The Renewal of Life; How and When to Tell the Story to the Young

by Margaret Warner Morley

Thus in gathering his seeds, the child will select only the largest and best and take them from only the best plants to put in his garden the next year, at the same time planting beautiful truths in the garden of his soul. Not the least of these truths is a profound sense of the immutability of law. Through his nature-work the child can learn as nowhere else the stern, unbreakable decrees of law, and the respect and reverence due to it from every intelligent being. Another important and far-reaching fact that the child can learn from his garden is, that his plants are good or poor according to the care he takes of them. They must have the right kind of food (soil), the right amount of water, the right temperature and surroundings,—some loving the open sunshine, others needing to be partly protected from it. In short, according as its environment is suited to its needs, and as its inheritance is good or bad, will the plant be strong and handsome or otherwise.

Another truth to be learned from the flowers is the value of cross-fertilization. This was demonstrated by the great Darwin, who fertilized a number of flowers with their own pollen, and an equal number with the pollen from the blossoms of another plant of the same kind. When the seeds were ripe he gathered them, carefully keeping those of the self-fertilized flowers separate from the others. The next season he planted both sets of seeds under exactly the same conditions, that is, they had the same soil and moisture, the same sun and air, and the same care. The plants that grew from these two sets of seeds were very different, those from the self-fertilized seeds being smaller and weaker in every way than those from the seeds fertilized with pollen from another plant, or cross-fertilized, as we say, thus proving that it is not best for the plant to be self-fertilized. Someway, it needs the stimulus from less closely related pollen in order to grow vigorously and perfectly.

While the cross-fertilization of the same order of plants is so desirable, it is not possible for the pollen of one order to fertilize the ovules of another order. There must be a certain degree of similarity between flowers able to fertilize each other. The pollen of an apple blossom might, for instance, rest upon the stigma of a lily, but the pollen could not penetrate to the lily ovule. It would have no effect upon the lily.

That the seed inherits equally from the ovule and the pollen grain is a truth that should be impressed in many ways. It is very wonderful that anything so small as a pollen grain, often as small as the tiniest speck of dust, should be able to transmit to the young seed the peculiarities of the plant from which it came. That it does this, the child himself can prove in a most interesting way. He can plant some white petunia seeds in one side of his garden, and some red ones in the other. The seeds should come from a reliable florist's in order to be sure of results. When the petunias ripen their seeds, those from the white flowers should be gathered and carefully labelled, and then those of the red flowers, care being taken not to mix the two colors. The next summer, plant the seeds as before. When the flowers blossom, those in the white bed will no longer be white,—some may be, but others will be red, and still others red and white. The same will be true of the flowers in the red bed. What has happened? The bees going from flower to flower have carried the pollen from one bed to the other, and some of it, rubbing off on the stigmas as the bees searched for honey, fertilized the flowers. Thus some of the ovules of the white flowers received an impression of red from the pollen of the red flowers, and grew into red flowering plants. In others where the impression of red was less strong, the result was the production of red-and-white spotted flowers.

By fertilizing white flowers with pollen from red ones we can almost always get seeds that will develop into plants bearing flowers that are not white. What is true of color is true of other characteristics of the plant, such, for instance, as size and shape of leaves, habit of growth, size, shape, and quality of fruit, etc. Thus by careful cross-fertilization, we are able to produce not only beautiful and new blossoms, but also many delicious new fruits. Most of our cultivated fruits have been produced in this way. For instance, if two species of wild strawberries were found, one, large and beautiful but sour or tasteless, the other, small but delicious, the two could be bred together until finally a perfect berry, large and well-flavored, would result.

Flowers Needing Cross-Fertilization, Some with Ovary but no Stamens, Others with Stamens but no Ovary

When the children are interested in their gardens they can try to make a new flower, using for the first experiments one that comes up from the seed, blossoms, and matures its seeds the same year, and also readily changes its color as a result of cross-fertilization. Such are the petunia and the sweet-pea. The prettiest new flower produced can be marked and its seeds saved for future use, and the flower can have a name of its own. Florists often name their choice new flowers from some beautiful woman, and it would be a pretty tribute on the part of the child to name his favorite new petunia or sweet-pea after his mother. Of course this work will necessarily be very crude and the results uncertain, since the successful production of new plants is a science in itself; but enough can be done to interest the young experimenter thoroughly and enable him to learn many valuable lessons. In these early, childish experiments, an interest in gardening may be awakened, which will last through life, the man, the woman, finding rest, relaxation, exercise, and pleasure in going from the trying daily work to the garden a while every day. Even a plot of ground a few feet square can afford great opportunity for experiment and beauty.

Cross-fertilization among the plants does not, of course, depend upon man as an agent. Since cross-fertilization is so valuable, it is not surprising to find many devices in the plant world for securing it. Honey and color, which attract winged messengers, are among the most universal helps to cross-fertilization. In many cases, the structure of the flower is such that it cannot fertilize itself. In the geranium, the stamen and the pistil in the same flower mature at different times. In some species, as among the lilies, the style is so long that the pollen could not fall upon it without artificial aid. Some flowers are so constructed that they can be fertilized by certain kinds of insects and by no others; among these are the orchids and our clovers and milk-weeds. Again, some flowers have an ovary but no stamens, while a neighbor has stamens but no ovary, making self-fertilization absolutely impossible.

Indeed there is nothing more fascinating in the study of botany than the methods by which the flowers secure cross-fertilization, nearly all of our common garden-flowers affording illustrations. Here too, is a field where the young botanist can do really valuable work, for while much is known and has been written on the subject, much remains unknown. There are many books that give valuable and delightful information about cross-fertilization.