within the last half century.

The Natural System attempts to bring to-
gether those plants which most nearly re-
semble each other in all essential particulars.
It does not attempt to make a system; it ac-
cepts the system wrought out by the Creator,
and endeavors to follow it closely ; the more
closely it follows nature the more nearly it
approaches perfection. Although we can-
not hope to have attained perfection in this
system, it is a beautiful and scientific struc-
ture, and so far as it rests upon natural
resemblances and differences must remain
essentially undisturbed. If the order of re-
lationship between plants lay in a line, one
plant giving rise to another of higher order,

and that one to but one other of still higher
4

50 TALKS AFIELD.

order, and so on to the most highly developed
of plants, a natural system of classification
would present no difficulties. Such is not
the case, however. Taking almost any plant
as a starting point, we find not only a line
ascending and another descending from it,
but we find several lines developing in dif-
ferent directions; and some of these lines
may be suddenly suppressed, or they may
become so modified as to present an equal
number of resemblances to each of several
starting points. To properly associate plants
in a lineal classification, as we necessarily
must attempt to do in our books, as if we
were enumerating a straightforward geneal-
ogy, is therefore an impossibility. Bernard
and Antoine Jussieu, uncle and nephew,
residents of Paris, were the immediate found-
ers of the natural system in outline, al-
though Linneus and others had indicated
such a system. It has been much improved
by subsequent botanists. A. P. De Can-
dolle early in this century rearranged the
natural families, or orders, into what is
known as the Candollean sequence. This
sequence supposes that the highest plants
are those in which all the parts of the flower
are present, and in which they all stand by

NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. Sf

themselves, the sepals not being joined to
each other or to the petals, the petals not
being joined to each other or to the stamens
or pistils, and so on. De Candolle assigned
the highest place to the Crowfoot or Butter-
cup family and the lowest to the Grass fam-
ily. This sequence is essentially maintained
at present. Of course the genera and the
species of plants are the same in any system
of classification. Classification is simply a
method of arranging them.

The most general division of the vegeta-
ble kingdom is into flowerless and flowering
plants, — Cryptogams and Phenogams. We
will exclude the cryptogams from our con-
sideration, as we have already discussed their
provisional arrangement. Phenogams may
be divided into inside-growers or one-seed-
leaved plants, —Endogens or Monocotyle-
dons, — and outside-growers or two-seed-
leaved plants,— Exogens or Dicotyledons.
Excluding the endogens, we find that the
exogens are most readily subdivided upon
characters of the floral envelopes: the indi-
viduals fall under three divisions, — Apet-
ale, Gamopetale, and Polypetale. These
terms find an explanation on page 35. Each
of these divisions contains its natural orders

52 TALKS AFIELD.

or families, as does also the class of Endo-
gens. The natural orders or families are
large groups of plants which have a general
similarity in flowers, fruit, leaves, and gen-
eral habit. Being entirely natural they are
not readily defined, and their limits are not
commonly clearly cut. For instance, the
Pea or Pulse family includes some six thou-
sand five hundred plants, which agree toler-
ably well in producing a certain kind of fruit
or pod, and most of them bear the peculiar
pea-like flowers, although the Acacias do not.
We may present a general view of the larger
divisions of flowering plants, mentioning
only the most important natural families, as
follows : —

Class I. Enpocens. Including
Graminece, or Grass family.
Cyperacee, or Sedge family.
Liliacee, or Lily family.
Iridacee, or Blue Flag family.
Orchidacee, or Orchid family.
Palmacee, or Palm family.

Class II. Exocens.

Division I. AprtaL#, Including
Cupulifere, or Oak and Beech family.
Urticacee, or Nettle and Mulberry
- family.

IMPORTANT NATURAL ORDERS. 53

Division II. GamorreTaLz, Including
Solanacee, or Nightshade and Potato

family.

Labiate, or Mint family.

Scrophulariacee, or Figwort and Snap-
dragon family.

Ericacex, or Heath and Whortleberry
family.

Composite, the great composite-flow-
ered family, including sunflowers,
daisies, ete. (See p. 60.)

Rubiacee, or Madder family.

Caprifoliacee, or Honeysuckle family.

Division III. PotyerTaLa#, Including

Umbellifere, or Parsnip and Carrot
family.

Cucurbitacee, or Pumpkin and Melon
family.

Saxifragacee, or Saxifrage and Cur-
rant family.

Rosacee, or Rose family. (See p. 54.)

Leguminose, or Pea family.

Caryophyllacee, or Pink family.

Crucifere, or Mustard and Cabbage
family.

Ranunculacee, or Buttercup family.

The Conifere, or Pine and Spruce family,
belongs to the Exogens, but on account of
certain peculiarities it is not included in

54. TALKS AFIELD.

either of the three divisions. Under each
family are arranged the genera, and under
each genus the species. To illustrate more
particularly the methods of classification
within the order, synopses of the Rose and
Composite families are given farther on.
The number of orders or families of flower-
ing plants admitted by latest authorities is
200, including 7,585 genera,’ and nearly
100,000 species !

The Rose Family.

The limits of the natural orders of plants
were made by the Creator; they are natural
boundaries. The botanist associates those
plants which resemble each other in the es-
sential structure of flower and fruit, and
names the group thus formed after some one
of its prominent members, or after some
striking peculiarity of the group. Thus
botanists find about a thousand species of
plants which resemble the rose, and they are

collectively designated the Rosaceze or Rose

family. When these thousand plants are
studied and compared a family definition is
made. It is often a difficult task to make
a definition which will include so many
plants and exclude those of other families.

ROSACEZ. 55

It is especially difficult in the Rose family,
which includes plants of very variable struc-
tures. Some orders or families are more
natural than others; they include plants
which agree in possessing some one or more
peculiar distinguishing characters. Exam-
ples of such families are the Crucifere or
Mustard family, Umbellifere or Parsnip
family, and Compositz or Sunfiower family.

The Rose family is not so well defined as
many other families. As now understood it
includes two or
three families
recognized by f§
the older bota- (a=
nists. We shall “
find it profita-
able to examine
a few rosaceous
flowers before considering the general defini-
tion of the order. Fig. 45 represents a cherry
flower cut in two lengthwise. At p is seen
the pistil, the lower part of which (the
ovary) ripens into the cherry. At ¢ ¢ is
shown the calyx, upon the top of which are
borne the stamens and the petals. The end
of the flower-stalk where it joins the flower,
r, is called the receptacle. Fig. 46 represents

56 TALKS AFIELD.

an apple-flower. Here the stamens and pet-
als are borne on the calyx as before, but the
ovary or young apple does not appear to be
distinct from
the calyx.
The dotted
lines at ¢ ¢
show the posi-
tion of the ca-
lyx, however,
and that it is
united with
the ovary. As the fruit ripens this adnate
calyx thickens and becomes fleshy, and forms
the edible portion of the apple. The core
of the apple is
the fruit, while
the surrounding
portion is thick-
ened calyx! The
upper extremities
of this calyx are
seen in the five
appendages in the
“blossom end” of an apple. Fruits made
up in this peculiar manner, as apples, pears,
quinces, and medlars, are designated pomes.
We also notice that in this flower there are

°

ae

STRAWBERRY — BLACKBERRY. 57

three styles represented, while in the cherry
flower there is only one. The receptacle at
r is like that in Fig. 45. In Fig. 47 is
shown a section of the strawberry flower.
Here again the stamens and petais are at-
tached to the short calyx, but the centre of
the flower presents a peculiar appearance.
The central body is the receptacle much en-
larged, and over its surface are scattered nu-
merous little pistils, which ripen into the
fruits or “seeds”? of the strawberry. The
elongated receptacle becomes red and fleshy,
and is called a strawberry, while in fact it
is not a berry, not even a fruit, but the
fleshy end of a flower stalk! If we were to
examine a blackberry we should find its cen-
tre to be filled with the white and elongated
receptacle, over the surface of which are
packed the little fruits. These little fruits
are like those on the strawberry, only that
they are fleshy. The blackberry is therefore
a collection of many little fruits. The rasp-
berry resembles the blackberry, but the re-
ceptacle does not separate from the bush
with the fruits. We will next examine the
rose itself, a halved specimen of which, with
the petals removed, is shown in Fig. 48.
The stamens and petals are borne on the

58 TALKS AFIELD.

calyx as before, but the fruiting portion pre-
sents a new anomaly.
Several little pistils or
fruits are borne inside
a cavity. The walls of
this cavity are made up
of the adnate calyx on
the outer side and of
the concave receptacle
on the inside. When the fruits are ripe this
fleshy urn closes up more or less completely,
and forms altogether the “rose hip” or, as
it is often erroneously called, the “ berry.”
Among all these complexities of structure
in the rosaceous flowers are there any con-
stant characters? We have noticed one de-
cisive peculiarity: the petals and stamens
are borne on the calyx. We may have no-
ticed other peculiarities. For instance, the
flowers are regular, all the stamens, all the
petals, and all the pistils being alike; the
stamens are not united with each other;
the petals are not united with each other ;
the sepals are united below into a tube;
the pistils are borne inside the calyx, not be-
low it as in some plants, i. e., the pistils are
superior. Now, all these plants are Exogens,
and they belong to the division Polypetale ;

si Mis an Wy zs hy a,
i) ! “Z
ji $
da i ily: Ss G
‘ | 2D Zs,

*
shat

Fig. 48.

ROSE SUB-FAMILIES. 59

and we may further define them by saying
that they have regular flowers, with the dis-
tinct stamens and petals borne on the calyx
tube and the pistil or pistils superior. The
greatest differences in the structure of the
flowers we have seen to lie im the adhesion
of calyx tube and pistils, or calyx tube and
receptacle, and in the odd forms of the re-
ceptacle rather than in the pistils or fruits
themselves.

We may divide the Rose family into three
sub-orders or sub-fainilies : —

Almond Sub- Family. — Comprising
plants whose flowers bear mostly one pistil,
to which the calyx tube is not united, a nor-
mal receptacle, and which produce stone-
fruits or drupes. Here are included almonds,
peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and
plums.

Rose Sub-Family. — Pistils usually many,
distinct, not becoming large in fruit, and not
united with the calyx tube, the receptacle
often peculiarly developed. In this sub-
family may be mcluded the roses, strawber-
ries, blackberries, raspberries, and spirzeas.

Pear Sub-Family. — Pistils united with
each other and with the calyx tube, which be-
comes thick and fleshy at maturity. Here

60 TALKS AFIELD.

are included the pomaceous (pome-bearing)
plants, apples, pears, quinces, medlars, ser-
vice-berries, mountain-ash, and hawthorns.

Under each of these sub-families are in-
cluded the genera, of which the whole Rose
family contains about seventy. The repre-
sentative genus of the Pear sub-family is Py-
rus. Pyrus malus is the common apple, Pyrus
prunifolia the crab-apple, Pyrus communis
the pear, and Pyrus Cydonia the quince.
There are five native species of Pyrus in the
northeastern United States. One of the
most familiar is Pyrus Americana, the moun-
tain-ash. The wild crab-apple, common in
glades from western New York to Wisconsin
and southward, is P. coronaria, and the dog-
berry or choke-berry of swamps, a bush and
fruit resembling the whortleberry, is P. ar-
butifolia, “ arbutus-leaved Pyrus.”

The Composite Family.

The largest and the most readily recog-
nized of all orders is the Composite. This
great family includes about 10,000 species,
fully one ninth of all flowering plants.
These species belong to nearly 800 genera.
One thousand six hundred and ten species
occur in North America north of Mexico,

COMPOSITE. 61

but 59 of these have been introduced from
other countries; 237 genera are represented.
The largest genus of this family is Senecio,
which contains nearly 900 species, only 57
of which occur in this country. The largest
genus in America is Aster, which comprises
124 species, and the next is Solidago, golden-
rods, comprising 78 species.

The members of the Composite have three
easily recognizable peculiarities: the indi-
vidual flowers or florets are small and they
are compacted into a conspicuous head, which
is commonly mistaken for one flower; the
calyx is represented by soft hairs or little
teeth borne at the apex of the little fruit;
the anthers are united in a ring about the
style. The outer flowers in the head are
often furnished
with a long ray
or notched petal
on one side, and
these rays ap-
pear like the
petals of one
simple flower.
Fig. 49 repre-
sents the blue | ts
flower of an aster with the conspicuous rays

62 TALKS AFIELD.

of the outer flowers and the less showy in-
terior or disk
flowers. If we
were to cut in
two a garden
coreopsis, as in
Fig. 50, we
could readily
discern that
the yellow rays
are not a part of the disk flowers. If from
this coreopsis we were to remove all the
flowers but two, as in Fig. 51, we should see
that the ray flowers bear little resemblance
to the disk flowers. The erect disk flower
in the centre has minute teeth near its base
in the place of a calyx, and the petals are
united into a five-parted tube. The flower is
therefore one
of the Gamo-
petale. The
ray flowers
have the mi-
nute calyx
teeth, scarcely
shown in the figure, but there is apparently
only one petal, which is rolled into a tube
below. The end of this petal is furnished

ca ~e
SS N\

Sa

Fig. 50.

Fig. 51.

a
. *

- floret of the pestiferous Canada \

COMPOSITE. 63

with five notches; why do they not represent
the five united petals? We notice these
notches in the chicory and in most other ray
flowers of this family. The ray
flowers in the coreopsis have no
stamens or pistils: they are neutral
flowers. The disk flower has two
deflexed stigmas, below which is the
ring of five united anthers. The
anthers and stigmas are enlarged in Fig. 52.
Each of the disk flowers is subtended by a
bract or bristle, one of which is shown in
Fig. 51. In all the composite flowers the
receptacle is greatly developed, usually pre-
senting a nearly flat, expanded surface. In
the cultivated sunflowers this
receptacle, with its covering of
florets, is often over a foot
across. Fig. 53 represents a &

Fig. 52.

thistle. At its lower extremity
is the ovary, which ripens into Fig. 53.

the one-seeded frait. On its apex is borne
the downy pappus, which answers to the
calyx, and the five-parted corolla is seen
above. Here, then, the ovary is inferior ;
in the rosaceous flowers we found it to be
superior to the calyx. The pappus may con-

64 TALKS AFIELD.

sist of many soft hairs, as in the thistle, or
of barbed teeth, as in the beggar’s
ticks (Fig. 54), or of minute teeth, \WZ
as in the coreopsis. In most cases
it is a means of distributing
the seed, either by floating it
in the air or by attaching it
to clothing or the coats of
Fig. 54. animals. In the dandelion
it is raised on a slender stalk. (Fig.
55.) The whole head in the com-
posite flowers is more or less surrounded by
little green leaves, like a
calyx. These leaves consti-
tute the involucre. The in-
volucre is shown at 7 in Fig.
56, and again in Fig. 57,
where it is compact and
tube-like and covered with
hooked bristles, making the
well-known bur of the burdock.
We are now familiar with
the essential structure of the
flowers of the Composite fam-
ily, — the aggregation into
heads, the pappus, the united
anthers, the gamopetalous co- Fig. 57.
rolla, the enlarged receptacle, the involucre,

COMPOSITE. 65

the rays, and the chaff or bristles on the
receptacle. The rays are often entirely ab-
sent, as in the boneset and thistles, and
sometimes all the flowers have rays, as in
the chicory and dandelion. Sometimes there
is no indication of pappus, and the chaff is
often wanting also. The beauty of the heads
of composite flowers is due almost entirely to
the conspicuous rays. These rays sometimes
contain both stamens and pistils, sometimes
only pistils, and sometimes neither.
Although the Composite includes such a
vast array of plants, inhabiting every cli-
mate, there are very few of them which
furnish edible or useful products. The im-
portant edible species are lettuce, endive,
chicory, and salsify or vegetable oyster, and
its ally, seorzonera. Most of the species are
herbs, a very few attaining the character of
low shrubs. If the order lacks in edible or
other useful species, it superabounds in or-
namental ones. The daisies are all members
of the Composite family. Botanically, the
daisy is a little European perennial, less
than six inches high, which, in its double
form, is cultivated in our gardens. Popu-
larly, the name is applied to all the white

or azure-rayed Composite which so profusely
5

66 TALKS AFIELD.

decorate our glades and meadows. The
wild asters, plants peculiarly American, are
the popular daisies west of New England,
where the intruding white-weed or ox-eye
daisy has not yet overrun the meadows.
The American autumn blossoms with asters
and golden-rods, the twin emblems of the
season’s maturity and harvest. Poets have
always loved the daisies : —
‘* The daisy scattered on each mead and downe,
A golden tuft within a silver crown;

Faire fell that dainty flower! and may there be
No shepherd graced that doth not honor thee!”

