. Nature study and agriculture. Nature study; Agriculture. A FEW IMPORTANT PLANT FAMILIES 8i Exercises anb Projects 1. A head of wheat. — (a) Pull off the spikelets from a head of wheat, and note how they are attached — alternately, on opposite sides of the stem. Note the jointed form of the stem where the spikelets are at- tached. (6) Examine a spikelet and see how many flowers or grains it con- tains. Compare with other spikelets and see which part of the head is least fruitful. (c) When the wheat is in bloom, examine the flower. Note the scales of chaff that take the place of calyx and coro
. Nature study and agriculture. Nature study; Agriculture. A FEW IMPORTANT PLANT FAMILIES 8i Exercises anb Projects 1. A head of wheat. — (a) Pull off the spikelets from a head of wheat, and note how they are attached — alternately, on opposite sides of the stem. Note the jointed form of the stem where the spikelets are at- tached. (6) Examine a spikelet and see how many flowers or grains it con- tains. Compare with other spikelets and see which part of the head is least fruitful. (c) When the wheat is in bloom, examine the flower. Note the scales of chaff that take the place of calyx and corolla. How many stamens do you find? Note the pistil, — the ovary or grain, and the feathery stigmas. Make a drawing of these parts. 2. Stooling or tillering.—Pull up an entire plant of wheat or other grain and note the number of stems or stalks. Examine the root carefully and note how the stems are connected, showing that they belong to the same plant and came from one seed. 3. Stem and leaf of grasses. — (a) Note the hollow stem with solid joints. This con- struction secures the greatest strength with the least expendi- ture of material. A solid stem made out of the same quantity of material would be very thin and weak. (b) Tear a leaf and see how easUy it splits, showing that it is parallel veined. Note how firmly the lower part of it clasps the stem and thus strengthens it. 4. Grasses and sedges. — Note carefully the characteristics of sedges as given at the close of the article on the grasses. Find some sedges in a wet meadow or by the water's edge and compare them with true grasses. Try to find several kinds of sedges and study them until you can distin- guish the two classes of plants with Flowers of the Squash a, staminate or male flower on its long slender stem; b, pistillate or female flower with young squash below the Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability -
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
