. Botany for high schools. Botany. 164 GROWTH AND WORK OF PLANTS the lower part. The spadix is enclosed in a leaf-like structure, forming a broad cylindrical tube (the pulpitbelow, and above tapering into a strap-shaped part (spathe) which bends forward over the pulpit. In some plants the staminate and pistillate flowers are borne on the same spadix (plants monoecious), but usually they are all of one kind on a spadix (plants dioecious). 271. A little observation will show that the pistillate plants are the larger and have larger corms, while the stam- inate plants are smaller. The larger corm
. Botany for high schools. Botany. 164 GROWTH AND WORK OF PLANTS the lower part. The spadix is enclosed in a leaf-like structure, forming a broad cylindrical tube (the pulpitbelow, and above tapering into a strap-shaped part (spathe) which bends forward over the pulpit. In some plants the staminate and pistillate flowers are borne on the same spadix (plants monoecious), but usually they are all of one kind on a spadix (plants dioecious). 271. A little observation will show that the pistillate plants are the larger and have larger corms, while the stam- inate plants are smaller. The larger corms have more stored food and thus produce a larger aerial shoot. But why they should produce pistillate flowers is not so clear, though it probably has some connection with the abun- dant food supply. It is evident, how- ever, that this is a useful distribution of the flowers, since the pistillate flowers produce the seed, which makes a greater drain of food from the corm than the mere production of stamens and pollen would. Seed formation of the smaller pistillate plants sometimes makes such a drain of food from their smaller corm, that the ensuing year they change to staminate plants. In fact the change from pistillate to staminate plants can be demonstrated experi- mentally, by removing the larger part of the corm with a knife during late summer or early autumn, before the nature of the flowers for the coming year has been fixed. It follows from all these facts that seedlings, or offsets from the corm, when they flower for the first time probably bear staminate flowers. In a few years, if. Fig. 124. Jack-in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip (Arisa?ma triphyllum), spathe removed, shovv'ing spiidix; the two upper figures with pistillate flowers, lower figures with staminate Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1910