Shakespeare wrote of “daisies pied and vio-
lets blue.” The etymology of the word sug-
gests a poem: it is derived from the old
Saxon day’s eye. The sunflowers are the
most conspicuous members of the family.
Nearly all the species are North American.
Forty species are described from this conti-
nent, north of Mexico, and of these twenty
occur in the Northern States east of the
Mississippi. They are miniatures in size of
heads as compared with the great sunflowers
of the garden. All the species are yellow-
rayed, with the exception of one or two
which are entirely rayless. The common
garden sunflower was introduced long ago

SUNFLOWERS. 67

into Europe, and its nativity has been until
lately a matter of doubt. It is now found
that a wild species of the plains west of the
Mississippi, a plant which bears heads but
an inch or two in diameter, exclusive of the
rays, is the parent of our cultivated plant.
The Indians of the East early obtained it
from beyond the Mississippi, and they were
cultivating it about the eastern shores of
Lake Huron when Champlain and Segard

_visited them nearly three centuries ago. The

Indians used the seeds for making hair-oil
and for eating. Under their cultivation the
flower-heads began to assume their abnormal
size. One of the sunflowers is the artichoke
of our gardens, which yields edible subter-
ranean tubers. This plant is also a native
of our Western plains, and it has a history
not unlike that of the sunflower. It was in-
troduced into Europe as early as 1617, and
the Italians began its cultivation under the
name of Girasole Articocco, Sunflower arti-
choke. The name (Girasole became cor-
rupted into Jerusalem, and the plant is now
commonly known in England as Jerusalem
artichoke. It has commonly been supposed
that the plant is a native of Brazil, but late
evidence affords proof that our Indians cul-

68 TALKS AFIELD.

tivated it, and that from them it was ob-
tained by early adventurers. In 1629 the
tubers had become very abundant and cheap
in London, according to Parkinson, a bota-
nist of that time. As the culture of the po-
tato spread, that of the artichoke decreased.
The true artichoke is a very different plant
from this tuber-bearing sunflower, although
it is a composite. It is a native of South-
ern Europe and Barbary. To botanists it is

known as Cynara Scolymus. The part eaten —

is the large unopened flower head. The
Cardoon, which is occasionally grown in this
country for the bleached inner leaf-stalks, is
also a Cynara.

Having now obtained an idea of some of
the principles of classification, we are pre-
pared to consider a few of the striking pe-
culiarities of common plants. With very
few exceptions the essays which follow can

be verified by the unprofessional observer.

They relate mostly to the visible parts and
operations of plants. The essays are selected
at random from the book of Nature, from
which every one is invited to read. They
may aid as interpreters to some of the per-

<
= =

ne

HIDDEN !VONDERS. 69

plexing passages to be found there. With
the exception of the first essay, they do not
deal with nutrition or microscopic structure,
and in lieu of a better opportunity we may
now say a word in regard to this microscopic
feature of botany. In the hands of the bot-
anist the compound microscope reveals a
wonderland in the interior of every plant.
It uncovers the framework of every organ,
and reveals a complicated structure of cells,
vessels, and fibres. It opens the tiny cells
themselves and discloses in each a chemical
laboratory, replete with implements and ma-
terials for the manfacture of starch, sugars,
acids, and leaf-green, and numerous other
needs of the growing plant for the making
of cells and the ripening of fruits. It ex-
hibits beautiful forms of various substances,
sharply angled crystals, and materials in mo-
tion. It explains many of the mysteries of
the multiform protoplasm which is necessary
to the life of each individual cell. The mi-
croscope gives us a clew to the relations of
plants to their surroundings and to the ani-
mal world. Atl this minute study, though
laden with deepest interest and full of mean-
ing, is recondite and entirely foreign to the
purpose of this little volume.

70 TALKS AFIELD.

A Peep at the Inside.

The ordinary visible plants are made up
of great numbers of microscopic cells of an
infinite variety of size and shape. When
these cells begin to grow they are usually
spherical, but they soon become curiously
compressed or contorted by the pressure of
one upon another. In portions of the plant
where the pressure is the same upon all sides,
the cells become symmetrically twelve-sided,
as in the magnified portion of pith in Fig. 58.
It is not often, how-
ever, that such cells
occur. Some cells
\ become much elon-
\ gated; and when
they have woody
walls, they are
known as the wood

Fig. 58. cells. (Fig. 59.)
Other elongated cells are those
which are commonly known as ves- |
sels. They are tubes which run through the
stems of plants, often having upon their
walls peculiar markings, as dots, disks, spi-
rals, and rings. Portions of vessels with
these annular and spiral markings are shown

A PEEP AT THE INSIDE. 71

in Fig. 60. Odd forms of cells are shown
in the hairs upon the leaves and stems of

KEL

Ke

2.

eee see
mY

ry

|
=

2

Viv)
KLM

plants. Hairs of the pumpkin vine, each
hair composed of several cells, are shown in
Fig. 61, and one-celled
hairs of another plant
are shown in Fig. 62.
The external cells of
plants are usually flat-
tened and often bor-
dered by irregular
margins. These flat-

Fig 62.

tened or tabular cells make the epidermis.
The outlines of the thin epidermal cells of
the leaf of the snap-dragon are figured in

{2 TALKS AFIELD.

Fig. 63. If we were to make a cross-section
of a leaf, cutting across the leaf from the

Fig. 63. Fig. 64.

upper surface to the lower, and were to ex-
amine the section with a microscope, an
arrangement something like that in Fig. 64
would be presented. On the upper surface
are to be seen the flattened epidermal cells,
while immediately beneath them are two
rows of long palisade cells. The under sur-
face is also faced with the flattened cells.
The lower half of the
interior of the leaf is
made up of a loose ag-
gregation of irregular
cells, between which
are air spaces. If,
now, we magnify a
portion of the under surface of the leaf we
discover many crescent-shaped cells lying
face to face, with an opening between them.

Fig. 65.

A PEEP AT THE INSIDE. 73

(Fig. 65.) These openings are the breath-
ing pores or stomata, and they are situ-
ated directly over air spaces. The crescent-
shaped cells are called the guard cells of the
stomata, and they have the power of regu-
lating the size of the opening into the leaf,
often completely closing it. The grains in
the cells of Fig. 64 represent the pigment
which gives the green color to the leaf; these
-are the chlorophyll grains, “leaf-green ”
grains. Although they usually occupy but
a portion of the cell, they are still so close
together as not to be recognized by the eye,
and they therefore present a continuous ap-
pearance of green. The epidermis, both
above and below, is mostly destitute of chlo-
rophyll, and transparent. The cell contents
are as variable as the cells themselves. All
growing parts contain a whitish granular
liquid known as protoplasm. This proto-
plasm is the life-giving element of plants,
from which are formed new cells, and starch
and other products which the plant stores
up for future use. All seeds and tubers and
bulbs store away starch to feed the plantlet
while it is germinating and establishing it-
self in the soil.

We have before remarked that all plants

74 TALKS AFIELD.

which possess leaf-green also possess the
power of assimilating; that is, they can
make starch and similar compounds out of
inorganic matters, such as water and carbon
dioxide. Animals cannot assimilate ; they
eat organic products which have been pre-
pared by plants and digest them into other
organic products. Neither can all plants
assimilate, as we have seen in the case of
fungi. Plants also have a power akin to
digestion, for they make over the starch-like
materials, which are formed by assimilation,
into other organic compounds. This change
is called metastasis. The plant through its
roots takes in various compounds which are
dissolved in water. These compounds con-
tain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sul-
phur, iron, potassium, and other materials.
The plant takes these solutions in through
its roots by a modification of the phenom-
enon known to physicists as osmose, a sort
of soaking-in process. The pressure exerted
by the liquid as it comes into the root
through this osmotic action forces the “sap”
upwards, but the chief cause of its rise is to
be found in another fact: the stomata on
the under surface of the leaves are open if
the weather is clear and moist, and water is

ASCENSION OF SAP. 75

constantly evaporating from them. As fast
as this evaporation takes place more water is
needed. A demand is made upon the cells
in the interior of the leaf which contain
more water than those near the stomata, and
as these interior cells lose some of their wa-
ter they in turn call upon eells still more
distant, and so on until the call is made all
through the stem and to the minute root
hairs which derive their water from the
earth. This water does not flow upwards in
tubes or cells, but it is soaked up through
the thick walls of the wood cells, and it
keeps soaking upwards as fast as evapora-
tion pumps it out through the leaves. In
this manner the water from the earth, laden
with its food materials, finally reaches the
leaves; and there, in conjunction with car-
bonic acid gas from the air, in the chloro-
phyll grains in the minute cell laboratories,
and with the aid of sunlight, occurs the
wonderful transformation into organic mate-
rials. These materials afterwards pass into
the protoplasm and are used in building new
cells. During the process of assimilation
oxygen gas is set free and given off through
the stomata. This oxygen is necessary to
the life of animals, while the carbonic acid

76 TALKS AFIELD.

gas which is exhaled by animals is necessary
to the life of plants. Assimilation can take
place only in the sunlight, but growth — the
formation of new cells— takes place more

rapidly at night. During this growth and —

the metastasis which is necessary to it, —
the changing of one organic compound into
another, — the plant is breathing; air is
taken in through the stomata, or the air of
the air-spaces is used if the stomata are
closed. This breathing is strictly compara-
ble to that of animals, as the oxygen is used
and carbonic acid gas is given off. The sto-
mata act as valves; they regulate largely
the amount of water given off and the
amount of air taken in. They are open in
sunlight, but are nearly closed in darkness.
During a severe drouth, when the roots can-
not find sufficient water, they close and allow
no evaporation to take place. When the
atmosphere is moist they are wide open. If
the leaves are the lungs of the plant be-
cause they breathe, they are more emphat-
ically the stomachs of the plant because they
assimilate and digest.

ave Fete

SEX. T7

The Sexes of Plants.

The stamens, as we have seen, bear pow-
dery grains of pollen in their anthers. This
pollen is the male element of the plant, and
it must be carried to the pistil before that
organ can produce seeds. ‘The stameus are,
therefore, the male or sterile organs of the
plant, and the pistils are the female or fer-
tile organs. ‘The universal doctrine of the
sexes of plants was first clearly enunciated
by Linneus in 1735, and his elegant system
of classification was built upon the numbers
and characters of the essential or reproduc-
tive organs. While this system was so ex-
pedient in the arranging and studying of
plants, it was also important because it rec-
ognized the functions of the stamens and
pistils and brought them prominently into
the consideration of botanists. The idea of
sex in plants did not originate with Linnzus,
however. As early as the days of Herodo-
tus, two sorts of date-palms were distin-
guished, one sterile and the other fertile, and
it was known that the fruitfulness of the fer-
tile plant was increased by shaking trusses
of the sterile plant over it. Czsalpinus ob-
served that some hemp plants were sterile

78 TALKS AFIELD.

and others fertile. Sex was probably first
clearly perceived by Zaluzianski, a native of
Poland, who wrote early in 1600. Nehemiah
Grew, of England, in 1682, was more pre-
cise in his definitions and remarks concerning
the stamens and pistils. In 1694, Jacques
Camerarius, a German, gave the first deci-
sive proof that sexes occur in plants just as
truly as in animals, and his letter upon the
subject, ‘“‘ De Sexu Plantarum,” has become
celebrated. The statements made by Came-
rarius obtained currency among naturalists,
and they were generally accepted. Tourne-
fort, however, was incredulous, but one of
his pupils, Sebastian Vaillant, publicly pro-
fessed his belief in the sexes of plants. It
is said that Linnzus first obtained his idea
of sex from reading Vaillant’s dissertation,
which he had found by accident. Linnzus’
own observations soon confirmed the imper-
fect statements of his instructor, and it was
not long before he startled the world with
the doctrine of universal sexuality in flower-
ing plants, and built thereon his system of
classification.

For nearly a hundred years it was sup-
posed that the pollen grains, after they had
fallen upon the stigma, burst open and dis-

GROWTH OF THE POLLEN. 79

charged their contents, which in some man-
ner fertilized the ovules or young seeds. In
1823 an Italian, Amici, perceived that the
grains of pollen upon the stigma of an Afri-
can plant changed into tubes, which he des-
ignated the pollen tubes. Four years later,
the celebrated Brongniart confirmed the ob-

servation of Amici, and found that the tubes
were produced in many plants, and further-
more that they penetrated the soft tissue of
the stigma. It is now known that the pollen
erain germinates after it falls upon the
stigma, and sends a minute tube down
through the stigma and style, finally penetra-
ting the ovule or seed-forming body. One

80 TALKS AFIELD.

of these tubes must reach each ovule before
the ovule can develop into a seed. In just
what manner the pollen tube acts upon the
embryo-sac of the ovule is not known. We
can make an ideal picture of these pollen
tubes as represented in Fig. 66, the figure
at the right representing a longitudinal sec-
tion of a portion of the stigma. M. Brong-
niart compared the appearance of a stigma
penetrated by pollen tubes to ‘‘a pin-cushion
entirely filled with pins stuck into it up to
the head.”

If we refer to our talk about the flower on
page 29 et seg., we can readily understand
how a flower which contains both stamens
and pistils, as the apple, is perfect, and all
which do not contain both organs are imper-
fect. The greater part of our common plants
have perfect flowers. In many of our trees,
as the walnut, butternut, hickories, oaks,
chestnut, beech, and birches, the stamens and
pistils are borne in different flowers on the
same tree. Such plants are said to be mon-
cecious, —the flowers are borne in “one
house.” In the willow and some other
plants the staminate and pistillate flowers
are borne on entirely distinct plants, — in
‘“‘two houses,’ and such plants are termed

CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 81

diecious. In some of the maples there are
staminate and pistillate and perfect flowers
on the same plant; they are polygamous.
The pollen grains vary widely in size and
form. Some of the forms are shown in Fig.
67, which represents respectively the pollen

Fig. 67. (After Gray.)

of the musk-plant, wild cucumber (Echino-
eystis ), mallow, lily, chicory, pine, and even-
ing primrose.

