trifle. Do you like butter? However, this is not a mere fold, but is a little scale growing there -a scale with a mission, for beneath it is developed the nectar. When the buttercup first opens, all of the anthers are huddled in the center, so that it looks like a golden nest full of golden eggs. Later the filaments stretch up, lifting the anthers into a loose, rounded tuft, almost concealing the bunch of pistils which are packed close together beneath every stigma, like Bre'r Rabbitt, "laying low." Later, the filaments straighten back, throwing the anthers in a fringy ring about the pale green pistils; and each pistil sends up a short, yellowish stigma. The anthers open away from the pistils and thus prevent self-pollenation to some degree; they also seem to shed much of their pollen before the stigmas are ready to receive it. Sometimes petals and sepals fall simultaneously and sometimes first one or the other; but they always leave the green bunch of pistils with a ragged fringe of old stamens clinging to them. Later the seeds mature, making a globular head. Each seed is a true akene; it is flattened and has at its upper end a short, recurved hook which may serve to help it to catch a ride on passers-by. However, the seeds are largely scattered by the winds. The buttercup grows in sunny situations, in fields and along roadsides, but it cannot stand the shade of the woods. It is a pretty plant; its long stems are downy near the bottom, but smooth near the flower; the leaves show a variety of forms on the same plant; the lower ones have many, (often seven) deeply cut divisions, while the upper ones may have three irregular lobes, the middle one being the longest. Beetles are very fond of the nectar and pollen of buttercups, and therefore are its chief pollen carriers; but flies and small bees and other insects also find their food in these brilliant colored cups. Buttercup flower enlarged. Note the scale covering the nectar at the base of the falling petal. LESSON CXXVII THE BUTTERCUP Leading thought-The buttercup grows with the white daisies, in sunny places, but each buttercup is a single flower, while each daisy is a flower family. Method-Buttercups brought by the pupils to school may serve for this lesson. Observations-1. Look at the back of a flower of the buttercup. What is there peculiar about the sepals? How do the sepals look on the buttercup bud? How do they look later? 2. Look into the flower. How many petals are there? Are there the same number of petals in all the flowers of the same plant? What is the shape of a petal? Compare its upper and lower sides. Take a fallen petal, and look at its pointed base with a lens and note what is there. 3. How do the stamens look? Do you think you can count them? When the flower first opens how are the stamens arranged? How, later? Do the anthers open towards, or away, from the pistils? 4. Note the bunch of pistils at the center of the flower. How do they look when the flower first opens? How, later? 5. When the petals fall, what is left? Can you see now how each little pistil will develop into a seed? 6. Describe the seed-ball and the seed. 7. Look at the buttercup's stems. Are they as smooth near the base as near the flower? Compare the upper leaf with the lower leaf, and note the difference in shape and size. 8. Where do the buttercups grow? Do we find them in the woods? What insects do you find visiting the flowers? THE EVENING PRIMROSE Teacher's Story "Children came To watch the primrose blow. Silent they stood, And blossom-with a silken burst of sound." -MARGARET DELAND. To the one who has seen the evening primrose unfold, life is richer by a beautiful, mysterious experience. Although it may be no more wonderful than the unfolding of any other flower, yet the suddenness of it makes it seem more marvelous. For two or three days it may have been getting ready; the long tube which looks like the flower stem has been turning yellow; pushing up between two of the sepals, which clasp tips beyond it, there appears a row of petals. Then some warm evening, usually about sunset, but varying from four o'clock in the afternoon to nine or ten in the evening, the petals begin to unfurl; they are wrapped around each other in the bud as an umbrella is folded, and thus one edge of each petal becomes free first. The petal first in freeing its edge seems to be doing all the work, but we may be sure that all the others are pushing for freedom; little by little the sepals are pushed downward, until their tips, still clasped, are left beneath; and the petals now free, suddenly flare open before our delighted eyes, with a movement so rapid that it is difficult for us not to attribute to them consciousness of action. Three or four of these flowers may open on a plant the same evening; and they, with their fellows on the neighboring plants, form constellations of starry bloom that invite attention from the winged creatures of the twilight and the night. There is a difference in the time required for a primrose flower to unfold, probably depending upon its vigor; once I watched for half an hour to see it accomplished, and again I have seen it done in two or three minutes. The garden species seems to unfold more rapidly than the wild species, and is much more fragrant. The rapidity of the opening of the blossom depends upon the petals getting free from the sepals, which seem to try to repress them. The bud is long, conical, obscurely four-sided, and is completely covered by the four sepals, the tips of which are cylindrical and twisted together; this is an interesting habit, and one wonders if they hold the petals back until the latter are obliged to burst out with the force of repressed energy; after they let go of the petals, they drop below the flower angularly, and finally their tips open and each sepal turns back lengthwise along the seed-tube. 1 2 1, Evening primrose, showing buds, one ready to open, a flower just opened above at the left, an older flower at the right, a fading flower and seedcapsules below. 