. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. 672 Hmidbook of Nature-Study. Photo by Verne Morton THE STRAWBERRY Teacher's Story Of all the blossoms that clothe our open fields, one of the prettiest is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promise of a crop of straw- berries. It is comforting to know that the flowers of the field "do not care a rap" whether man notices them or not; insect attentions are what they covet, and they are surely a
. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. 672 Hmidbook of Nature-Study. Photo by Verne Morton THE STRAWBERRY Teacher's Story Of all the blossoms that clothe our open fields, one of the prettiest is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promise of a crop of straw- berries. It is comforting to know that the flowers of the field "do not care a rap" whether man notices them or not; insect attentions are what they covet, and they are surely as indifferent to our indifference as it is to them. The field strawberrj^'s five petals are little cups of white held up protectingly around a central treasure of anthers and pistils; each petal has its base narrowed into a little stem, which the botanists call a claw. When the blossom first opens, the anthers are little, flat, vividly lemon- yellow discs, each disc consisting of two clamped together sternly and determinedly as if they meant never to open and yield their gold dust. At the very center of the flower is a little, greenish yellow cone, which if we examine with a lens, we can see is made up of many pistils set together, each lifting up a little, circular, eager stigma high as ever it can reach. Whether all the stigmas receive pollen or not determines the formation of a good strawberry. The sepals are slender and pointed and seem to be ten in number, every other one being smaller and shorter than its neighbors; but the five shorter ones are not sepals but are bracts below the calyx. The sepals unite at their bases so that the strawberry has really a lobed calyx instead of separate sepals. The blossom stem is soft, pinkish and silky and wilts easily. There are several blossoms borne upon one stem and the central one opens Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcomstockannabotsford1, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