Cross-Fertilization.

How is the pollen transferred from the
anther to the stigma? In the perfect flow-
ers, where the stamens and pistils are placed
almost in contact, we can readily imagine
how such transfer could take place, but how
is it performed in the monecious and dic-
cious plants? And if we were to examine
critically the perfect flowers, we should find

that even there this transfer is not a simple
6

$2 TALKS AFIELD.

one, for in most cases the anthers and stig-
mas do not ripen simultaneously, or there is
some impediment in the way of the simple
falling of the pollen upon a contiguous
stigma. Linneus, and his successors for
over half a century, taught that the pollen
fertilized the stigmas in the same flower.
Koelreuter, about 1761, appears to have
been the first to recognize the aid of insects
or other external agencies in the transfer of
the pollen; but the first observer who made
definite investigations and who caught any
glimpse of the plan of nature in fertiliza-
tion was Conrad Sprengel, a German. In
1787 he studied the flowers of the wild gera-
nium, and, attracted by the delicate hairs
borne on the interior of the corolla, and im-
pressed with the idea that “the wise Author
of Nature would not have created even a
hair in vain,” and becoming convinced that
these hairs protect the honey from rain, he
came to the conclusion that all minor organs
and appendages of the flower subserve some
important end. He continued his studies,
and six years later published a small treatise
upon the subject, wherein was laid the first
stone in the magnificent science which has
since been erected upon the mutual relations

—_—"”

FERTILIZATION. 83

of plants to active external agencies. The
science slept, however, until that critical
student of nature, Darwin, made investiga-
tions and published his celebrated work
upon the “ Fertilization of Orchids,” in 1862.
Since that event a rich special literature has
sprung up, an important part of which has
been contributed by Darwin himself.

Two terms which have now come into
general use are close - fertilization, or self-
fertilization, and cross-fertilization. Close-
fertilization refers to the impregnation of a
stigma by pollen from its own flower, while
cross-fertilization denotes the impregnation
of a stigma by pollen from a different flower.
It is now known that close-fertilization is
not the common occurrence in the vegetable
kingdom, and that in nearly all species cross-
fertilization takes place to a greater or less
extent. ‘ Nature seems to have wished that
no flower should be fertilized by its own pol-
len,” said Sprengel, a statement not strictly
true, for there are some flowers in which
eross-fertilization cannot take place. Dar-
win’s statement is better: ‘ Nature abhors
perpetual self-fertilization.”

It is evident that cross-fertilization must
take place in dicecious and moneecious plants.

84 TALKS AFIELD.

Here the pollen is commonly carried by the
wind, occasionally by insects. Delpino has
called the wind-fertilized plants anemophi-
lous, “ wind lovers.” Most grasses and
sedges, although they may have perfect flow-
ers, are wind-fertilized. The flowers of ane-
mophilous plants are usually small and in-
conspicuous. They have no need of showy
colors. It is only necessary that they pro-
duce an abundance of pollen, much of which
must be wasted by careless winds, and pos-
sess a large and rough stigma to catch the
floating grains. The grasses afford instruct-
ive examples of wind-fertilized flowers. Pines
produce pollen in wonderful abundance, and
the air of pine forests is often yellow with it
in spring. The “sulphur showers” which
occur in some localities are due to the bring-
ing down of this pollen by the rain. Many
farmers find that the pollen from corn in
full tassel is irritating to the eyes. Every
one has noticed how suddenly the bright an-
thers are thrust out on their slender stalks
from the long heads of timothy and other
grasses ; were the flat and feathered stigmas
so conspicuously colored, instead of beimg
greenish-white, they would attract our atten-
tion as well. In Fig. 68 a grass flower en-

EEL-GRASS. : 85

larged and in full bloom is shown in side
view at a, the three anthers and two stigmas
protruding. At 6 is a back view of a flower;
c represents a spikelet of flowers. Acquainted
with these facts, we can see something of life
and utility in the breeze that sways the sedge
or listlessly fans the meadow.

Some dicecious plants are not fertilized by
wind or insects. Along the borders of slow
streams, gTow-
ing two or
three feet un-
der the water,
the eel-grass |
or tape-grass | i]
is common. 4
The long and
narrow soft
green leaves
do not arrest
the attention of the casual passer-by, neither,
perhaps, do the peculiar clove-shaped flow-
ers, an inch long and greenish-white, which
float at the ends of long and slender threads.
When I have repeated the story of its be-
havior this plant may be deemed more wor-
thy of attention. The staminate or male
plant bears many very small and inconspic-

Fig. 68.

86 TALKS AFIELD.

uous flowers, which are collected in a tightly
covered ball and borne on short stalks far
under water, as seen in A in Fig. 69. When
the little flowers are about full-grown the
covering of the ball breaks open, splits into
three parts, and each flower, securely wrapped
up in its sepals, separates itself from its
stemlets and rises to the surface of the water.
When upon the surface its three sepals open
and the anthers mature. The pollen is dis-
charged upon the water and is carried by
the currents to the clove-like female flowers
which have raised themselves on long stalks
to reach the surface (4). The three broad
stigmas receive the pollen, the ovules are
impregnated, and then the long stalk coils
up and draws the fruit under water to ripen.
This curious plant bears a name which does
honor to A. Vallisneri, an early Italian bot-
anist, and which records the phenomenon of
the spiral contraction of the flower-stalk: it
is known as Vallisneria spiralis.

The most peculiar adaptations for cross-
fertilization are those which attract insects
and other animals, and which make the in-
sect to be an unconscious but an indispensa-
ble aid to the plant. Delpino calls these “in-
sect loving” plants entomophilous. ‘There

~~

87

TT Cre
A pee

‘i
i

4

88 TALKS AFIELD.

are nowhere in nature such examples of re-
ciprocal benefits as in the relations of flowers
to insects and insects to flowers. The flower
attracts the insect by showy colors or by
perfume, and gives it nectar or pollen for
the aid it renders in cross-fertilization. At-
tractive petals and perfumes are the flower’s
advertisements to insects. If they are re-
moved the insect visits are suspended, and
the plant suffers in the production of seeds.
If this strict utilitarian view strips some of
the poetry from flowers, it nevertheless adds
a sublimer sentiment which overlooks a sim-
ple adaptation to please the senses of man,
and places the beauty of flowers upon the
plane of definite plan and purpose which
have been slowly evolved through the ages.
It represents a beautiful natural adaptation
and a sublime creation.

Searcely two species of entomophilous
flowers have the same contrivances to insure
cross-fertilization. One of the commonest
modifications of the flower towards this end
is dichogamy, or the maturing of the anthers
and stigmas at different times. Flowers
whose anthers develop first are said to be
proterandrous, and those whose stigmas de-
velop first are proterogynous. An exami-

INSECT LOVERS. 89

nation of almost any showy flower will reveal
either proterandry or proterogyny. When
the anthers are mature they discharge their
pollen, either by slits or various kinds of
pores ; when the stigmas are fully matured
they usually present a peculiar viscid or
roughened appearance under a lens. Asa
well-known example of a proterogynous
flower we may take the common figwort or
scrophularia, a tall plant, with inconspicuous
small flowers, common along banks and in
fence-rows. The flowers bear
a copious supply of honey ; in
fact, the plant is often grown
for bees, being sometimes known
as Simpson’s bee-plant. In Fig.
70 is shown a flower as it ap-
pears soon after opening, show-
ing the ripe pistil and the an-
thers curled up and immature. A flower a
day or two older would show an over-mature
and wilted style but fully developed anthers.
If a bee visits Fig. T0 in search of honey it
lights upon the deflexed lip of the corolla,
and as its body is thrown forwards the
stigma rubs off any pollen which may ad-
here to the insect’s body ; and when it visits
an older flower the pregnant anthers give it

90 TALKS AFIELD.

a new pollen supply. The hairs of bees and
other insects hold the pollen. It will be seen
that this fertilization by the bee in the fig-
wort is a hit-and-miss operation, and much
pollen must necessarily be wasted. Still the
stigma cannot well be fertilized by the pol-
len of its own flower, for it is not receptive
when the anthers mature. If, however, the
stigma receives no pollen it will probably
remain receptive until its own anthers ma-
ture, for it prefers close-fertilization to none
at all. It is an interesting study to observe
the relative times of maturing of anthers
and stamens in common flowers. In none
of the showy flowers do they mature simul-
taneously unless there is some special imped-
iment in the structure of the parts which
forbids close-fertilization.

Many plants are found to have dimor-
phous flowers ; that is, perfect flowers of two
kinds borne on different plants. One plant
bears flowers which have long and protruding

styles and short, hidden stamens, as in A,.

Fig. 71; another plant of this same species
bears flowers entirely opposite in character,
the stamens being long and the styles short,
as in B. The short stamens in A and the
short style in B always remain as short as

INSECT LOVERS. 91

they are figured. These flowers are fertil-
ized in much the same manner as those of
the figwort. The stamens and pistils ma-

Fig. 71.

ture simultaneously. An insect in visiting
A would brush off pollen on the long style,
and as it reached into the flower would have
pollen dusted upon its head from the short
stamens. The insect visits B, and, by reach-
ing into the flower, brushes some of the pol-
len from its head on to the short style, while
the long stamens unload some of their pollen
on the insect’s body, to be applied to the
next long style which it visits. In this man-
ner the pollen from short stamens usually
fertilizes short pistils, and the pollen from

92 TALKS AFIELD.

long stamens fertilizes long pistils. Now, it
may happen that pollen may be rubbed off
on to the stigma of its own flower. What
then? Simply this: the pollen is usually
powerless upon the stigma of its own flower.
Darwin found that the pollen either will not
act upon its contiguous stigma, or it acts
slowly and waits for the more potent foreign
pollen. Some plants have trimorphous flow-
ers, which bear sta-
mens and petals of
different lengths,
borne upon distinct
plants.

A flower of the
kalmia, or common
wide -leaved moun-
tain laurel, is shown
in Fig. 72. The ten anthers are held in
little pockets in the co-
rolla, and they are not re-
leased until some insect
touches them, when they
fly inward and throw
their pollen upon it. Fig.
73 represents a pea-flower.
The ten stamens and the
pistil are hidden in the small lower projec-

Fig. 72.

Fig. 73.

MOTHS — HUMMING-BIRDS. 93

tion of the flower. The bee lights upon this
lower portion, and its weight forces the pet-
als down, while the stigma, carrying pollen
from the surrounding anthers on its hairy
style, protrudes and strikes the bee and
dusts it with pollen.

Many flowers are especially fitted for fer-
tilization by moths. Such are most of the
long-tubed flowers. As most of the long-
tongued insects are nocturnal, so many of
the long-tubed flowers open only at night,
and they are furnished with light colors that
they may be seen in darkness. Many of
them exhale strong perfumes at nightfall, as
the petunia. As the moths whir about the
petunias, and the evening primroses, and
other flowers at nightfall, think what attrac-
tions the plants offer the insects, and what
advantages they expect to derive from their
visits. Some long -tubed flowers are fer-
tilized by humming-birds. This is at least
sometimes the case with the flowers of the
trumpet creeper. Some flowers possess pu-
trid odors to attract flies, as the common
herbaceous smilax or carrion-flower. A few
are fertilized by snails.

There is no doubt that in most cases close-
fertilization is a direct disadvantage to the

94 TALKS AFIELD.

plant; it is akin to the in-breeding of farm
animals. The uniformity’ with which all
flowers favor cross-fertilization is proof that
a foreign pollen is needful to insure the best
results in the production of seeds. Darwin
experimented with plants grown from seeds
produced by cross-fertilization and those pro-
duced by close-fertilization, and the former
were the most vigorous. When there is
cross-fertilization between different species of
plants, as between apples and pears, or wheat
and rye, the offspring of the seeds produced
are called hybrids. Jn common parlance this
term is incorrectly used to denote the off-
spring of two plants of the same species.

Hidden Flowers.

The blue “ hooded violet,” Viola cucul-
lata, so named from its peculiar habit of
folding the lower portion of its leaves up-
wards and inwards, is common in shady

glades all over the North. Its large flowers

are bright and attractive. In a certain
shady nook there is a patch of these
“ Johnny-jump-ups ” which appears to be
continually renewed by new plants, and yet,
as I have visited the patch every June after
the flowers were gone, I could find few seed-

THE HOODED VIOLET. 95

pods and no runners, by means of which the
plants could renew themselves. One sultry
August day I wandered to this shady nook,
half forgetful of the violets that bloomed
there in the springtime. I could scarcely
recognize the numerous great leaves raised
on their foot-long petioles as the full-grown
individuals of which I had seen the earlier
stages, overtopped by the flowers, in May.
A careless scuff among the leaves disclosed
a number of peculiar whitish buds on curved
peduncles an inch long and half buried in
the dead leaves and the grass. (Fig. 74.)
A dissection of one of the buds revealed a
miniature flower, bearing
no petals, to be sure, but
furnished with a good
stigma and well -devel-
oped anthers. I had
abundant proof that these
flowers produced seeds,
for there were many fully
developed pods lying un-
der and upon the mould. Here, indeed,
was a mystery. How was it possible for
cross-fertilization to be effected between
these hidden, inconspicuous, unopened flow-
ers? There was but one conclusion: these

96 TALKS AFIELD.

flowers must fertilize themselves. Here was
no expensive glitter of petals, no unnecessary
pollen to be wasted by improvident insects.
Dame Nature had evidently constructed
these flowers after the strictest economy, but
the patch of violets still prospered and in-
creased more abundantly than did the yellow
violets in the neighboring wood-lot, which
produced quantities of hairy pods every
spring. It was a matter of no little wonder
why the expensive blue flowers should be pro-
duced at all, when they apparently accom-
plished so little, and the insignificant hidden
flowers accomplished so much; still, I was
glad that Nature had not adopted such a
penurious economy with all her flowers.

I soon learned that these hidden flowers
of the violet were no new thing. Darwin,
of course, had seen and studied them. Sub-
sequently I found them on many different
plants, as the little dalibarda, the wood sorrel,
and others. Darwin gives a list of fifty-five
genera which have one or more species upon
which the hidden or cleistogamous flowers
arefound. The Leguminose or Pea family
contains more than any other. Some of the
species produce these flowers entirely under
ground, as the Amphicarpzea of our woods,

PLANTS WITH HIDDEN FLOWERS. 97

while in the grasses they are often concealed
in the sheaths of the leaves. In one coun-
try a species may produce only cleistogamous
flowers, while in another country it may pro-
duce none. In some parts of Russia the
little toad-rush, or Juncus bufontus, pro-
duces no flowers but these hidden ones, but
I do not know that such flowers have been
observed on the plant in this country. The
common wild touch-me-not, Impatiens fulva,
has become naturalized in England, but it
seldom produces any other than cleistoga-
mous flowers there. The proportion of the
hidden to the ordinary showy flowers is about
20 to 1. Cleistogamous flowers were some-
what known before the time of Linnzus,
and they occasioned warm discussion upon
the doctrine of sexes.