2, Seed-capsules. Cross section of seed-capsule with seeds above. The four lemon-yellow petals are broad, with the outer margin notched. The eight stamens are stout, and set one at the middle of each petal and one between each two petals. The long, pale yellow anthers discharge their pollen in cobwebby strings. When the flower first opens, the stigma is egg-shaped and lies below the anthers; later, it opens into a cross and usually hangs off at one side of the anthers. If we try to trace the style back to the ovary, we find that it extends down into what seems to be the very base of the flower stem, where it joins the main stem. This base is enlarged and ribbed and is the seed-box, or ovary. The tube is rich in nectar, but only the long sucking-tubes of moths can reach it, although I have sometimes seen the ubiquitous bees attempting it. The butterflies may take the nectar in the daytime, for the blossoms of the wild species remain open, or partially open, for a day or two. But the night-flying moths which love nectar have the first chance, and it is on them the flower depends for carrying its pollen, threaded on filmy strings. There are times when we may find the primrose blossoms with holes in the petals, which make them look very ragged. If we look at such plants carefully, we may find the culprit in the form of a green caterpillar very much resembling the green tube of the bud; and we may conclude, as Dr. Asa Fitch did, that this caterpillar is a rascal, because it crawls out on the bud-ends and nibbles into them, thus damaging several flowers. But this is only half the story. Later this caterpillar descends to the ground, digs down into it and there changes to a pupa; it remains there until the next summer, then, from this winter cell, emerges an exquisitely beautiful moth called the Alaria florida; its wings expand about an inch, and all except the outer edges of the front wings are rose-pink, slightly mottled with lemon-yellow, which latter color decorates the outer margins for about one-quarter of their length; the body and hind-wings are whitish and silky, the face and antennæ are pinkish. Coiled up beneath the head is a long sucking-tube which may be unfolded at will. This moth is the special pollen-carrier of the evening primrose; it flies about during the evening, and thrusts its long, tubular mouth into the flower to suck the nectar, meanwhile gathering strings of pollen upon the front part of its body. During the day, it hides within the partially closed flower, thus carrying the pollen to the ripened stigmas, its colors meanwhile protecting it almost completely from observation. The fading petals of the primrose turn pinkish, and the pink color of the moth renders it invisible when in the old flowers, while the lemon-yellow tips of its wings protruding from a flower still fresh and yellow, forms an equally perfect protection from observation. The evening primrose is an ornamental plant in both summer and winter. It is straight, and is ordinarily three or four feet tall, although it sometimes reaches twice that height. It is branched somewhat, the lower portion being covered with leaves and the upper portion bearing the flowers. The leaves are pointed and lanceolate, with few whitish veins. The leaf edges are somewhat ruffled and obscurely toothed, especially in the lower leaves. The leaves stand up in a peculiar way, having a short, pink petiole, which is swollen and joins the stalk like a bracket. The upper leaves are narrower; the leafy bracts at the base of the flower grow from the merest slender leaflet at the base of the bud, to a leaf as long as the seed-pod, when the flower blooms. The seed-capsules are four-sided, long and dark green. In winter they are crowded in purplish-brown masses on the dry stalks, each one a graceful vase with four flaring tips. At the center of each there projects a needlelike point; and within the flaring, pale, satin-lined divisions of these urns, we may see the brown seeds which are tossed by the winter winds far and near. The young plants develop into vigorous rosettes during the late summer and autumn, and thus discreetly pass the winter under the snow coverlet. Leading thought-Some flowers have developed the habit of relying on the night-flying insects for carrying their pollen. The evening primrose is one of these; its flowers open in the evening and their pale yellow color makes them noticeable objects in the twilight, and even in the dark. Method-The form of the evening primrose may be studied from plants brought to the schoolroom; but its special interest lies in the way its petals expand in the evening, so the study should be continued by the pupils individually in the field. This is one of the plants which is an especially fit subject for the summer note-book; but since it blossoms very late and the plants are available even in October, it is also a convenient plant to study during the school year. The garden species is well adapted for this lesson. Observations-1. Look at the plant as a whole. How tall is it? Is the stem stiff and straight? Where do you find it growing? Does it grow in the woods? 2. Are the leaves near the base the same shape as those at the top of the plant? What is their shape? Are the edges toothed? What is there peculiar about the veins? How do the leaves join the stem? How |