. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Wild-Flower Study â 591 for this giant floret at the center of the wide, circular flower-cluster is a mystery; and so far as I know, the botanists have not yet explained the reason for its presence. May we not, then, be at liberty to explain its origin on the supposition that her Royal Highness, Queen Anne, was wont to fasten her lace medallions upon her royal person with garnet-headed pins? When the flowers wither and the seeds begin to form, the flower-cluster then becomes very secr
. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Wild-Flower Study â 591 for this giant floret at the center of the wide, circular flower-cluster is a mystery; and so far as I know, the botanists have not yet explained the reason for its presence. May we not, then, be at liberty to explain its origin on the supposition that her Royal Highness, Queen Anne, was wont to fasten her lace medallions upon her royal person with garnet-headed pins? When the flowers wither and the seeds begin to form, the flower-cluster then becomes very secretive; every one of the little umbels turns toward the center, its stem curving over so that the outside umbels reach over and "tuck in" the whole family; and the threadlike bracts at the base reach up as if they, too, were in the family councils, and must do their slender duty in helping to make the fading flowers into a little, tightfisted clump; and all of this is done so that the precious seeds may be safe while they are ripening. Such little porcupines as these seeds are! Each seed is clothed with long spines set in bristling rows, and is a most forbidding-looking youngster when examined through a lens; and yet there is method in its spininess, and we must grudgingly grant that it is not only beautiful in its ornamentation but is also well fitted to take hold with a will when wandering winds sift it down to the soil. The wild carrot is known in some localities as the "bird's-nest weed," be- cause the maturing seed-clusters, their edges curving inward, look like little birds' nests. But no bird's nest ever contained so many eggs as does this imi- tation one. In one we counted 34 tiny umbels on which ripened 782 seeds; and the plant, from which this "bird's nest" was taken, developed nine more quite as An inner and a border floret and a large. bract of Queen Anne's lace, Altogether the wild carrot is well enlarged. fitted to maintain itself in
Size: 1836px × 1360px
Photo credit: © Central Historic Books / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcomstockannabotsford1, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