Cleistogamous flowers are of benefit to the
plant in producing seeds economically. Be-
sides the saving in petals, stamens, pedun-
cles, and in the diminution of parts, there is
a very great saving of pollen. It is calcu-
lated that the average cleistogamous flower
of wood sorrel produces 400 pollen grains,
of touch-me-not, 250, and of the grass Leer-
sia, 210. Compare these numbers with
243,600 grains in a flower of fall dandelion

98 TALKS AFIELD.

and the 3,654,000 in the peony! The showy
flowers occasionally produce seeds through
the aid of cross-fertilization, and such seeds
no doubt tend to correct the evil tendencies
of continual in-breeding.

The Arrangement of Leaves.

It is usually a matter of great surprise to
the uninitiated in botany to learn that the
leaves of plants are arranged ina definite
order. Can it be possible that each of the
ten thousand leaves upon the great elm in
front of my window is placed upon the twig
in such an exact manner as to form a part of
any system of arrangement? A little twig
from this tree presents
an appearance nearly like
Fig. 75. Beginning with
the lowest leaf, we find
that the third one above
is directly over the first.
The fourth is over the.
second, the fifth over the
third, and so on. If we
draw a line from the left
\ to the right around the
stem, beginning with the
first leaf, it will complete the circumference

LEAF ARRANGEMENT. 99

of the stem when it reaches the third leaf.
The angular distance between the first leaf
and the second is just one half the circum-
ference of the stem, and it is the same be-
tween the second and the third. We will

Fig. 76.

therefore express this distance by the frac-
tion 3. We can use this fraction to repre-
sent more than the angular divergence: the
denominator 2 represents the number of
leaves above the first touched by one revolu-

100 TALKS AFIELD.

tion of the line about the stem, and the nu-
merator records the fact that the line passed
but once about the stem in finding a leaf
situated directly over the first.

Fig. 76 represents an alder twig. Here

Fig. 77.

over the first.

the fourth leaf is
over the first. Now
passing our line
around the stem we
find that it encoun-
ters three leaves, be-
yond the first, in
making one turn.
The angular diver-
gence between the
leaves is 4, and the
denominator records
the number of leaves
and the numerator
the one revolution.
An apple twig,
Fig. T7, represents a
more complicated ar-
rangement. In this
case the sixth leaf is

Our line now encounters

five leaves, but it passes twice around the
stem before it reaches a leaf situated di-

LEAF ARRANGEMENT. 101

rectly over the first. We must now express
our angular divergence by ?, the 5 again
representing the number of leaves and the 2
the number of turns about the stem.

If we were to examine the osage orange of
our hedges, the flax, or the holly, we should
find the ninth leaf over the first, and our
line would make three turns about the stem.
This arrangement we must represent by the
fraction 3. Let us make a comparison of
these fractions, 1,4, 2, 3. If we add to-
gether the first and second, just as they stand,
we secure the third, and if we add the second
- and third we get the fourth. If we add the
third and fourth in like manner we get /;,
and the next successive addition would give
us 38. These latter fractions are verified by
observation in the cones of pines and in
the rosettes of house-leeks, the ‘“‘ hen-and-
chickens” of the gardens. The scales on
pine cones are simply reduced leaves, be-
neath which are borne the peculiar flowers.
In the cones of some pines the arrangement
is expressed by }3 and 23, and the florets in
the heads of large sunflowers are often ar-
ranged after the complicated plan of 74%.
When the leaves are closely packed together,
as in the pine cones and the rosettes of the

102 TALKS AFIELD.

house-leeks, we can readily trace the spirals
with the eye. It is interesting to secure a
large ripe head of a garden sunflower, brush
off the remains of the florets, and then study

Fig. 78.

the various circles as represented by the
black fruits.

The arrangements above mentioned refer
to plants with alternate leaves. Upon many
plants the leaves are opposite, as-in Fig. 78,
and the third pair of leaves is usually placed

LEAF ARRANGEMENT. 103

over the first. Frequently the leaves are
whorled, as shown in the
galium or bed - straw
in Fig. 79. In some
whorls or circles there
are ten or more leaves.
Fascicled or clustered
leaves are shown in
the larch or tamarck,
Fig. 80, and in the
pitch pine in Fig. 81.
In the pines the num-
ber of leaves in a cluster is a reliable aid in
determining the species. In the white pine
the leaves are always
five in each fascicle,
in the scrub or Jer-
sey pine two, and in
the pitch pine three.
The study of the ar-
rangement of leaves is known as
phyllotaxy, “leaf arrangement.” It
has proved the existence of definite
order where order is least to be ex-
pected. It has discovered this order !'8- 81.

in the disposition of leaves, and in the ar-
rangement of the parts of the flower, and
in many cases even in the arrangement of the
seeds in the pod.

Fig. 80.

104 TALKS AFIELD.

The Compass-Plant.

Adventurers upon the prairies of Illinois
and upon the plains west of the Mississippi
early recognized a leaf compass in the great
lower leaves of the rosin-weed. These leaves
stand nearly vertical, with their faces pre-
sented to the east and the west, and their
edges to the north and the south. So marked
is this polarity that travelers can often di-
rect their journeyings by the positions of the
leaves. The first record which was ever
made of the polarity of the compass-plant
was that given by Major Benjamin Alvord
of the United States Army to a scientific
journal in 1842. A second communication
appeared from him the next year. So in-
eredulous were scientists in regard to the
polarity of the plant, however, that Major
Alvord in 1849 again made record concern-
ing it, this time before a body of scientists
in Cambridge, and with the support of state-
ments by other army officers.

There have been many conjectures as to
the cause of the peculiar attitude of the
leaves of the rosin-weed. Major Alvord at
first supposed that the leaves contained suf-
ficient iron to render them magnetic, but a

THE COMPASS-PLANT. 105

chemical analysis disproved this proposition.
It was next supposed that the resinous char-
acter of the leaves render them susceptible
to electrical currents, but rosin being a non-
conductor of electricity, this hypothesis also
fell. Dr. Asa Gray suggested the true expla-
nation of the phenomenon : both surfaces of
the leaf ‘have essentially the same structure,
there being nearly as many stomata on the
upper as on the under surface, — about
52.700 to the square inch above, and
57,300 below ; this renders both surfaces
equally sensitive to light, and the leaf twists
upon its petiole until both sides share equally
in the sunlight.

The compass-plant oceurs in open glades
and on prairies from Michigan to some three
hundred miles west of the Mississippi. It
is a large and coarse herb, attaining the
height of six or seven feet. It is one of
the Composite. This is the plant of which
Longfellow speaks in Evangeline, mistaking
it for a delicate species : —

‘‘ Look at this delicate plant that lifts its head from the mead-
Ow;
See how its leaves all point to the North as true as the
magnet:
It is the compass-plant that the finger of God has suspended
Here on its fragile stalk to direct the traveler’s journey
Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the desert.”’

106 TALKS AFIELD.

Other plants beside the rosin-weed show
polarity in their leaves. It is conspicuous
in the stem leaves of the lettuce-weed, Lac-
tuca Scariola, a tall plant which occurs along
streets in northern cities, a waif from Eu-
rope. Closely allied to this plant is the gar-
den lettuce, but not until last year, when
Professor J. C. Arthur observed the circum-
stance, were its leaves known to exhibit
polarity. If the plant be allowed to go to
seed the leaves along the stem usually show
the phenomenon. Some leaves of the com-
mon horse-weed, or mare’s tail, Erigeron
Canadense, are found by Dr. W. J. Beal to
exhibit polarity.

How Some Plants get up in the World.

It is a significant fact that Nature does
nothing solely for display; all her beauty
subserves some definite economy. She makes
the useful the beautiful; utility comes be-

fore beauty. This fact should make her at-

tractions more attractive, for while it does
not lessen the beauty, it increases the convic-
tion that definite plan and purpose, that per-
fect adaptability, are everywhere present.
We love the flower the more when we know
that the beautiful colors and perfume are the

CLIMBING PLANTS. 107

means of perpetuating the species. So we
have more regard for climbing plants when
we learn that their graceful climbing raises
them into the sunlight which is necessary
for their growth. Many more plants can
grow upon any piece of ground if a part of

them are climbers, than if all are stiff-
stemmed plants which crowd each other.
We may make five tolerably definite di-
visions of climbing plants, based upon the
manner in which they chmb: scramblers,
root-climbers, leaf-climbers, twiners, and ten-
dril-climbers. The seramblers are not true

108 TALKS AFIELD.

climbing plants. They include such plants
as the briers and brambles, which scramble
over bushes by means of hooks or bracing
leaves. The root-climbers send out roots,
which adhere to trees and walls. These
roots shun the light and dive into crevices,
where they attach themselves. The poison
ivy is a familiar example. The leaf-climbers
are not numerous in the Northern States.
The most familiar example is the common
clematis or virgin’s bower, which coils its
leaf-stalk about a support, as in Fig. 82. The
most interesting of the climbers, however,
are the twiners and tendril-bearers, and to
them. we will turn our attention in a more
particular manner.

Twiners. — We will commence with a
young plant of the hop. The first two or
three “ joints,” or, more properly, the inter-
nodes, as the plant rises from the ground,
are upright and stationary. The space be-
tween one joint or node of the stem and
another is termed an internode, a term which
it will be convenient to use. If we watch
the young internodes as they grow, above the
second and third, we shall notice that they
do not stand upright, neither do they remain
_ long in one position. At different times we

TWINERS. 109

shall find them pointing towards the east, the
south, or the north ; in short, they are revolv-
ing in search of something to twime upon.
When the young internode is very short, say
two or three inches long, its motion is so
slow as scarcely to be observed. If we mark
the position of its tip, however, at different
times of the day, we find that it makes a
complete revolution in about twenty-four
hours. As the shoot increases in length the
motion becomes more rapid, a complete revo-
lution being made in two or three hours. If
the shoot strikes no support, it will make
thirty or more revolutions and then become
rigid. Before this number of revolutions
has been made, other and younger inter-
nodes will have been formed, and they re-
volve in the same manner as the first and
lower one. All the younger internodes will
be carried around by the lowest one which is
revolving, and each one will be making its
own separate revolution, so that the whole
stem presents a peculiarly crooked appear-
ance. About three internodes’ will be in
motion at one time. The circle which the
tip of the stem describes may be four or five
feet in diameter, and it will move at times
over thirty inches an hour. There is an-

110 TALKS AFJELD.

other peculiarity about this movement: it is
always in one direction, from the right to
the left of the observer, or in a course coin-
ciding with that of the sun. If the revolv-
ing shoot were to strike a thin stick, it would
coil about the stick in the same direction in
which it was revolving, the same as a rope
swung around the head would coil about a
stick which should come in its way.

We can extend our observations to other
twiners with equal interest. Most of them
revolve in an opposite direction from the
hop, or in a course opposed to the apparent
motion of the sun or the direction of the
movement of the hands of a watch. Beans,
morning-glories, wistarias, and others twine
in this direction. With very few exceptions
the plants of one species always twine in one
direction. In some cases the tip of the
shoot is abruptly bent or hooked, and it is
thus enabled to grasp a support more read-
ily. Vines seldom twine about a large sup-.
port, as the tip of the shoot has nothing to
support it while making the first long coil.
This inability to grasp a support four or five
inches in diameter is a direct advantage to
the plant, as it prevents the wasting of
growth; the same length of stem will raise

TENDRIL-CLIMBERS. 111

a plant much higher when coiled about a
thin support than about a thick one. The
upward movement of any part of the plant
does not cease when it has coiled itself about
a support, especially if the support is smooth.
The coil of a twiner may be aptly compared
to a compressed spiral spring; the coil be-
comes looser and slides up the support. If
the support is not a high one the coil will
sometimes bound off its top, and often the
shoot begins again to revolve.

The immediate cause of the revolving of
the shoots of twiners is the lengthening of
the cells on one side of the shoot more than
on the other. When the cells elongate on
one side the shoot is bent over, pushed over,
and it becomes convex on that side. If now
the cells elongate still more a little to one
side of the first elongation, the greater con-
vexity will occur at that point, and the tip
of the shoot will be moved from its original
position. If this elongation were to travel
gradually all around the stem from the point
of starting, all the sides would in turn as-
sume the greatest convexity, and the tip
would have made a complete revolution.
The convexity of the shoots of twiners is
readily verified by observation. Each inter-

112 TALKS AFIELD.

node may be likened to a bow which has its
convex and its concave sides directed suc-
cessively to every point of the compass. It
is not to be understood that this elongation or
growth is uniform on all sides of the stem;
in fact, it is commonly not so, and the shoots
oftener revolve in ellipses or irregular paths
than in true circles. One ordinarily asso-
ciates the revolving with a twisting of the
stem, but no such twisting takes place to
any extent. There are three reasons why
twisting of the stem does not cause the mo-
tion: the young shoot begins its revolution
before any twisting is to be observed; few
stems twist more than three times around
while they make thirty or more revolutions ;
many plants revolve which never twist.
Tendril - Climbers. — The tendril-climbers
exhibit more remarkable peculiarities than
the twiners. Before us is a picture (Fig.
83) of the “wild cucumber” or Echinocystis
of our glades, and which is now generally
grown over windows and bushes. Opposite
the three-lobed leaf is a three-parted tendril.
A critical observation of the growing plant
would discover a revolution of the two upper
internodes the same as in twiners, only of less
extent. The tendrils also revolve, sweeping

114 TALKS AFIELD.

through ellipses or circles several inches in
diameter. The parts of the tendril revolve
in such a manner as to strike the stem of
the plant if there were not some counteract-
ing motion. They avoid striking the stem
by bending abruptly upwards just before
they reach it, and after they have passed it
they again fall into their inclined position.
In most tendril-climbers the young shoot is .
bent to one side in such a manner as to
avoid the revolving tendril. The concave
side of the tip of the tendril is highly sen-
sitive to a touch, and when it strikes a stick
it coils about it in one or two minutes. If
the tendril is rubbed it will begin to coil
and cease its motion, but after a time it will
resume its former shape and begin again to
revolve. Almost any touch, ever so slight,
will induce the coiling, although raindrops,
coming with much force, have no effect upon
it. Although the sensitive tendril coils so
readily about any support which it touches,
still if two tendrils should strike together
they do not coil, but shake hands and pass
by. If a vine be thrown from its support
to the ground so that the tendrils hang
downwards, these organs cease for the time
to revolve, but soon raise themselves to a

TENDRIL-CLIMBERS. 115

horizontal position, when they begin again
to move. :

About a day after a tendril of the wild
cucumber has found a support and has at-
tached itself, it begins to coil up, drawing
the plant closer to the support. Now simple
coiling must always be accompanied by the
revolving of the end of the tendril as many
times as there are turns in the coil, or if the
end is fastened the tendril must twist that
many times. Both these things are impossi-
ble in this tendril, for the end is secured,
and the continued twisting would soon rend
it. A glance at the figure will solve the
difficulty. There is a blank place in the
centre of the tendril, and there is an equal
number of coils on each side of this space.
In other words, the lower part of the tendril
has coiled in one direction, and the upper
part has coiled just as many times in an
opposite direction. This simple arrangement
occurs in all revolving tendrils. The spiral
coiling of the tendrils means more than sim-
ply drawing the plant closer to the support.
The coils are highly elastic, and during wind
storms they stretch and throw the strain
nearly equally upon all contiguous tendrils.
If the tendrils were straight they would be

116 TALKS AFIELD.

almost immediately snapped during a gale.
Darwin used to go during gales to a hedge
where the bryony, a nearly related plant, —
grew in abundance to watch the behavior of
the tendrils. He says that the plant always
“safely rode out the gale like a ship with
two anchors down, and with a long range
of cable ahead to serve as a spring as she
surges to the storm.”

