The Youth's Companion/July 19, 1860/Families of Flowers
Youth’s Companion.
Boston, July 19, 1860.
Families of Flowers.
At Home and Abroad.
“Just look, Lucilla, at these little blue flowers that are growing by the road-side,” said Anne, as the two girls were walking together, one morning.
Lucilla stopped to gather some, saying, as she did so:
“I wonder that we never before this, have gathered these. I have seen them before, but never noticed them particularly.”
“We didn’t use to look for flowers as we do now,” said Anne, “and just before us a little distance, I see a patch of them growing so thickly that the ground appears entirely blue. I have seen the girls at school with these flowers in their hands. They called it Innocence.”
“It looks innocent enough,” said the other.”
By this time they had come to the slightly swelling bank which they found covered with myriads of the delicate little flower which they were considering. Just below, the ground was damp and springy, but there was a prostrate birch tree upon the hare dry boughs of which they sat down. They had gathered a good many of the flowers, and now tried to examine them. Lucilla tore one of them apart, and looking at it attentively, exclaimed:
“I see four little yellow stamens. They are so small, that I can hardly see them. The inside of the petals is yellow, too. This is what gives such a bright, lively look to the patch of ground where these grow plentifully. How wonderfully pretty it is,” proceeded she; “look, what a tiny calyx it has!”
“Let us,” said Anne, “carry some of these to Uncle Ambrose.”
The two girls found their instructor working in the garden, but he was always ready to answer their questions.
Taking one of the flowers in his hand, he applied to it his magnifying glass, and then handed both to Lucilla. The four threadlike stamens which she had seen, were now greatly enlarged, and in the centre, she saw a slender white pistil, with its two-parted summit, which she remembered was called a stigma. The little corolla of blue, daintily lined with yellow on its inner side, was also expanded, and, on the whole, the appearance of the flower was highly elegant.
“Do you remember,” said Uncle Ambrose to Lucilla, that in examining the Lilac, some time ago, you found that the petals were all in one piece?”
“O yes, uncle, I do remember that well; what a heap of Lilacs Albert gathered for us that day. It was a warm day, and how cool the Lilacs looked, half hidden by the smooth, green leaves. And now I see that this also is all of one piece.”
“And,” said Anne, “it resembles the Lilac too, in its shape.”
“It does so, in that particular,” said Uncle Ambrose, “though its family relations are very different. They are both, however, good specimens of those flowers which are called monopetalous. To this one great division of plants they both belong.”
“By monopetalous, I suppose,” said Lucilla, “that you mean with the petals all in one.”
“Yes, I mean one-petaled. Though you may often find them like this, deeply cleft, yet they are joined either wholly, or in part. Here you see there are at the outer edge, four divisions. Sometimes where it is not cleft at all, yon can still see the seams, or little ridges, where the parts appear to have grown together. So interesting a division of plants is this, that I will propose that you sometime gather all the flowers of this sort, that you can find, and we will consider them. You will soon realize that this being a general destinction, comprehends multitudes of families. We will not, however, follow this further, at present. We will reserve it till another time.”
The girls both expressed their wish to gather specimens of the one-petaled flowers, before they should meet again.
“Meantime,” said Uncle Ambrose, “let me tell you, that this flower, so simple and so common, strewed as it appears, so widely in field and pasture, and especially along the banks of brooks and in moist places, indeed we find it continually, is one whose family relations are numerous and widely-extended.”
“I always love,” said Anne, “to hear about the family relations of the plants. It is so pleasant to know that the flowers have sisters and cousins like ourselves.”
“This regularly shaped corolla,” said Uncle Ambrose, with the stamens inserted upon it, agreeing in number with its divisions, as you can see for yourselves, each being four, and its calyx being similarly divided, indicate that it is of the same family as the Coffee plant. The flowers of this latter are strangely like these you have gathered to-day, in their construction, howbeit, while the one is so common, the other you would no doubt regard as a curiosity. Apart from its rareness in this part of the world, it is very lovely, with its sweet swelling blossoms of white, and its sunny looking leaves of light green. Let me tell you,” said he, warming with the remembrance of other scenes and distant days, “if you should once find yourselves within the beautiful embowering shade of a grove of Coffee trees, you would by no means be in a hurry to leave it.”
“I think,” said Anne, “that you have seen many plants that never grow here.”
“There is not only the Coffee, whose berry is so extensively used at the breakfast-table, but the Peruvian Bark, known all over the world as a medicine, which belongs to the same family.”
“But you have not yet told us,” said Anne, “the family name.”
“No, to be sure; it is called the Madder Family. One member of the family furnishes from its root, a valuable article used in coloring red, which is called by the family name, Madder. I have spoken to you of foreign plants, but need not have gone so far away. You will find in the blossoms of the Partridge berry, a good illustration of this family. Its little white flowers, often tinged with pink, are easily found in their season; their fragrance reveals their hiding-place oft-times. The bright red berries of this plant are conspicuous even in the winter.”
“Yes,” replied Anne, “I have gathered them sometimes when the ground was covered with snow.”
“Much more might be said,” said Uncle Ambrose, “concerning this family, but it is now time for us to separate. You have learned at least that your little friend Innocence, or as it is often called, Blue Houstonin, has many relatives.”M. A. C.