The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-03
[ALL RIGHTS REsERvEDl
F A TRY 7 A lie OF Cd z G T.
INSECTS and FLOWERS
By DIR. ANDREW WILSON. F. L. S. Etc
(Author Leaves from Nsturalis Notebook" etc.

mas nowhere received a more pTacllcal ap-
plication. or one of more interesting kind,
than in recent years through the inquiries
which botanists have made regarding the
relations which exist between the world
of insects and the world of plant life. The
researches Of Darwin and others have dis
played before our eyes an entirely new
phase Of plant existence, especially on that
side OF the life OF the plant which relates
to its fertilization.
BEGINNING OF A FAIRY TALE.
In order to lay the foundation of brief
study OF this most interesting topic. such
as may induce my readers to make OBJ
servations for themselves, observations
which can be carried out in any garden.
| it will be necessary that they should under
stand the ordinary structure of common
flower. If, taking buttercup in hand. we
look at the flower, we discover that it is
composed of four kinds of organs which
the botanist will tell arranged one
within the other in four whorls or circles.
Thus the green leaves outside form what
We call the calyx. these leaves being
| named sepals. The yellow leaves, which
are the conspicuous parts of the flower,
form the corolla, and are called petals.
Inside the flower see a great many
a pin in that it consists of stalk and
head. Finally, in the very center OF the
flower on the top of the flower stalk, we
see the pistil which in the buttercup
sists Of a number of little parts closely
| packed together, called the carpet Most
| people know that the duty OF the stamens
| is to produce the yellow dust called pollen.
which may be called the fertilizing material
of the plant. The pistil, on the other hand,
| is the seed-producing organ, and when
| ripe constitutes the fruit" In the unripe
| flower we find within the carpets of the
! pistil one or more little bodies which at
| first sight We might be tempted to call
| seeds. If, however, these were planted in
! the ground we should fail TO get any
growth from them in the shape OF new
| plants. They are not seeds, but are called
| ''ovules." In order 70 convert them into
| seeds the plant has to apply the yellow
dust or pollen from the stamens to the
| ovules, and when this contact takes place
the ovules are said to be fortified. They
| become seeds" each of which when plant
| ed in the ground will grow into a new
plant.
Looking once more at our buttercup, or
indeed at any other common flower, we find
/ that flower to contain within itself both
| stamens and pistil. Therefore we might at
| first suppose that, as indeed old botanists
| believed, each flower fertiized it's own
| ovules by means of its own pollen. This
process, of course, we should call self-fer-
tilization, the flower in other ways fertiiz-
| ing itself
But toward the close of the eighteenth
century a learned botanist called Sprengel,
making a more careful study of the process
of fertilization than had before been car
ried out, came to the conclusion that in the
vast majority of cases each plant had the
pistils of it's flowers fortified not by pollen
from it's own stamens, but by pollen
brought to the pistils from another flower
of the same kind, or, it might be. a nearly
related species. This process we may APP
propriately call cross-fertilization. So con-
WINGED was Sprengel that cross-fertization
was the rule of nature and liberalization
the exception, that he summed up his belief
in the words, Mature does not desire that
any complete flower should be fortified by
its own pollen" The great Darwin later on
announced the result of his own observa-
lions in different words, but bearing much
the same meaning as those of Sprengel.
| Darwins expression was that Mature alb
| hors perpetual Standardization"
| 1t is not denied that some flowers fertilize
themselves, and L shall give very interest
ing example of case in which. If plant
| cannot be cross-fertilized it contrives to use
its own pollen, and so saves its ovules from
being wasted. But we may take it for
granted that both Sprengel and Darwin
enunciated a great truth when they de-
clared cross-fertilization to be the rule of
| oIo e. - ha of I
on 1 shall show the advantages to the plant
universe which arise from this proceeding.
Meanwhile we may turn our attention to
| the means which nature employs to carry
| out this end and aim.
| NATURES "DODGES."
Nature is very full Of interesting expedi-
ents, or what a schoolboy might very we'll
| call lodges" in the way of insuring that
flowers shall be fertilzed by other pollen
| than their own. Thus it is an extremely
| common occurrence in plants to find that
the stamens of the flowers ripen before the
| pistils. An examination Of a great many
common flowers will show this to be the
| case. and it is much more frequent thing
| to find the stamens ripening first than the
| pistils. For example, among geraniums,
| the Canterbury bells and like flowers, we
/
| their pollen, all the while the pistils being
| unripe. If in such a case pollen came in
contact with the pistil it could not gain
| access to the ovules, and only after the
| pollen has been carried away to fertilize
| other plants of like kind whose pistils are
ripe, do the pistils Of the first named plants
| in their turn ripen and get ready to be fer
| tilted.
1 have said that the pistils are not found
| so frequently to ripen first. In the common
arum, or Cuckoo Pint, which has its we'll
known green leaf inclosing a central pillar
carrying the flowers, we find the pistils low
| down and the stamens higher up on the
| pillar. Here one might think the pollen
would fall from the stamens upon the pis-
| tils. The latter, however, ripen before the
pollen is shed, and therefore self-fertiliza-
| ton is rendered impossible. The flower Of
| which we are speaking can only be fer
| tilted later on when It's pistil rlpens by
pollen brought from another flower whose
| stamens by that time are coming TO full
fruition. There many other contriv-
| ances for thus securing that the flower will
| not fertilize itself. In some flowers we find
| the stamens and pistils growing differ
| ent blooms in the same plant. Thus in the
| lesser nettle we find flowers bearing sta
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