If a tendril which has come in contact
with a support and has wound half way
around it be examined again in a day or
two, it will be found to have coiled two or
three times around the support, although it
may not have increased in length. From a
number of experiments Darwin concluded
that the tendril actually crawls around the
stick by an undulatory, worm-like motion.
If atendril is not fortunate enough to find
a support it remains straight for several
days, as if in wait; but finally it drops down
and coils up in one continuous direction,
and is thereafter useless. The coil of ten-
drils about a support, unlike that of the
stems of twiners, is not necessarily in the
direction of the free revolution. © -

The tendril of the pea is the transformed
extremity of a compound leaf, each branch

TENDRIL-CLIMBERS. 117

of the tendril representing a leaflet. All
tendrils are understood to be transformed
leaves, flower-stalks, or other organs. That
of the woodbine, Fig. 84, is a transformed
flower branch. The tendrils of the pea re-
volve in ellipses, making a revolution in
about an hour and a half. In this case only

side tendrils coil when a support is reached,
the terminal one remaining straight.

There are many curious modifications of
tendrils. In the Virginia creeper or wild
woodbine they end in disks, which hold to
trees with great tenacity. These disks are
not shown in the figure. In the bignonia of
our Southern States they shun the light,
after the manner of roots, and find their
way into deep crevices for attachment.

118 TALKS AFIELD.

Carnivorous Plants.

It is an interesting discovery of modern
science that many plants catch small ani-
mals and eat them. It is a discovery which
taxes our credulity if we accept it, and still
one which is easy of verification by every
one. Few discoveries relating to animals
and plants have excited more wonder or
called forth more comment than this. This.
comment has not been confined to scientific
journals; nearly every periodical has had
something to say about it.

‘* What ’s this I hear

About the new carnivora ?

Can little plants

Eat bugs and ants

And gnats and flies ? —
A sort of retrograding :

Surely the fare

Of flowers is air,

Or sunshine sweet;

They should n’t eat,
Or do aught so degrading.”’

Although the statement that many plants
are truly carnivorous is startling, it is never-
theless verified by abundant investigations,
and it has taken its place among the undis-
puted facts of botanical science. We can
best understand the nature of carnivorous

PITCHER PLANTS. 119

plants by studying two or three common
species.

Fig. 85.

The curious side-saddle flower or pitcher
plant, Sarracenia purpurea (Fig. 85), oc-
curs in mossy swamps all through the North-

120 TALKS AFIELD.

eastern States, while southward there are
other and more peculiar species. The leaves
of these odd plants are transformed into —
long tight trumpets or pitchers, which al-
ways contain water. Berry-pickers who fre-
quent swamps for whortleberries and cran-
berries often know them as “Indian dip-
pers,’ and they use them as cups to dip
water from the creek. A single large and
very curious purple flower nods from a long
stem in spring and from its fancied resem-
blance to a side-saddle has originated one of
the popular names of the plant. If the con-
tents of a pitcher be examined the fluid will
be found to contain quantities of dead and
decaying insects which have fallen into it.
A study of the pitchers will soon convince
us that the presence of the insects is not
purely accidental. They are attracted to
the open pitcher, light upon its rim, and
venturing too far they fall into or slide
down the cavity, and they are prevented
from making an escape by the stiff and
sharp hairs which point downwards like so
many bayonets. When they have fallen
into the liquid, which is not entirely water,
they are soon drowned, and the plant feeds,
in a saprophytic manner, upon their re-
mains.

PITCHER PLANTS. 121

Our Northern pitcher plant is less actively
insectivorous than some of the Southern
species, and especially less than the Sarrace-
nia variolaris, which has been minutely
studied. In this species a hood or cover
projects over the mouth of the pitcher, ex-
cluding all rain. The pitcher secretes a
viscid liquid, which speedily dispatches all un-
fortunate insects which fall into it. About
the mouth of the pitcher is a secretion of a
sugar-like substance, which attracts numer-
ous flies and smaller insects. This secretion
extends even down the outside of the pitcher
to the ground, presenting a honey-baited
pathway, which arrests all wandering insects,
especially ants, and allures them upward to
the fatal opening. Once upon the rim of
the pitcher they gorge themselves with the
delectable honey, unwarily getting a little
farther down on the inside, until finally they
slip on the glossy surface and soon find
themselves inextricably entangled among
the bristling deflexed hairs. All attempts
to escape are futile, and they soon come in
contact with the viscid liquid, from which
they are never rescued. So perfect is this
fly trap that a fly or other insect never es-
capes from it. It is said that the plants are

122 TALKS AFIELD.

sometimes grown about the house as fly-
traps, but although they catch flies in abun-
dance the odor from the decaying insects |
is not pleasant. The plant absorbs food
from the mingled contents of its pitchers.
So persistently do some of the Sarracenias
catch flies that they cannot be cultivated on
account of the bursting of the pitchers from
overloading unless the mouths are closed
with cotton. Some animals have learned of
the peculiar habit of the Sarracenias and
have taken to stealing the food which the
plant has caught. Two species of insects, a
fly and a moth, are habitually associated with
some of the Southern pitcher-plants. They
have learned apparently to evade the seduc-
tive honey and the fatal trap, and in some
manner drop their eggs into the mingled
contents of the pitcher, where the larve
thrive. Birds are said to slit the pitchers to
secure the insects.

A very singular plant, closely allied to the
Sarracenias, is the Darlingtonia of Califor-
nia, represented in miniature in Fig. 86.
This plant grows in the vicinity of Mt.
Shasta at an altitude of 1,000 to 6,000 feet.
The pitchers are eighteen to twenty-four
inches high and an inch or less in diame-

124 TALKS AFIELD.

ter, except at the inflated top. They are
spirally twisted about half a revolution, the
twist being usually to the left. Running |
lengthwise the pitcher is a narrow wing, ex-
tending from the ground to the orifice.
This wing is best seen in the pitcher to the
right in Fig. 86. The top of the pitcher is
an inflated sac two to four inches across,
with translucent dots or windows in its roof,
and having an opening underneath an inch
or less in diameter. At the upper extremity
of this opening hangs a two-lobed blade, re-
sembling a fish’s tail, which is attractively
colored and peculiarly twisted, and furnished
on its inside with stiff hairs pointing up-
wards. Like the Sarracenias this plant has
the honey-bait about the mouth of the
pitcher and the secreted fluid in the tube.
A crawling insect finds the base of the
pitcher, and wishing to explore follows the
fence-like wing upwards until he comes to
the sweet-lipped brim. Other insects are at
once attracted by the gaudy fish-tail blade,
and they light upon its outer surface. This
blade is twisted in such a manner that an
insect lights upon the outside, follows the
enticing folds, and presently finds himself
upon the inside of it. He walks upwards

SUNDEW. 135

easily, but the instant he turns back the
menacing bayonet hairs prevent his prog-
ress. He keeps on and now he begins to
scent the feast of honey which is spread
for him. He enters the opening, eats, be-
comes satiated, and decides to leave. He
looks for a place of egress, and is attracted
by the pretty windows in the roof. He be-
comes bewildered in this dim Castle of the
Doges, and every step over the deceptive
hairs brings him nearer his doom.

The family Sarraceniace, to which these
plants belong, is restricted to the New World.
It is represented by three genera: Sarrace-
nia, with six species, inhabiting the Eastern
United States; Darlingtonia, with its one
species, D. Californica; and Heliamphora,
with its one species, H. nutans, in Venezuela.
All the species bear pitchers, and they are all
insectivorous.

The sundew is an unattractive plant, which
grows in swamps and wet places. It is
represented nearly natural size in Fig. 87.
The peculiar ladle-like leaves are trimmed
with bristling hairs, which bear on their ends
little drops of glistening “dew” which give
the plant its name. These hairs are known
as tentacles. If any object falls upon the

~~

Fig. 87.

SUNDEW. 12%

leaf the tentacles begin slowly to move in-
wards, until they finally shut down tightly
over the object, as we can imagine the fin-
gers to shut down over an object in the
palm of the hand. We will suppose this
object to be an insect. As soon as it alights
‘upon the leaf the tentacles throw out more
of the viscid ‘dew,’ which holds him se-
curely, and the more he struggles the more
the substance is poured out and the faster
the surrounding tentacles come to the aid of
the weak ones near the centre of the leaf.
Once upon the leaf the insect is doomed.
The leaves of the drosera or sundew lie
upon the ground, and they are therefore
more apt to be visited by ants and other
crawling insects. If an unfortunate ant
comes in contact with one of the extended
tentacles he is caught by the attractive glue,
and the tentacle at once begins to move in-
wards just as a finger is bent over to the
palm. The tentacle does not go alone, but
its neighbors come to the feast as well. When
‘the insect is thoroughly entrapped under a
number of deflexed tentacles, an acid secre-
tion is thrown out which digests it. After
the feast is over the tentacles return to their
former position and lie in wait for another

128 TALKS AFIELD.

victim. If a little stone should drop on the
leaf the tentacles are summoned in more
slowly than before, and finding out their
mistake they return to their normal position
much more rapidly. A tentacle will often
begin to move in ten seconds after it is
touched, and in from one hour to four hours
it will be completely deflexed. Mr. Darwin
fed beef to plants of sundew and they ac-
cepted it as readily as an insect. Although
the pressure of a gnat’s foot will cause a
tentacle to move, a drop of rain will not
affect it!

The Venus’ fly-trap, or dionca, of North
Carolina, is a botanical ally of the interest-
ing sundew, but its contrivance for captur-
ing insects is very different. The leaves are
borne at the base of the flower-stalk, as in
the sundew. Fig. 88 represents three of the
leaves. The trap portion has two valves or
jaws, about the edge of which are stiff and
insensitive hairs or bristles. The trap se-
cretes no viscid material to hold the insect.
Two or three hairs on the inner faces of these
jaws are highly sensitive, and the slightest
touch will cause the trap to fly together, the
bristles interlocking like the teeth of a bear-
trap. The unwary insect is caught before

DIONGA. 129

he thinks of danger. The jaws do not at
once close completely, however. The teeth
interlock and the jaws remain a little ajar,
and this allows any very small insect, which
is not worth the plant’s consideration, to es-

Fig. 88.

cape. A larger insect, upon finding escape
impossible, would again touch the sensitive
hairs in his struggles, and the jaws would
close tightly and crush him. As soon as the
jaws come together a digestive secretion is
poured out from the leaf, and the jaws re-

130 TALKS AFIELD.

main in contact until the insect is digested,
—eaten up! They then open to allure an-
other insect. The little hairs, although sen-
sitive to the slightest touch, are not influ-
enced by wind or rain.

The Smallest of Flowering Plants.

“The green mantle of the standing pool ”
is usually caused by one of three sorts of

Fig. 89. Fig. 90.

plants, either long and slimy threads of zyg-
nema and allied alge, or flattened disks of
green a quarter of an inch or less across, or
minute green grains. The algz we have re-
ferred to in our earlier pages, but the disks
and the grains are still new to us. |
The little leaf-like disks are complete
plants, floating free, and hanging their roots
into the water. They are known as the
duck-meats, or to botanists as lemnas. In
the Northern States there are about six spe-
cies, of which the commonest, Lemna minor,

LEMNA— WOLFFIA. 181

is represented in Fig. 89. The flowers —
for these little plants produce true flowers —
are produced from the margin of the frond
or leaf-portion, as in Fig. 90. In the North-
ern States some of the species have never
been seen to flower, although L. minor blos-
soms abundantly in sheltered ponds. They
propagate largely by a sort of budding. A

new individual grows out from a cleft in the

Fig. 91.

old frond, and after a time detaches itself
and becomes free. In the fall little buds
or frondlets are formed, which sink to the
bottom of the pond, and rise and vegetate in
the spring.

It is to the floating grains, however, that
I wish to call attention at present. They
are represented at about natural size in Fig.
91, at A. These little bodies are the small-
est flowering plants known. They consist
simply of a minute frond, entirely destitute
of roots. There are two species in the North-
ern States, one distinguished by its globular

132 TALKS AFIELD.

form and its habit of floating a little be-
neath the surface, and the other (enlarged
at B) flattened above and floating on the
surface. Although these plants are so very
small, they often occur in immense quanti-
ties. I have seen them piled up five inches
deep on the borders of a wind-swept pond.
At Cin Fig. 91 is shown a plant in flower,
the front half of the plant being cut away.
The little plant is monecious ; the stamen, s,
comprises one flower and the globular pistil,
p, the other. They are both sunk nearly to
their tops in the frond. These plants prob-
ably do not blossom in this northern climate.
They propagate after the manner of the
lemnas by means of offshoots. In C is
shown a young frond, }, springing from the
parent.

Some forty years ago a Frenchman, Mons.
H. Weddell, was traveling on the Paraguay
River, in South America, and having shot a
rare water-bird, he observed that its feathers.
were covered with peculiar green grains.
Upon turning to the pond where the bird
had been wading he observed that it also
was covered with the little grains. Mons.
Weddell was a botanist, and he soon found
that the little plant was in full bloom. He

WITCH-HAZEL. 133

recognized it as a new species of the genus
Wolffia, and named it from the country
in which he found it, Wolffia Brasiliensis.
The plant has since been found on our own
ponds. It is the flat-topped species pictured
in Fig. 91. The genus Wolffia does honor
to John F. Wolff, a German, who wrote in
1801 upon the lemnas.

If we were to attempt to find the aver-
age in size of flowering plants between the
two extremes, — the pigmy Wolffia and the
giant eucalyptus of Australia or the redwood
of California, — we should be obliged to se-
lect a plant about twenty inches high, — say
a geranium of the window-garden.

Witch-Hazel.

The common witch-hazel, the tenacious
bush which so often brings trouble into
newly-cleared pastures, is one of the most
unique and interesting of all the shrubs of
the American forest. It possesses the strange
habit of counterfeiting spring by putting
forth its flowers with the falling of the
leaves. The narrow band-like petals imitate
the prevailing yellow colors of the autumn.
The flowers are conspicuous and pretty, still
they are commonly overlooked. One does

134

Fig. 92.
bears conspicuous fruit and flowers at the

same time.
nuts possess a
peculiar interest.
Through the ac-

TALKS AFIELD.

not ex-
WANS pect to
#* see flowers on bare or
«4 sere-leaved branches in
=“ October.

