ril witMmrt i M wi w i irwiiniWniiriniWtiiniiniW * HnU QfaUege of JKgttculturp At Qlornell MniiieraHB 1924 001 674 682 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001674682 RECREATIONS IN BOTANY BY CAROLINE A. CREEVBY ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HAEPBK & BEOTHEKS PUBHSUBES 1893 X Copyright, 1893, by Hakpkr & Brothers. All rights reserved. TO MT FRIEND MAEGARET E. SANGSTER THIS VOLUME K» JLobrnols KnacrtfteU CONTENTS I INTRODUCTOBT Botany an Out-door Sport — Pleasure of Knowing the Names of Plants — Dangerous and Criminal Classes — Poison-Ivy — Poison- Sumae — Drosera Rotundifolia — Bladderworts — Parts of a Flower Page 1 II THE botanist's TOOLS AND METHODS Botany-box — A Perfect Specimen — How to Analyze a Flower — Under- and Over-development of Species — Variations of Color — Herbarium . 18 III FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS Usefulness of Insects — Self-fertilization of Plants the Exception to the Rule — Wind-lovers — Insect-lovers — Devices for At- traeting Insects — Examples of Flowers which Seek Cross-fer- tilization 20 IV ORCHIDS The Taste for Orchids not a Passing Fancy — Earth-growing and Epiphytal Orchids — Difficulty of Collecting, Transporting and VI CONTENTS Growing Tropical Plants — Characteristics — "Highly Special, ized" — Cypripediums and Other Native Orchids — Rare and Beautiful Species Found in Hot-houses Page SO V LEAVES Variety and Beauty of Leaves — Queries About Leaves — Leaf Al- bum — Altered Leaves — Cellular Tissue — Arrangement of Leaf- cells — Stomata — Offices of Leaves — Metastasis — Arrangement on Stem — Devices for Protection of Leaves — Why Leaves Fall in Autumn — Carnivorous Plants ... 56 VI PLANT MOVEMENTS Motion of Seed When First Planted — Circumnutation — Movements of Root-tip — Of Climbing Plants — Sleeping Leaves . . .81 VII THE COMPOSITE The Golden-rod for a National Flower — Characteristics of Com- posite Flowers — Disk Flowers — Ray Flowers — Tubuliflorie — LigulifloriB — Dwarf Dandelions — Hawk- weeds — Thistles — Rag- weeds, and other Composites 94 VIII PARASITIC PLANTS The Woods in Autumn Full of Interest, Because Every Plant is Fruiting — Cancer-root, or Beech-drops — Indian-pipe — Color ot Leaves and Stems of Parasites — Mistletoe — Cusouta — Boot-par- asitic Plants — Monocotyledons Non-parasitic 102 IX AQUATIC PLANTS The "Trout-ponds" — Eriocaulon Septangulare — A Wet-meadow Bouquet — Buttercups, Cardinal Flower, and Other Plants Grow- ing in Wet Places — Finding a New Species 110 CONTENTS Vll THK CONE-BEARERS The Forest of White-pine — Cedars of Lebanon — Cones-^Naked Seeds — • " Big Trees " of California — Pines — The Ging- ko Page 120 XI FLOWERLESS PLANTS They Grow Everywhere — Meaning of Cryptogam — Cellular Ar- rangement — Difference Between Lower Orders of Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms — Harmful Plants — Vascular Cryptogams — Horse-tails and their Allies 181 XII FERNS Spores Distinguished from Seeds — Two Eras in the Life of a Fern — The Prothallus— Sporophore — Spores — Sporangia — Sori — Indusium — How to Distinguish Ferns 143 XIII mosses and liverworts (brtophytes) Charm of Mosses — Growth and Propagation — The Protonema — Gemmae — Peat -mosses — Thallose and Leafy Liverworts — Ma- crospores — Interesting for Microscopic Study 161 XIV LICHENS Lichens Perennial, not Parasitic — Reindeer-moss — Iceland-moss — Manna — Propagation — Nomenclature 160 VIU OOITTENTS XV ALGuE Offices of Roots and Leaves (or Fronds) of Algae — Spores — Large Sea-weeds — Edible Algse — Colors and Distribution — Red Snow — Diatoms Page 165 XVI FUNGI Lowest Forms of Vegetable Life — Harmful and Beneficent — Wholly Parasitic or Sacrophytic — Reproduction — Rapid Growth and Short-lives — Six Families — Mushrooms — Puff-balls — Fungi Attacking Cereals — Potato-rot, Moulds, Ferments — Bacilli and Bacteria — Antiseptics 173 XVII PLANT ADAPTABILITY AND UTILITY Migration of Plants — Flexibility — Hardness — The Birch — High Altitude Plants — Cinchona — Palms — Cacti — TheMesquite 186 XVIII SEEDS AND FRUITS Ovules — TJsurpations of Ovules — Dissemination of Seeds by Wind, Water, and Animals — Different Fruits in Botanical Language — The True Lover of Flowers 203 Index 213 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE POISON. SDMAC 4 POISON- ITY 5 DROSKRA ROTUNDIFOLIA T FLOWERING STEM OP UTRICnLAEIA INPLATA 9 POLLEN -GRAINS 21 MAGNIFIED VIEWS OF THE PARTS CONCERNED IN THE OPERATION OP EXTRACTING NECTARY FROM AND IN FERTILIZING ORCHID FLOWER BY HAWK-MOTH • . . . . 