The boys were then taught that the plant depends on the earth and air for its nourishment, and as the various flowers have various ways of keeping the crawling insects out of their honey sac, so have they different ways of spreading or scattering their seeds after they have matured. If all the seeds of all plants fell right down near the parent plant there might not be nourishment enough to provide all the seeds with food.
So again the outsiders assist them as they did in carrying the pollen. This time it is the wind which does much to assist them in this work. The birds, too, eat of the seeds and drop some of them on other ground. The wind serves the milkweed and dandelion; the birds help the fruits, berries, and the “burrs,” help themselves by catching on the clothing of passersby, or the fur and hair of animals.
Then there are those seeds which are in pods—sweetpeas, beans, peas, etc. Some of these dry and curl up, and as this is done, it throws the seeds in various places. Then there are those seeds which are in burrs, nuts, chestnuts, etc., which also burst open at a certain time, some of them explode, and this process scatters the seed over an area of several yards. But the wind seems to be the most important messenger in helping the flowers scatter their seeds.
The boys were also taught that the plants breathe and need care; that their struggle for existence is intense. They are also taught of the beautiful development of the flower under cultivation, and Mrs. Buttercup and Mrs. Daisy were both taken from the field and cultivated, given plenty of light, water and the proper soil, best suited to the needs of each, and the results were wonderful.
The boys each were given small gardens of wild flowers, which they cared for themselves, and the following year they each had small vegetable gardens.
Every flower had a life story, they were told, and each a different story—interesting, intense and true.
Bobby’s mother found that the boys absorbed this information readily and very quickly. Although they studied the flowers for an entire year, they also studied the frogs and birds, together with the flowers. The mammals and humans were taken up during the winter.
They were also told that every baby seed continued this life of producing more flowers, that every girl was like the mother flower who had the little seeds hidden within her ever since she was born, while every boy is like the father flower and has the sac of pollen like him.
That the seeds are hidden way back in the abdomen and when she grows big enough the seeds will grow also and she too may be a mother of little boys and girls.
That the pollen in the boy is kept in the scrotum until he grows up big and strong, when it too will be ready to add life to little seeds and then become the father of strong boys and girls.