The flowers of the witch-hazel
wither with the nearer approach
of winter; in early spring the
dried remains of the petals still
clothe the branches. With the
advent of warm weather the
nuts begin to form, and by the
next autumn they are mature, as
shown at a, Fig. 93. These
nuts often cling to the branches
when the flowers appear, afford-
ing the only instance, probably,
in the North, of a shrub which

The

tion probably of Fig. 93.
alternate dryness and moisture they split

WITCH-HAZEL. 135

open forcibly and throw the four black and
shining seeds to a distance of fifteen or
twenty feet. In this manner does the plant
sow its seeds. The ruptured pod is shown
at 6, in Fig. 93.

Superstitious notions were long associated
with the witch-hazel. Its common name is
a record of the foremost of these notions
combined with the resemblance of the plant
to the true hazel. The branches were once
used as “ divining rods,” by means of which
deep springs of pure water and veins of pre-
cious metals were supposed to be revealed.
Even in recent years I have seen forked
branches of the peach and linden dexter-
ously balanced in the hand and their occult
vibrations taken as infallible indications of
streams of pure water beneath the surface.
Fortunately for the magicians who perform
with these mysterious branches, there are
few places where any intelligent person
would look for water that springs may not
be found at a reasonable depth. Astrology
was also debtor to the witch-hazel branches,
if Token has written aright : —

“Mysterious plant! whose golden tresses wave
With a sad beauty in the dying year,
Blooming amid November’s frost severe,
Like a pale corpse-light o’er the recent grave.

136 TALKS AFIELD.

If shepherds tell us true, thy wand hath power,
With gracious influence, to avert the harm
Of ominous planets.”

The witch-hazel has been held long in re-
pute on account of its medical virtues, and
it is the source of a popular remedy of the
present day. The Indians are said to have
made preparations of its bark for the treat-
ment of tumors and inflammations.

The wych-hazel of England is an elm,
whose wood was used in olden times in the
construction of wyches or chests. This an-
tique spelling is often erroneously applied to
our American shrub.

A Thistle Head.

The studious observer of nature is con-
stantly impressed with the unlimited num-
bers of curious little contrivances and pecul-
iar habits by means of which the commonest
plants and animals are prepared to overcome
the obstacles which surround them, for be it
known that even plants have obstacles to
surmount, if they perpetuate their species. A
plant must hold its own against its stronger
and more aggressive neighbors or suffer the
fate of many of our native plants, which

have been driven out by Old World weeds ;

A THISTLE HEAD. 137

it must possess some means of scattering its
seeds beyond the limits of severe competi-
tion; it must struggle against uncongenial
climate and the ruinous changes wrought by
man; and it must elude or repel the attacks
of herbage-loving and seed-loving animals.
One who is interested in the fascinating pe-
culiarities of common objects is often pained
at the sneering estimate put upon them by
less observant people. No one is prepared
to study nature so long as he regards any
phenomenon, however slight in itself, as triv-
jal and unworthy his regard. He must not
attempt to play the critic with nature. He
must assume the attitude of a patient learner,
who accepts all things as worthy his study
and consideration.

These thoughts were forced upon me by
the curious behavior of a ripe thistle head
which I carelessly picked in a morning ram-
Ble. The involucre, or “leaves,” of this
thistle head was snugly closed about the
closely packed pappus-bearing seeds. So
tightly were the seeds packed inside the in-
volucre that the long white plumes of pap-
pus stood rigidly erect. When a seed was
removed from the head the tension was re-
leased, and the pappus began to spread out,

138 TALKS AFIELD.

as in Fig. 94, a. So different in appear-
ance were these thistle
seeds, with their pappus
all standing erect, from
those which were float-
ing in the centre of
round balloons all over
the fields that I could
scarcely believe them the same. How could
they get out of the tight thistle head? I
carelessly laid my thistle head in a sunny
window, and soon forgot it. An hour later
I was surprised to find that a complete met-
amorphosis had taken place. The head had
spread open in every direction, and the seeds
were actually crawling out of it. <A closer
observation at once revealed the nature of
the movement. Under the influence of the
heat the head had spread open; then the
pappus on every seed began to spread, more
rapidly in the centre of the head where the
heat was more directly concentrated. The
spreading of the pappus plumes loosened
the seeds and forced them apart until some
of them were quite out of the head. But
the most striking part of the performance
occurred after the outer pappus plumes on
each seed had reached a horizontal position.

Fig. 94.

WILLOW TWIGS. 139

When they began to bend downwards from
the horizontal the seed was lifted rapidly out
of its place. The movement of the pappus
was plainly visible, and in a few minutes
after I had noticed the opening of the head
the round balloons, with a seed, or fruit, in
the centre of each (Fig. 94, 6), were piled
in a fairy little mountain, ready to be carried
away on the first zephyr.

Willow Twigs.

By the side of a brook and in sight from
my window is a clump of white willows.
This sunny April morning, as I strolled to-
ward the brook to note any signs of return-
ing life along its banks, I noticed that under-
neath the willows were lying numerous small
branches which had been broken off squarely
near their bases. They were lying in the
water, or very near it, and knowing that
these trees have a wonderful propensity to
grow from cuttings, I thought that unless
the branches were removed we should soon
have a tangle of young willows. I have
been surprised many times at the sudden
snapping off of the branches of certain wild
willows when I jostled them in impetuous
botanical rambles. It is even more surpris-

140 TALKS AFIELD.

ing that these same branches are sometimes
tough enough for withes above the one brit-
tle spot near the base. There must be some
significance to this peculiar disposition, and —
I know of none so probable as that suggested
by Dr. W. J. Beal, who thinks that in this
manner do willows undertake to propagate
themselves. This is certainly a beautiful
provision: the very enemies which browse
or break the plant become active agents in
its dissemination !

A -Talk About Roots.

Figure 95 represents a
young squash plant which
has been removed carefully
from the earth and marked
at regular intervals through-
out its whole length with
cross lines of waterproof
ink. This plant is again
set in loose, clean sand,
and in a few days it pre-
sents the appearance of
7 Fig. 96. It will be seen

Fig. 95. that a peculiar change has
taken place besides the increase in size of
the plant; the lines upon the root portion

Fig. 96.

142 TALKS AFIELD.

of the plant are the same distance apart as
before, but those upon the stem portion
have separated to three times their former |
distance. In other words, the root has
grown from its extremity alone, while the
stem has elongated between its extremities
and has lifted the seed-leaves into the air.
We have discovered a fundamental differ-
ence between the root and the stem. The
root is ever increasing by additions to its
young extremity, crawling by this means
around stones and whatever obstacles lie in
its way, or taking the direction of attractive
food supplies. The stem, on the other hand,
meets few obstacles to its continuous growth,
and each internode, or the space from joint
to joint, increases more or less throughout
its whole length. It must not be under-
stood, however, that there is no limit to
this stretching of the internode, for it very
soon ceases, and the upper node or joint be-
comes stationary. Then the younger and
succeeding internodes stretch until they in
turn become stationary; so it happens that
there may be several internodes, one above
the other, elongating at the same time, the
lower and older ones perhaps slowly, the
upper ones rapidly. The length to which

ROOT AND STEM. 143

each internode grows will depend upon the
habit of the plant and upon incidental cir-
cumstances. Some plants habitually pro-
duce longer internodes than others. Inci-
dental circumstances appear to be more
closely associated with the length of the in-
ternode, however. An apple-tree which is
neglected may produce internodes one or
two inches long, while another tree which
receives good culture may grow them two
feet long. The leaf-bud which is formed in
the fall contains the rudiments of a complete
branch which is to grow the next summer ;
there are just as many nodes or joints in
that minute bud-branch as there will be in
the future twig, but the length to which the
twig will grow between these joints will be
determined by the character of the season
and the thrift of the plant. The root has
no nodes or joints; it goes on in its peculiar
searching manner, branching and rebranch-
ing with little or no regularity.

There is another still more apparent dif-
ference between the root and the stem: the
root descends into earth and darkness, but
the stem rises into air and sunlight. But
why should there be this opposite habit in
parts so closely associated ? There is noth-

144 TALKS AFIELD.

ing in the structure of stem or root, so far
as we know, which would cause either of
them to take a special direction. To be
sure, the roots seek the earth to secure food
for the plant, but that fact does not explain
how they are enabled to practice such dis-
crimination. It may be that gravitation has
something to do with this downward ten-
dency of the root, as many botanists have
supposed, although it is difficult to see why
the stem should not be similarly influenced ;
and, moreover, it sometimes happens that
roots grow upwards in search of food. Af-
ter all that has been said and done about
the reasons for the downward direction of
roots, we are forced to say that we do not
know what makes them enter the earth, any
more than we know what makes some seeds
germinate slowly and others rapidly; we
can do no more than to adopt a name which
has been given to the phenomenon by bota-
nists. This name is G'eotropism, from the
Greek for earth and to turn.

Another distinction between stem and
root is the absence from roots of all forms of
leaves and buds. This distinction will ena-
ble us to distinguish between true roots and
certain underground stems which are root-

SUBTERRANEAN STEMS. 145

like in character. The buds, or “eyes,”
upon the potato, as well as its mode of
growth, prove it to be a subterranean stem.
So also are the underground runners of
quack or quitch grass, Canada thistles, and
other pests. If we look into the more mi-
nute life histories of these underground
stems, we find additional and even more de-
cisive proofs that they are in no sense roots ;
we find that they do not imbibe nourishment
for the support of the plant, but are simply
means for propagating it. It is at once ap-
parent that the underground stems of the
quack grass and the thistle naturally serve
as very active agents in plant propagation,
and a moment’s reflection will reveal the
same fact in regard to the potato, which is
native to countries where frost does not de-
stroy the tubers. Plants which possess un-
derground runners, and which also bear
seeds, are doubly prepared, other things be-
ing equal, to overcome obstacles of environ-
ment. Another class of underground stems
are those which become thick and more or
less woody, and which are best illustrated
in strong perennial herbs. The heavy rhi-
zomes —for so are subterranean stems called
—of rhubarb, May-apple, and blue-flag are
10

146 TALKS AFIELD.

familiar. These stout rhizomes do not often
serve as extensive natural propagators, al-
though most of them die away at one end
and grow at a corresponding rate at the
other end. At the newly formed extremity
they send up a new stalk, an operation
which is repeated every year, while the older
stalks die, thus forcing the whole plant
slowly along. Any of these underground
stems are capable of emitting roots. There
are many roots which are very similar to
these rhizomes and to subterranean stem-
tubers. The sweet potato is a true root, and
while it does not possess buds, it has the
power of forming them when necessary. It
is worth remembering that in eating Irish
potatoes we eat a thickened stem, but in eat-
ing sweet potatoes we eat a thickened root ;
and that when we plant pieces of the tubers
of Irish potatoes we are planting buds, but
when we plant similar pieces of sweet pota-
toes we are planting smooth sections of a
root which will soon give rise to buds. The
tubers of dahlias are true roots ; so also are
beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, and tur-
nips, but in these cases a portion of the stem
is also thickened, so that the top of the beet
or the turnip is true stem. All thickened

SUBTERRANEAN STEMS. 147

roots and thickened rhizomes are reservoirs
of food supplies for the plant, and these res-
ervoirs are drawn upon when the plant has
need. Compare the thick, plump tubers or
roots of dahlias, potatoes, and turnips as
they appear in the fall, with the shriveled
remains of these tubers after they have been
planted and pumped dry by the growing
young plants ; then imagine these plants in
a warmer climate where long, dry seasons
must be endured, and you can appreciate
the importance to the plant of such infalli-
ble storehouses.

The primary office of roots is to supply
nourishment to the plant. They always de-
mand that this nourishment be dissolved in
water. The liquid food is taken into the
thin-walled outer cells of the young rootlets
by a sort of imbibition process, and it is
passed by a similar process from cell to cell.
If we were to remove very care-
fully from the soil a young plant
of Indian corn, or indeed any
young plant, and wash it, we h Z
should observe a delicate cover-
ing like mould upon the young
roots. This covering is made up
of many minute white hair-like bodies,

Fig. 97.

148 TALKS AFIELD.

called root-hairs. (a, Fig. 97.) These root-
hairs are prolongations of the root cells, as
shown, much enlarged, at b, Fig. 97. They.
are the most active agents in the absorption
of food, and upon thrifty plants they are al-
ways very numerous. The tearing off of
these root-hairs is one reason why plants
suffer so much from careless removing and
transplanting.

As fast as the roots become stiff and hard
the root-hairs die, and those portions of the
roots no longer gather food for the plant;
they become constantly more rigid, and after
a time partake more or less of the nature
of the stem from which they grow. They
now perform the second office of roots, that
of hold-fasts or anchors to keep the growing
plant in position against wind and _ frost.
As roots have fewer offices to perform than
stems, and as their environments are less
diverse, they do not generally vary widely
one from another in different species of
plants. They are much simpler in structure
than stems, and it is only when they are old
that they begin to take on many of the
features of the stem to which they belong.
Young roots, whether of endogens or exogens,
agree in possessing an endogenous structure ;

ROOTS. 149

that is, they are inside growers, the same as
palms and corn.

The first root of any plant is developed
from the lower extremity of the minute stem-
let which lies between or below the seed-
leaves in the seed. It was once supposed
that this stemlet is a true root in minia-
ture, and it has consequently been called the
radicle (Latin, radix, root). It is now
known, however, that this little organ is
true stem, and of late it has been called the
eaulicle (Latin, caulis, stem). This caulicle
is shown in Fig. 1. From the caulicle the
root arises when the seed germinates. Other
roots soon arise from this first root, and
these branches again branch and rebranch
indefinitely. But roots may arise from
stems or even from leaves as well as from
other roots. Wherever a runner or decum-
bent branch comes in constant contact with
the ground roots are apt to form. Upon
this fact depends the practice of layering
adopted by nurserymen. Roots are also
produced from the nodes in cuttings of vari-
ous plants; and the florist knows how to
make a score of fan-shaped pieces of a be-
gonia leaf strike roots from their lower ends.
It is a significant illustration of the adapta-

150 TALKS AFIELD.

bility of any part of a plant to circum-
stances, and as well also of the individuality
of these parts, that rootless stem-cuttings at_
once emit roots and stemless root-cuttings
often emit stems. The “suckers” that arise
from the severed roots of apple and pear-
trees and the successful propagation of black-
berries and other plants from pieces of roots
‘are familiar examples of entirely stemless
and budless roots that give rise to stems.
Occasionally roots arise from the exposed
surfaces of stems, as in the climbing poison
ivy; and here we find a third office of roots,
for they are essential aids to the climbing.
Indian corn emits peculiar aerial roots from
its lower nodes, and in a similar manner do
many palms and other tropical plants.
These roots enter the ground and serve
both as feeders and hold-fasts. In warm
countries many plants subsist entirely upon
food which is gathered from the air by aerial
roots. These are the air-plants, great num-
bers of which are members of the peculiar
orchid family. One of these is the vanilla
plant, which clambers over trees and drops
its long, cord-like roots into the humid air.
The familiar long-moss which decorates the
forests of our Southern States has the most

PAPASITES. 151

northern range of any of our air-plants.
Another interesting and still more peculiar
class of roots are those of parasites, plants
which steal their food directly from other
plants. Many of our common flowering
plants are either wholly or in part parasitic.
The wild gerardias and some related plants
attach some of their roots to the roots of
other plants and thus obtain a part of their
nutriment, but otherwise these plants are not
peculiar and their fair exteriors give no hint
of the robbery that is hidden beneath the
surface. Other kinds of plants, however,
make an open profession of their guilt, for
their white and
blanched colors
testify that all
their food is sto- g== ge:
len ready made, Fig. 98.

and they need no leaf-green with which to
elaborate crude materials. Such plants are
the Indian-pipes and beech-drops. The roots
of parasites are usually broadened and sucker-
like where they attack some other root, as is
shown in Fig. 98.