28 VANDA LOWII 35 CONSTRUCTION OF ORCHID 37 A GROUP OF NATIVE ORCHIDS 45 MASDEVALLIA DENISONIANA 48 LYCASTE 49 L^LIA FRISIANS .... 53 WATER-CARRYING DUCTS OF PLANTS 62 HIGHLY-MAGNIFIED SECTION OF LEAF 64 STOMATA 65 PIECE OP LIVERWORT LEAF CUT DOWN THROUGH THE MOUTH . 66 BLUE-FLAG 67 LEAF OP VENUS'S PLT-TRAP (dI0N.4;a) .... ... 74 THE SAME CLOSED 74 PITCHER-PLANT IN BLOOM 76 LEAP OF THE SARRACENIA 77 NEPENTHES 'iS DROSERA FILIFORMIS 80 MIMOSA AWAKE 86 MIMOSA ASLEEP 87 LOCUST BRANCH AWAKE 88 LOCUST BRANCH ASLEEP . . 89 LOCUST, MELILOT, LUPINE, OXALIS — ASLEEP .... .91 X ILLUSTRATIONS PAOE PAPPUS OF DANDELION 9'? RECEPTACLE OF DANDELION 98 MISTLETOE 105 CEDAR OP LEBANON 122 CEDAR-CONES ... 123 GROUP OP SEQUOIAS, OP ALL ABES 125 FIR — HEMLOCK — IRISH YEWS — GINGKO 129 VEGETABLE 134 HYDROIDS (animal) GROWING ON A SHELL . 135 ANIMAL . 136 EQUISETUM — SPORES WITH ELATERS ... ... 137 TRKE-FERN 144 A FEEN 146 FERTILE PERN, OF COMMON BRAKE, WITH SPORANGIA . . . 148 GEMM^ . 154 MARCHANTIA 156 ANEURIS PINGUIS . . . . 15lf FRUIT OF LIVERWORTS 158 THE COMMON CUP-LICHEN, MODERATELY MAGNIFIED .... 161 SEA- WEED, MAGNIFIED, SHOWING SPORE-SACS 166 GULP- WEED 167 COMMON SEA-WEED 168 SEAWEED 169 ZYGNEMA . . 170 MOULD 173 FUNGI GROWING ON A DEAD OAK-LEAP 177 GKAPE-PUNGUS 175, 183 PALMS OP THE MIDDLE AMAZON . 193 CACTI . 197 CACTUS - 201 SAMARA 204 FEATHERY-TAILED ACHENE OP ANEMONE 207 PINEAPPLE 208 GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS AcheTie, or Akene. — A small, dry, in- dehiscent, one-seeded fruit. Adventitious. — Accidental. Applied tn buds springing from anasual Anemophilous. — Wind-loving. Ap- plied to flowers fertilized by the wind, as pines. Anther. — Hbe part of the stamen which contains the pollen, usu- ally consisting of two cells, which open, when' the pollen is ripe, by a slit. Apetalous Without petals, as the anemone. Axil— The upper angle at the junc- tion of stem and branch. Axis. — The stem; the part around which other organs are attached. Bracta.—lbe small leaves at the base of or upon the flower-stem. Calyx.-Tbe outer flower -leaves, usually green. Capsule. — The diy, dehiscent frnit of a compound pistil, as in poppy. Caudiele. — ^The stalk of the pollen- mass in orchids. Caulicle.—A little stem. The radicle of seeds. Cellulose. — The substance of which cell-walls is composed. Chlorophyl (written also with two I's) Leaf-green. A soft granu- lar substance found in green parts of a plant exposed to light, whose office is to convert crude sap into vegetable material. Cleistoga/mous. — Closed fertilization. Applied to inconspicuous blos- soms which are self - fertilized before the bud opens, as in stem- less violets. Such plants bear other, more conspicuous blos- soms, which are often unfruitful. Circinate. — Rolled from the tip downward, as in the young fern fronds. Column. — ^The body formed by the union of stamens and pistils in orchids. Corolla. — The flower-leaves standing next within and above the calyx. Corymb. — A cluster of flowers, flat or convex at the top, blossoming first at the circumference, last at the centre. Dehiscent. — Splitting open of cap- sules into regular valves for the discharge of seeds. Dehiscent fruits contain more than oneseed. Dicotyledonotis. — Having two cotyle- dons or seed-leaves. Dimorphous. — Two - formed. Ap- plied to plants like the par- tridge-berry, in which high an- thers and low stigmas are found in one flower, and high stigmas and low anthers in another. The visiting insect carries pol- len from high or low anthers in one flower to corresponding stig- mas in others. Disk.— The central part of compo- sites, as distinguished from ray- flowers. GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS Drupe — A stone -fniit. Chemes, pluniB,