. The great world's farm; some account of nature's crops and how they are grown. Natural history. Blossom anct Seed 197 dahlia, which are most commonly doubled by cultiva- tion. Nature does not grow many double flowers, for wild plants need seed, and double flowers produce little if any, seed being sacrificed to petals. Geraniums, which have only ten stamens, are among the plants, however, which have a tendency to increase the number of their petals; and, among the single blossoms, one may often be seen with a petal or two more than the rest, or an extra small petal, which is half way between
. The great world's farm; some account of nature's crops and how they are grown. Natural history. Blossom anct Seed 197 dahlia, which are most commonly doubled by cultiva- tion. Nature does not grow many double flowers, for wild plants need seed, and double flowers produce little if any, seed being sacrificed to petals. Geraniums, which have only ten stamens, are among the plants, however, which have a tendency to increase the number of their petals; and, among the single blossoms, one may often be seen with a petal or two more than the rest, or an extra small petal, which is half way between a petal and a stamen. If the seed from this blossom were saved, some of the next generation of plants might have still more petals and still fewer. Pollen of the Melon, magnified. Stamens, and by carefully cultivating those having these peculiarities the gardener would at last obtain quite double blossoms. The orange day-lily, too, may sometimes be seen with one or more stamens enlarged into small petals and bearing an imperfect anther. But we have now to see what it is which changes the little immature grains in the hollow part of the pistil into seeds, capable of growing into independent plants. At first they are mere specks of matter to all appearance, and so they will remain unless they are brought into close contact with some of the dust con- tained in the sacs borne by the stamens. This is the special stimulant which they need to make them. 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 the original Gaye, Selina. New York [etc. ] The Macmillan company
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