152 TALKS AFIELD.

The Importance of Seeing Correctly.

Three professional fruit-growers expressed
an opinion concerning the manner in which
sweet cherries are borne on the tree. The
first contended that the fruit grows from
side spurs on twigs which grew last fall.
The second was equally positive that it is
borne on short spurs which grow from the
point of junction between last year’s wood
and the wood of the year previous. The
third supposed that cherries grow in pairs
from most of the buds on both last year’s
and two years old wood. Each of these men
had grown cherries for at least a dozen years,
and yet neither of them knew this one of the
simplest facts connected with their daily la-
bor, and which might be made apparent by a
few minutes’ close observation. It is surpris-
ing that many of the commonest and most
interesting of every-day phenomena, though
they lie right before the eyes of every man,
are never seen by the great majority of peo-
ple. Most persons are walking through a
wonderland with their eyes shut. The inter-
esting things detailed in these pages are but
a very few random leaves rudely torn from
the book of nature. The leaves that remain

HASTY CONCLUSIONS. 153

are fully as inviting, and they are doubly
profitable when Nature herself tells the story.

One needs practice, along with scientific
training, to interpret aright all the things
that he may see. A farmer of my acquaint-
ance noticed that grasshoppers appear shortly
after the stems of golden-rods become af-
fected with peculiar frothy swellings, and
he at once asserted that the grasshoppers
bred in the golden-rods! If he had carefully
cut open these swellings he could have found
proof enough against his assertion. Another
friend noticed that the long-stalked and
therefore conspicuous flowers of his pump-
kins had all died: he immediately proclaimed
to his neighbors that his pumpkins were
blasted, and that the entire crop in that vi-
cinity would be small! Had he known that
these flowers were staminate, and that when
they had shed their pollen their mission was
ended, he should have had greater wonder if
they had not died. Still another friend dis-
covered a minute insect boring into a pear-
tree, and as that tree happened to be blighted
he announced that a certain insect was the
cause of pear blight; nevertheless, a score
of other trees which had the blight would
probably show no sign of the ominous in-

154 TALKS AFIELD.

sect. It is never safe to draw conclusions
hastily, and especially not from one or two
detached observations. I will relate a very |
sober incident, of which an account was
published a short time since in an agricultu-
ral paper, and I request that my readers
bear it in mind as an antidote against hasty
conclusions. An observing fruit-grower pos-
sessed a plat of smooth-fruited gooseberries.
_ A favorite family cat, having unceremoni-
ously died, was buried underneath one of
the gooseberry bushes, and behold! the next
year that bush bore hairy berries, and has
so continued to do unto the present day!
But beside a remedy for indifferent habits
and these aids to mental perception and
logical reasoning, one needs some purely
physical apparatus to enlarge his eyesight.
This apparatus is the microscope. I do not
speak of the com-
pound microscope,
which is much too
complex an instru-
ment to place in the
hands of a
_ = novice, but
7 hab rather of the
simple lens or hand-glass. A handy pocket

LENSES. 155

lens is one that shuts up in a tortoise-shell
or german-silver case, like Fig. 99, and
which may be purchased for two or three
dollars. Such a little lens will magnify
enough for purposes of common out-door ob-
servation.. A stand may be made for it by
fastening a wire two inches long vertically
into a block, and then sliding the lens down

Fig. 100.

upon the wire by means of the hole in the
handle. Then if a couple of needles be
stuck in sticks, as represented in the lower
portion of Fig. 99, and used as priers and
forceps, both hands may be employed in
picking a flower or bud to pieces, while the
eye watches the whole operation through the
microscope. An excellent lens for examin-
ing rather large objects and for studying
plants without dissecting them is a reading-
glass two or three inches in diameter, as
shown in Fig. 100.

156 TALKS AFIELD.

How Plants are Named.

It is a popular notion that when a botar »
nist finds a new plant he at once recognizes
it as new and immediately gives it any name
which may please his fancy. To the non-
botanist it appears one of the easiest of mat-
ters to define and name a new plant, while
in fact it requires a broad knowledge, an ex-
treme accuracy of expression, and an uncom-
mon acumen. What is a new plant? The
botanist, with a manual in hand of all the
plants known to occur in his region, finds a
plant which does not agree with any of the
descriptions in the book. He at once recog-
nizes the plant as a violet, for instance, but
he finds no name for it. The first thought
comes, May this not be an abnormal form or
a peculiar variety of some old species? May
there not be intermediate forms all the way
between this plant and the bird’s-foot violet,
which it much resembles? And who is to
decide the limits of the species? Who is
able to pronounce whether the new plant is
entitled to a full specific rank, or whether
it is a mere variety, a form? “ Species are
judgments,” says our great botanist, and nec-
essarily he who has the best judgment, who

HOW PLANTS ARE NAMED. to7

has had the best training and the longest
experience, is the best fitted to make such
judgments. He knows that violets which
are widely different in general appearance
may be only extreme forms of one species.
If the difference lies in the color, he gives
it little attention, for he knows that color
varies in all plants. If the difference lies in
the shapes of the leaves, he gives it more at-
tention, still does not rely upon it, unless the
leaves are wholly and essentially unlike be-
tween the one and the other. Here again it
is a matter of judgment as to what consti-
tutes this essential difference. The common
hooded violet ordinarily has large heart-
shaped leaves, still they occasionally vary so
as to resemble the much-cut leaves of the
bird’s-foot violet. A difference in the shapes
of the parts of the flower is of more conse-
quence. The general habit and appearance
of the plant are important. If, after consid-
erable thought and study, the botanist satis-
fies himself that the violet is a new species
to his region, that it is not a form of any of
the species described in his botany, then his
trouble has just begun. It is not enough
that the plant be new to his region: it is not
new if there is another violet like it in the

158 TALKS AFIELD.

world! He must now cultivate a critical ac-
quaintance with the violets of all countries,
and with them he must compare his plant.
He will look especially towards the violets
of certain countries, knowing that the flora
of his region resembles some foreign floras
more than others. If he lives in the North-
ern United States, he will look especially at
Arctic American or Northern European or
Eastern Asian species. Having satisfied him-
self that the violet has never been named in
any country, he must next describe it. This
is a difficult task. He must be able to seize
upon the permanent features of the plant
and to describe them in a concise and accu-
rate manner: he must describe the plant so
accurately as to distinguish it unmistakably
from all other violets. Next comes the
naming of the plant, which is a compara-
tively easy matter. The first name will be
Viola, the generic name of the violets. The
second or specific name must be one which
is not applied to any other violet. It could
not be called Viola blanda, “ sweet violet,”
because Willdenow long ago used that name ;
neither could it be called Viola rotundifolia,
“ round-leaved violet,”’ as Michaux has used
the name. The specific name must agree

HOW PLANTS ARE NAMED. 159

with the generic name, Viola, in gender, and
it must be Latin or Latinized. A proper
name decided upon, as perhaps Viola verna,
“spring violet,” the botanist publishes it
with the scientific description of the plant,
and thereafter the name is written with the
author’s name attached, to show who pub-
lished the species. Thus we write, Viola
blanda, Willd., and V. rotundifolia, Michx.,
the names of the authors being abbrevi-
ated.

This binomial, “‘two-name” system of
naming natural objects is an exceedingly
beautiful and convenient one. The names
of the nearly 8,000 genera of flowering plants
must all be different from each other, but
the same specific name may be used over and
over again, only changing it in each case to
suit the gender of the generic name. Thus
we might use the word verna, meaning
spring, for a plant in each of the 8,000 gen-
era. There could be a spring violet, a spring
rose, a spring chrysanthemum, or a spring
bramble, — Viola verna, Rosa verna, Chrys-
anthemum vernum, Rubus vernus. One
hundred thousand species of flowering plants
are easily and readily named by this method,
and their names can be borne in the mem-

160 TALKS AFIELD.

ory. The names of varieties are made after
the same pattern as the names of species:
Viola cucullata var. palmata represents a.
palmate-leaved variety of our common hooded
violet.

A Chapter on Plant Names.

There are other associations than those
of verdant fields and woods and fragrant
flowers connected with the names of plants:
there are attractive bits of history, interest-
ing reminiscences, or curious tangles of ety-
mology. Many of the scientific names of
plants can be traced back to the earliest pe-
riods of history, from whence they have de-
scended through the centuries by irregular
paths, now applied to one object, now to
another, now receiving some impression of
popular notions or superstitions, at times
lost sight of altogether, and as often resur-
rected in a new guise, perhaps, until finally
they have been rescued by the modern scien-
tist and stereotyped in ponderous Latin.
The common names of plants have for the
most part even more intricate histories, for
they have been indelibly associated with the
every-day speech of the common people.
Their origin is often lost in the mists of an-

HISTORY IN NAMES. 161

tiquity. The common names of many culti-
vated plants are very similar in widely dif-
ferent languages, and these similarities are
proots that the plants have migrated from
one people to another, carrying with them the
old names, which have become modified to
suit the genius of the foster tongue. We
can sometimes trace these common names,
as spoken by different peoples, back to one
common origin, which must be coincident
with the origin of the plant itself. In this
manner we can trace the word apple, and
its equivalents in modern languages, to an
Asiatic origin, and we are justified in saying
that the apple was native to that Asiatic re-
gion, and that it was carried to the westward
by the early migrations of men.

An apt illustration of this growth of
names is found in the specific name of the
common garden carnation, Dianthus Cary-
ophyllus, and in the name of the Pink fam-
ily, Caryophyllacee, to which it belongs.
Among the Greeks the clove was known as
caryophyllum or caryophyllus, literally “ nut-
leaf,” probably in allusion to the bud-like
or nut-like form of the spice. When the
carnation began to be cultivated it was

found to possess so strongly the odor of
ul

162 TALKS AFIELD.

cloves that it was used as a-substitute for
them in the seasoning of wines, and it soon
came to be called caryophyllus. The name .
was not lost to the clove, however, for the
clove-tree is now known to botanists as the
aromatic caryophyllus (Caryophyllus aro-
matica). Other plants closely related to
the carnation began, in time, to be associated
with the name caryophyllus, and when the
pink-like plants were arranged into one
group, that group was designated the Caryo-
phyllaceze. The true pinks themselves were
dedicated to Jupiter, hence the genus was
called Dianthus, “ Jupiter’s flowers.” Lin-
nus indicated the history of the carnation
by naming it Dianthus Caryophyllus. But
the name caryophyllus has not stopped here.
In common writing it became corrupted, and
in medizval Latin it was called garoffolum
or gariofilum. The French changed it into
giroflée, from which were made the Old
English words gyllofer and gilofre, each
with a longo. The word subsequently de-
veloped into gilliflower. Thus far these
names appear to have been applied to our
carnation pink, but after a time a new diffi-
culty arose. Certain members of the mus-
tard family, in the double forms of their

CURIOUS HISTORIES. 163

flowers, bear a close resemblance to some of
the carnations, and the name gilliflower was
often transferred to them. To distinguish
the one from the other the term clove-gilli-
flower was often applied to the carnation,
and stock-gilliflower, ‘“‘ woody-stemmed gilli-
flower,” was applied to the mustard-like
plant. ~The name carnation or coronation,
derived from the old custom of making chap-
lets or coronce from these and similar flow-
ers, came into use for the clove-pink and it
ceased to be called gilliflower. Finally, the
name has been dropped from the mustard-
like plant also, leaving us but a remnant,
stocks, for these well-known plants of the
flower garden, the ten-weeks’ stocks and sim-
ilar varieties.

An equally interesting history is connected
with the common purslane or “ pusley,” a
weed so unattractive and so pernicious in
its character as to be commonly deemed en-
tirely unworthy a history. In this case, ac-
cording to Dr. Prior in his invaluable “ Pop-
ular Names of British Plants,” the proper
Latin name of the plant early became con-
. founded with a very different name which
was popular in the Middle Ages. A beau-

tiful translucent sea-shell was known as

16-4 TALKS AFIELD.

porcellana. When Marco Polo returned
from his wonderful travels to the far East
near the close of the thirteenth century, he
could find no name so appropriate for the
beautiful pottery which he had found in
China as porcellana, the sea-shell. The
word became familiar as Marco Polo’s ad-
ventures became widely known, and we still
know this fine pottery as porcelain. It is
probable that the plant portulaca, or purs-
lane, was then cultivated as a salad plant, as
it is to-day by the French. The plant was
surely familiar, while its Latin name was
probably less so, for this name became con-
founded with the like-sounding porcellana
which finally descended to the plant: the in-
significant waif of the gardens became indel-
ibly associated with the sea-shell and the
beautiful dishes!

The name huckleberry, which is applied in-
discriminately at the West to several species
of Vaccinium and Gaylussacia, is evidently
a corruption of whortleberry. Whortleberry
is ia turn a corruption of myrtleberry. In
the Middle Ages the true myrtleberry was
largely used in cookery and medicine, but
the European bilberry or vaccinium so
closely resembled it that the name was trans-

.CURIOUS HISTORIES. 165

ferred to the latter plant, a circumstance
- commemorated by Linnzus in the giving of
the name Vaccinium Mpyrtillus to the bil-
berry. From the European whortleberry
the name was transferred to the similar
American plants.

