, 1909-10-30

riSln1 more than a foot from the Btound,
and commonly much less. 1t is very tena-
cious of life in quite dry Seasons, when the
pastures are burnt up, it shows It's dark
green and serrated leaves here and there.
The cattle, even when feed is scant, do not
eat it, there is no doubt something III It's
favour which they do not like. If you taste
a leaf, which you may do with safety, for a
drink prepared from the leaves is sometimes
gwen III fever cases, YOU will not fnd them
dislgreeable, bat the cattle evidently think
otherwise not 50 with the caterpIllars, how
ever, for we may som times see the leaves
rjddled with holes left By these destructive
feeders.
In Towering, which it appears to do OF
any season Of the year, it sends up q curious
thick green stalk, in which the small blue
lowers, and afterwards the fruits which
follow the flowers, are embedded. Begin
ming from the bottom and gradually ascend
ing YOU will see from three to six Of the
little flowers opening each day. You will
see tlem, that is, if you look for them at the
right time. If you look for them in the
aftop noon you will always be disappointed,
for they are early risers, up with the dawn,
and by midday their work is done and they
have all fallen off. or rather they hnve been
pushed Of. While quite perfect and with all the
freshness of their form and the brightness
Of their beautiful blue colour about them,
they are elected. Why Il this an acct
dent, or is there anything gained by the
summary proceeding, and If 80, what
To answer this question we must first makeour-
selves familiar with the structure Of the flower
and then watch its behaviour. Necessarily we
mus, begin with the outside, and we find that
the young unopened flowers are each shut up
in his tiny house by a door which opens up
wards, u small leaf or bract, rs the bOtanlats
call it, lies fiat against the narrow room i'll
which the flower and its parts are coming
to perfection, ready to present themselves
to the outside world. If we select one which
seems to be we'll advanced, and lift the door,
we shall first of all see u fiat, delicate little
calyx having two teeth or points only, one
in front and one behind, while within it is
the tiny corolla. As the corolla aud the
organs (stamens aud pistiD. which it enclos-
es, glow, they at last push open the door
and shew themselves to the dawn. The CO.
rolIa is a tube below and spreads above into
five sections turned partly upwards and
partly outWards, so as to catch the eye OF
any early aviator who, in the form of II but
teriy, may be sailing around i'll search of q
breakfast. You may be lucky enough to
see one or two alight and bend up their
siphona, of which they get the tips only into
the small flowers. This. however, is all that
both butterfly and flower want. At the bot
tom of the tube is the modicum of nectar,
which the butterfly gets when his siphon
reaches it, while the stamens and pistil of
the flower confined in the morrow tube are
necessarily touched by the siphon as it is
inserted and withdrawn. We open the
flower in order to look q little closer into
this matter, and we see -four anthers. with
extremely short tilaments, growing from the
sides of the tube. Strange to say, the up
per pair bear DO pollen. Possibly they
have done so in the earlier history of the
plant, hut Low at all events they are barren.
About on % level with these is the stigma,
supported on a style which goes down the
tube to the Cvary. The other pair Of an
Tiers, which carry pollen, are just 6e5oe0 the
stigma.
Now we may watch the pushing off
process. If the flowers are left alone it
will go on, first with Que flower and
then another, till before noon all are
pushed off bud if you pluck one Of the
stalks, say about 8 o'clock, the jerk appears
to start the process at once. AS you watch
ole of the flowers, you see it without any