plant will often have several leaves before putting forth roots. runner may start one or more new strawberry plants. After the young plant has root growth so as to be able to feed itself, the runner ceases to carry sap from the main stem and withers to a mere dry fiber. The parent plant continues to live and bear fruit, for the strawberry is a perennial, but the later crops are of less value. Gardeners usually renew their plots each year, but if intending to harvest a second year's crop, they cut off the runners as they form.

Leading thought-The strawberry plant has two methods of perpetuating itself, one by the seeds which are grown on the outside of the strawberry fruits, and one by means of runners which start new plants wherever they find place to take root.

Method-It would be well to have a strawberry plant, with roots and runners attached, for an observation lesson by the class. Each pupil should have a leaf, including the clasping stipules and sheath at its base. Each one should also have a strawberry blossom and bud, and if possible a green or ripe fruit.

Observations-1. What kind of root has the strawberry? What is its

color?

2. How are the leaves of the strawberry plant arranged? Describe the base of the leaf and the way it is attached to the stem. Has each leaflet a pedicel or stem of its own? How many leaflets are there? Sketch a strawberry leaf, showing the edges and form of the leaflets, and the veins.

3. From what part of the plant do the runners spring? When do the runners begin to grow? Does the runner strike root before forming a new plant or does the little plant grow on the runner and draw sustenance from the parent plant?

4. What happens to the runners after the new plants have become established? Does the parent plant survive or die after it sends out many runners?

5. Describe the strawberry blossom. How many parts are there to the hull or calyx? Can you see that five of these are set below the other five?

6. How many petals has it? Does the number differ in different flowers? Has the wild strawberry as many petals as the cultivated ones? 7. Study with a lens the small green button at the center of the flower. This is made up of pistils so closely set that only their stigmas may be seen. Do you find this button of pistils in the same blossom with the stamens? Does the wild blossom have both stamens and pistils in the

same flower?

8. Describe the stamens. What insects carry pollen for the strawberry plants?

9.

Are the blossoms arranged in clusters? Do the flowers all open at the same time? What parts of the blossom fall away and what parts remain when the fruit begins to form?

IO.

Are the fruits all of the same shape and color? Is the pulp of the same color within as on the surface? Has the fruit an outer coat or skin? What are the specks on its surface?

II.

How many kinds of wild strawberries do you know? How many kinds of cultivated strawberries do you know?

12.

bed.

Describe how you should prepare, plant and care for a strawberry

THE PUMPKIN
Teacher's Story

If the pumpkin were as rare as some orchids, people would make long pilgrimages to look upon so magnificent a plant. Although it trails along the ground, letting Mother Earth help it support its gigantic fruit, yet there is no sign of weakness in its appearance; the vine stem is strong, ridged, spiny and purposeful. And the spines upon it are surely a protection under some circumstances, for I remember distinctly when, as children, bare-footed and owning the world, we "played Indian" and found our ambush in the long rows of ripening corn, we skipped over the pumpkin vines, knowing well the punishment they inflicted on the unwary feet.

From the hollow, strongly angled stem arise in majesty the pumpkin leaves, of variously lobed patterns, but all formed on the same decorative plan. The pumpkin leaf is as worthy of the sculptor's chisel as is that of the classic acanthus: it is palmately veined, having from three to five lobes, and its broad base is supported for a distance on each side of the angled petiole by the two basal veins. The leaves are deep green above, paler below and are covered on both sides with minute bristles, and their edges are finely toothed. The bristly, angled stem which lifts it aloft is a

quite worthy support for so beautiful a leaf. And, during our childhood, it was also highly esteemed as a trombone, for it added great richness of quality to our orchestral performances, balancing the shrillness of the basswood whistle and the sharp buzzing of the dandelion-stem pipe.

Growing from a point nearly opposite a leaf, may be seen the pumpkin's elaborate tendril. It has a stalk like that of the leaf, but instead of the leaf blade it seems to have the three to five naked ribs curled in long, small coils very even and exact. Perhaps, at some period in the past, the pumpkin vines lifted themselves by clinging to trees, as do the gourd vines of to-day. But the pumpkin was cultivated in fields with the maize by the North American Indians, long before the Pilgrim Fathers came to America, to make its fruit into pies. Since the pumpkin cannot sustain itself in our Northern climate without the help of man, it was evidently a native of a warmer land; and, by growing for so long a time as a companion of the corn, it has learned to send its long stems out for many feet, resting entirely upon the ground. But, like a conservative, elderly maiden lady, it still wears corkscrew curls in memory of a fashion, long since obsolete. Occasionally, we see the pumpkin vines at the edge of the field pushing out and clambering over stone piles, and often attempting to climb the rail fences, as if there still remained within them the old instinct to climb.

But though its foliage is beautiful, the glory of the pumpkin is its vivid yellow blossom and, later, its orange fruit. When the blossom first starts on its career as a bud, it is enfolded in a bristly, ribbed calyx with five stiff, narrow lobes, which close up protectingly about the green, coneshaped bud, a rib of the cone appearing between each two lobes of the

calyx. If we watch one of these buds day after day, we find that the green cone changes to a yellow color and a softer texture as the bud unfolds, and then we discover that it is the corolla itself; however, these ribs which extend out to the tip of the corolla-lobes remain greenish below, permanently. The expanding of the flower bud is a pretty process; each lobe, supported by a strong midrib, spreads out into a five-pointed star, each point being

very sharp and angular because, folded in along these edges in one of the prettiest of Nature's hems, is the ruffled margin of the flower. Not until the sun has shone upon the star for some little time of a summer morning, do these turned-in margins open out; and, late in the afternoon or during a storm, they fold down

again neatly before the lobes close up; if a bee is not lively in escaping she may, willy-nilly, get a night's lodging, for these folded edges literally hem her in.

The story of the

treasure at the

2

The closing of a pumpkin flower.

3

heart of this starry, 1, Staminate flower beginning to close; note the folded edges of the lobes 2, Pistillate flower nearly closed. 3, Staminate flower closed bell-shaped flower and in its last stage.

is a double one, and

we had best begin it by selecting a flower that has below it a little green globe-the ovary-which will later develop into a pumpkin. At the heart of such a flower there stand three stigmas, that look like liliputian boxing-gloves; each is set on a stout, postlike style, which has its base in a great nectar-cup, the edges of which are slightly incurved over its welling sweetness. In order to reach this nectar, the lady bee must stand on her head and brush her pollen-dusted side against the greedy stigmas. Professor Duggar has noted that in dry weather the margins of this nectar-cup contract noticeably, and that in wet weather the stigmas close down as if the boxing-gloves were on closed fists.

The other half of the pumpkin-blossom story is to be found in the flowers which have no green globes below them, for these produce the pollen. Such a flower has at its center a graceful pedestal with a broad

The staminate blossom of the pumpkin, showing the anther knob at the center. A bud of the staminate flower; and a closed blossom at the right.

base and a slender stem, which upholds a curiously folded, elongate knob, that looks like some ancient or primitive jewel wrought in gold. The corrugations on its surface are the anther-cells, which are curiously joined and curved around a central oblong support; by cutting one across, we can see plainly the central core, bordered by cells filled with pollen. But where is the nectar well in the smooth cup of this flower? Some have

St

2

an

1, Base of pistillate blossom; o, ovary which develops into the
pumpkin; n, nectar cup; st., stigmas. 2, Base of a
staminate blossom; n, opening into the nectar cup; an,
anthers joined, forming a knob. 3, Pumpkin tendril.