The showy corn-cockle, which has to be
pulled from nearly every wheat-field in the
country, and which most farmer boys asso-
ciate with back-aches, is connected with quite
as complex a history as is the carnation or
purslane. Botanists are now agreed in call-
ing this plant Lychnis Githago, but it was
formerly known as Agrostemma Githago.
An outline of the history of its botanical
and popular names may be given as follows:
The pungent seeds of the nutmeg-flower or
fennel-flower (Nigella sativa) of old gardens
are employed by the Egyptians and other
Oriental peoples as condiments and as medi-
cines. These seeds were at one time con-
sidered acceptable substitutes for pepper,
and they have always been associated with
such aromatic-pungent seeds as caraway and
dill. This plant is probably the fitches of
which Isaiah gave the manner of sowing and
reaping: ‘“ When he hath made plain the
face thereof [the ground], doth he not cast

166 TALKS AFIELD. ,

abroad the fitches and scatter the cummin,
and cast in the principal wheat, and the ap-
pointed barley, and the rye in their place?
... The fitches are not threshed with a -
threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel
turned about upon the cummin, but the
fitches are beaten out with a staff and the
cummin with a rod.” The cummin here
mentioned is another of the aromatic, cara-
way-like products of the parsley family.
The nutmeg-flower, now rarely seen in gar-
dens, is akin to the common Damascus ni-
gella or mist-flower, a plant known to roman-
tic minds as love-in-the-mist. To the Lat-
ins the nigella or nutmeg-flower was known
as gith or git. There appears to have been
a time some three hundred and more years
since when the curious in history and science
were uncertain to what plant the name gith
was applied. Its seeds were no doubt
brought into Western Europe at that time,
and so closely do they resemble those of the
cockle that this latter plant assumed the
name of the gith. The black seeds of the
true gith gave it in Greek the more clas-
sic names melanospermon and melanthion.
When the cockle was found to be a much
different plant from the gith, it received two

CURIOUS HISTORIES. 167

new names, each meant to record the gith-
like character of its seeds,— one gith-ago,
the other pseudo-melanthion. When Lin-
neus, in the middle of the last century,
brought order out of the confusion of the
names of animals and plants, he found no
less a name for the brilliant cockle than the
poetic Agrostemma, “ crown of the fields!”
To complete the name he added the popular
though historic githago, making the Agros-
temma Githago of botanies. The genus
Agrostemma is now included in the genus
Lychnis, — Lychnis is a Greek word for a
light or lamp,—and our plant now carries
the less pretentious name, Lychnis Githago.
Perhaps the common name, cockle, also re-
cords an allusion to the aromatic seeds of
the gith. It is pretty clearly derived, though
indirectly, perhaps, from the Latin caucalis,
a name which was early applied to some
caraway-like plant with which the gith was
probably associated. The name cockle may
have been applied first to the gith and after-
wards to the plant we now know as cockle.
Old English writers, however, used the word
for weeds in general, but no doubt always
with a special reference to the wheat-field
pest. It is supposed that the word was used

Eee wee ORS OTe. - ae
: Ce wer bates

: ras Rey |
2. 168 | TALKS AFIELD,
* to designate this plant wie S]

‘a made Biron exclaim, in “ lnaw uab
; Lost,” — *
**Allons! allons! sow'd cockle reap’d no co

s

a us
,
.

Ageazicts, 13.

Agrostemma Githago, 165.

Air plants, 150.
Air spaces, 72.
Alder, 100.
Alge, 15.
Almond sub-family, 59.
Alvord, Maj. Benj., 104.
Amici, 79
Amphicarpea, 96.
Anemophilous, 84.
Anther, 30.
Apetalous, 35.
Apple, 56, 60.
flower, 29, 56.
name, 161
twig, 100.
Apricot, 59.

Arrangement of leaves, 98.

Arthur, Prof. J. C., 1
Artichoke, 67, 68.

Artificial classification, 48.

Ash-flower, 33.
Assimilation, 5, 73.
Aster, 60.

BactTeErIA, 6.

Beal, Dr. Ww. J., 106, 140.
Bean, 2.

Bean vine, 110.
Bed-straw, 103.
Beech-drop, 151.
Beet, 146.

Beggar’ s-ticks, 64.
Begonia cuttings, 149.
Bignonia, 117.
Bilberry, 164.

Binomial nomenclature, 47, 159.

Blackberry, 57, 59.
—s 10, “a
lue-flag,
Brambles, 108.
kame 108.
rongniart, 79.
go Prvony: 116.

INDEX.

—o—

Bud, leaf, 143.

Bud on potatoes, 145.
Burdock, 64.
Buttercups, 51.

C2saALpinvs, 4, 77.
Calyptra, 22.
Calyx, 33.
Cambium, 38.
Camerarius, Jacques, 78.
Canada thistle, 63, 145.
Cardoon, 68.
Carnation, 161.
Carnivorous plants, 118.
Carrot, 146.
Caryophyllacex, 161.
Caryophyllus aromatica, 162.
Caulicle, 149.
Cells, 70.
Champlain, 67.
Cherry, 59.

buds, 152.

flower, 55.
Chicory, 63, 65, 81.
Chlorophyll, 73.
Choke-berry, 60.
sr SR of flowering plants,

1

artificial, 48.

Linnzan, 48.

natural, 49.
Cleistogamous flowers, 96.
Clematis, 108.
Close-fertilization, 83.
Clove, 161.
Club-mosses, 27.
Cockle, 165.
Compass-plant, 104.
Complete flower, 35.
Composite family, 60.
Coreopsis flower, 62.
Corn, 147, 150.
Corn-cockle, 165.
Corn-stalk, 36.
Corolla, 32.

170

Cotyledon, 3.

Cowslip, 31.

Crab-apple, 60.
Cross-fertilization, 81, 83.
Crowfoots, 32, 51.
Cummin, 166.

Cuttings, 149.

Cynara Scolymus, 68.

Danui, 146.

Daisy, 65.

Dalibarda, 96.
Dandelion, 64.
Dandelion, fall, 97.
Darlingtonia, 122, 125.
Darwin, 82, 96, 116, 128.
De Candolle, 50.
Delpino, 83, 86.
Desmids, 16.

Dianthus Caryophyllus, 161.
Diatoms, 16.
Dichogamy, 88.
Dicotyledons, 40.
Dimorphous flowers, 90.
Dicecious, 81.

Dionea, 128.
Dioscorides, 43.

Disk, 62.

Dog-berry, 60.

Drupe, 59.

Duck-meats, 130.

Ecurnocystis, 81, 112.
Edible fungi, 14.
Eel-grass, 85.

Elm, 98.

Embryo, 3.

Endive, 65.
Endogens, 37.
Entomophilous, 86.
Epidermis, 71.
Equisetums, 27.
Erigeron Canadense, 106.
Eucalyptus, 133.

Evening primrose, pollen of, 81.

Exogens, 37.
Eyes on potatoes, 145.

Fai DANDELION, 97.
Families, natural, 52.
Fennel flower, 165.
Ferns, 23
Fertilization, 83.
Figwort, 89.

Fitches, 166.

Flax, 101.

Floral envelope, 30.
Florets, 61.

INDEX.

Flower, apetalous, 35.
complete, 35.
definition of, 35.

description of, 29-34.

gamopetalous, 35.
incomplete, 35.
imperfect, 35.
irregular, 36.
monopetalous, 35.
neutral, 35.
perfect, 35.
pistillate, 35.
polypetalous, 35.
regular, 36.
staminate, 35.

Flowering-fern, 27.

Flowering plants, 5.

Flowerless plants, 4.

Fruit, 2.

Fruit-dots, 24.

Fuchs, 43.

Fungi, 6.

Gauium, 103.
Gamopetalous flower, 35.
Gaylussacia, 164
Genera, 47.
Geotropism, 144.
Gerardia, 151.
Gessner, Conrad, 47.
Gilliflower, 162.

Git, 166.

Gith, 166.

Githago, 167.
Golden-rod, 61.
Gonidia, 20.

Grape mildew, 11.
Grass family, 51.
Gray, Asa, 105.
Green-brier, 37.
Grew, Nehemiah, 78.
Growth, 76.

Hairs, 71.

Hand-glass, 155.
Hawthorn, 60.
Heart-wood, 39.
Heliamphora, 125.
Hen-and-chickens, 102.
Hepatice, 21.
Herodotus, 77.
Hidden flowers, 94.
Holly, 101.

Hooded violet, 94, 157.
Hop, 108.

Horse-tails, 27.
Horse-weed, 106.
House-leek, 102.

Huckleberry, 164.
oy ape 93.
Hybrids, 94

IMPATIENS FULYVA, 97.
Imperfect flower, 35.
Incomplete flower, 35.
Indian corn, 147, 150.
Indian pipe, 151.
Inorganic substances, 5.
Insectivorous plants, 119.
Internode, 108.
Involucre, 64.

Irregular flow er 36.
Ivy, 108, 150.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, 67.
Juncus bufonius, 97.
Jussieu, 50.

Kaui, 92.
Koelreuter, 82.

Lactuca ScaRionA, 106.
Larch, 103.

Laurel, 92.

Leaf-bud, 143.
Leaf-climbers, 108.
Leaves, arrangement of, 98
Leersia, 97.

Lemnas, 130.

Lens, 154.

Lettuce, 65, 106.
Lettuce-weed, 106.
Lichens, 19.

Linden limb, 135.
Linnzan classification, 48.
Linnzus, 45.

Liverworts, 21.
Long-moss, 150.
Love-in-the-mist, 166.
Lychnis Githago, 165, 167.

Mattow, pollen of, 81.
cae red, 46.
archantia polymorpha, 21.

Mare’s-tail, 106.
Marsh-marigold, 31.
May-apple, 145.

dlar, 56, 60.
Medullary rays, 40.
Metastasis, 74.
Michaux, 158.
Microscope, 154.
Microscopic structure, 69.
Mildew, 10.
Mint flower, 33.
Mist-flower, 166.

INDEX. 171

Monocotyledons, 40.
Moneecious, 80.
Monopetalous flower: 35.
Morning-glory, 32, 110.
Mosses, 21, 22.

Moss, long, 150.

Moths, 93.

Moulds, 10.

Mountain ash, 60.
Musci, 21.

Mushrooms, 13.
Musk-plant, ori of, 81.

Myrtleberry, 164

Names of plants, 47, 156, 160.
Naming of plants, 156.

Natural classification, 49.
Natural families, 52.

Nectarine, 59.

Neutral flower, 35.

Nigella sativa, 165:
Nomenclature, binomial, 47, 159.
Nutmeg-flower, 165.

OAK STEM, 37.

Orders, natural, 52.
Organic substances, 5.
Osage orange, 101.
Ovary, 31.

PALISADE CELLS, 72.
Palm stem, 37.
Pappus, 63.
Parasites, 6, 151.
Parkinson, 68.
Parsnip, 146.

Pea family, 52.
flower, 92.
tendril, 116.

Peach, 59.

Peach limb, 135.

Pear, 56, 60.

Pear sub-family, 59.

Peony, 98.

Perfect flower, 35-

Petals, 30.

Petunia, 93.

Phylotaxy, 98, 103.

Pigeon-wheat moss, 22.

Pine, cones of, 102.
leaves of, 103.
pollen of, 81, 84.
seed of, 3.

Pink family, 161.

Pistil, 31.

Pistillate flower, 35.

Pitcher plant, 119.

Plum, 59.

172

Plum-knot, 12.

Poison ivy, 108, 150.
Polarity in plants, 104.
Pollen, 30, 80.

Pollen tubes, 79.

Polo, Marco, 163, 164.
Polygamous flower, 81.

Polypetalous flower, 35.

Polypores, 12.
Pome, 56.
Portulaca, 164.
Potato, 146.

Prior, Dr., 163.
Proterandrous, 88.
Proterogynous, 88.

Protococcus nivalis, 18.

Protoplasm, 73.
Puff-ball, 13.
Pumpkin, 153.
Pumpkin vine, 71.
Purslane, 163.
Pyrus, 60.
Americana, 60.
arbutifolia, 60.
communis, 60.
coronaria, 60.
Cydonia, 60.
malus, 60.
prunifolia, 60.

QUACK GRASS, 145.
Quince, 56, 60.

RADICLE, 153.
Radish, 146.
Rafflesia, 36.
Raspberry, 57, 59.
Ray, John, 44
Rays, 61.
Receptacle, 55.
Red maple, 46.
Red snow, 18.
Redwood, 133.
Regular flower, 36.
Rhizome, 145.
Rhubarb, 145.
Rivinius, 45.
Root-climbers, 108.
Root-hairs, 147.
Roots, talk about, 140.

Rusts, 10.

Sausiry, 65.
Saprophyte, 6.

INDEX.

Sapwood, 39.
Sarracenia purpurea, 119.
Sarracenia variolaris, 121.
Schizzea, 26.
Scorzonera, 65.
Scouring rushes, 28.
Scramblers, 106.
Scrophularia, 88.

Scum on ponds, 18.
Sea-weeds, 15.

Seed, definition of, 2.
Seed-leaves, 3.

Segard, 67.
Self-fertilization, 83.
Senecio, 61.

Sepals, 30.
Service-berry, 60.

Sex, 77.

Side-saddle flower, 119.
Simpson’s bee-plant, 88.
Smilax, 37.

Snails, 93.
Snap-dragon, 71.
Solidago, 61.

Spawn, 14.

Spirza, 59.

Sprengel, Conrad, 82.
Spore, 4.

Squash plant, 140.
Stamens, 30.
Staminate flower, 35.
Stigma, 31.

Stocks, 163.

Stomata, 73.
Strawberry, 57, 59.
Style, 31.

Sundew, 125.
Sunflower, 66, 102.
Sunflower family, 60.

TABULAR CELLS, 71.
Tamarack, 103.

Tape grass, 85.
Tendril-climbers, 112.
Ten-weeks’ stocks, 163.
Thistle head, 136.
Toad-stools, 13.

Token, 135.

Touch-me-not, 97.
Tournefort, Joseph P. de, 45.
Tragus, Hieronymus, 44.
Trichomanes Petersii, 23.
Trimorphous, 92.
Tubers, 150.

Turnip, 146.

Twiners, 108.

>

| Vacorstom, 164.

Vaillant, Sebastian, 78.
Vallisneri, A., 86.
Vallisneria spiralis, 86.
Vanilla, 150.
Vegetable oyster, 65.
Venus’ fly-trap, 128.
Vessels, 70.
Viola cucullata, 94.
Violet, 94, 156.
Virginia creeper, 117.
Virgin’s-bower, 108.
WALKING-LEAF FERN, 26.
Weddell, Mons. H., 132.
Whortleberry, 164
Wild cucumber, 112.
pollen of, 81.

INDEX. 173

Willdenow, 158.
Willow flower, 33.
Willow twigs, 139.
Wistaria, 110.
Witch-hazel, 133.
Wolffia, 36, 131, 133.
Wolff, John F., 133.
Woodbine, 117.
Wood cells, 70.
Wood-sorrel, 96, 97.
Wych-elm, 136.

YEAST PLANTS, 9.

ZALUZIANSKI, 78.
Zygnema, 18, 130.

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Romany ; and papers on the Gypsy Language. Crown 8yo,
2.00.

We have no hesitation in saying that this is the most de-
lightful Gypsy book with which we are acquainted. —The Spec-
tator (London). '
The Maine Woods. By Henry D. THorRgEAv.

12mo, gilt top, $1.50.

Wake-Robin. By Joun Burrovucus. Revised
and enlarged edition, illustrated. 16mo, $1.50.
Contents: The Return of the Birds; In the Hemlocks;
Adirondac; Birds’-Nests; Spring at the Capital ; Birch Brow-
sings; The Bluebird; The Invitation.

Walden; or, Life in the Woods. By HENRY
D. THOREAU. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50.

Birds in the Bush. By Braprorp Torrey. 16mo.

ConTENnTS: On Boston Common; Bird-Songs; Character
in Feathers; In the White Mountains; Phillida and Coridon;
Scraping Acquaintance; Minor Songsters ; Winter Birds about
Boston; A Bird-Lover’s April; An Owl’s Head Holiday; A
Month’s Music.

Winter Sunshine. By Jonn Burrouens. New
edition, revised and enlarged, with frontispiece illustration.

16mo, $1.50.

The minuteness of his observation, the keenness of his per-
ception, give him a real originality, and his sketches have a
delightful oddity, vivacity, and freshness. — The Nation (New
York).

*,* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, post-paid, on
receipt of price by the Publishers,

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, Mass.

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