Read Ebook: Flowers and their friends by Morley Margaret Warner

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Ebook has 899 lines and 53924 words, and 18 pages

The calyx covers the base of the corolla and forms a green urn, a little vase, in which to hold it secure from harm.

It is not bright and delicate like the corolla, but what would the flower do without it?

BLOSSOM DEAR.

Blossom dear, what is the power Draws the shining wings to thee? Nestled in thy dainty bower I can always find a bee.

Little friend, my bees find honey Hidden deep as deep can be. Without fear and without money Come they for these sweets to me.

Dear, I cannot give you honey. Shall I truly tell you why? Bees pay better worth than money As they have wings, but you can't fly!

So I coax them with my honey, Feed them with my very best, While their wings bear life to many Waiting in the cradle nest.

For the children of the flowers Need the precious pollen dust, And the bees have winged powers To bear to them this sacred trust.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GARDEN.

The morning-glory lay rolled up in the bud down under the leaves. One day it bloomed.

The firm stem held it up, the bud unrolled, and the blossom stood there, fresh and fair.

The bees saw it from afar, and came as fast as they could.

They flew to the pink corolla, and, entering, enjoyed the feast spread for them.

The morning-glory, because of their coming, had filled the nectar cups and opened the boxes of snow-white pollen.

One after the other the bees came, drank the nectar, and carried away the pollen. As fast as the cups were emptied they were filled again.

The honeybees and the bumblebees were provided with baskets, which they filled with pollen; but the other bees carried it away on the long hairs of their bodies.

The morning-glory glowed in the sunshine all day long, happy, no doubt, in the consciousness that the little seed-children had begun to grow. It was because of them the bees were made so welcome.

We can imagine the flower might feel like saying, "This is my seed-children's birthday party; come often, dear bees, and sip my nectar and take my pollen. But be like the good fairies and bring each a gift to my seed-children."

The bees buzzed and came and went and came and went.

Each time they took away nectar and pollen to their hives, and each time left something for the seed-children.

Do you suppose they left a cap of darkness, and a pair of seven-league boots, and a sword that always conquered, and a magic carpet that took people wherever they wanted to go, as the fairies used to do in the times when fairies were alive and came to the christenings of little children?

I do not think the bees brought any of these things to the birthday party of the seed-children.

The bees, not being real fairies, were obliged to bring what they could.

Now, the day that the pink morning-glory bloomed, a great many other morning-glories came out of their buds, and they all gave the bees a welcome.

They filled their cups with nectar and opened their boxes of snow-white pollen.

Such a feast as was spread for the bees! Blue morning-glories, and pink and purple and white ones, on all sides they stood, fresh and smiling, and invited the bees to come.

And the bees came. They went from one to the other as fast as they could. They sucked up nectar from all, and took it home and made morning-glory honey of it. And they gathered snow-white pollen from all, and took it home and made morning-glory beebread of it.

But they did not carry home all the snow-white pollen. They bore some of it as gifts to the seed-children.

The seed-children needed the pollen; they could not grow into seeds without it, and they needed the pollen from another flower, not that from their own. So the pollen the bees brought them was better far than caps or boots or carpets or any of those things the fairies used to bring to human children.

And this is why the morning-glories made the bees so welcome. They could not take their pollen to each other, for they could not leave their stems; so they employed the bees to carry it for them.

The morning-glories nodded to each other across the garden. "I will send my bee to you," one said to another, and the bee came and left a few grains of pollen from the friendly flower. In this way the morning-glories exchanged pollen all day long, so that each had plenty of fresh neighbors' pollen to give the seed-children.

The flowers lasted all day, from sunrise to sunset, and the nectar lasted all day, and the snow-white pollen. But when night came the bees went home to sleep, and the morning-glories, too, slept. They rolled in the edges of their corollas so that the way to the nectar cups was closed.

Next day the morning-glories did not open again. There was no more nectar in their cups and no more snow-white pollen in their anther cells. Other morning-glories came out of their buds and invited the bees, but these staid shut. Soon the corollas, faded now and no longer lovely to look at, fell off. Their work was done. They had been beautiful to show how happy they were and how lovely life was; by their beauty, too, they had brought the bees and gained the pollen they wanted to make other lovely flowers live. Now, their messages of love and happiness given, they fell off, and the pollen boxes, empty and withered, fell with them.

But they left behind life and hope, for each tiny seed had received its grain of life-assuring pollen. For only the corolla and the stamens fell. The seed-children still clung to the stem; they lay in their cradles, nicely wrapped up by the green calyx leaves. And then the little stems that held the seed-babies' cradles turned down and hid the little cradles under the leaves.

The seed-babies grew and grew. They would soon have outgrown their cradles, only the strange thing is, the cradles grew too! They grew as fast as the seeds and kept them snug and safe.

So all summer long, until the frost came and it was time for the morning-glories to take their long winter sleep, the buds opened in the morning. All summer long the bright morning-glories filled their cups with nectar and opened their boxes of snow-white pollen for the bees. And all summer long the seed-children received their pollen and grew and grew in their cradles that grew too. But after a while the green cradles turned brown. And after another while the brown cradles opened to let the seed-children look out, and as soon as this happened every little black seed--for they had grown quite black by this time--fell out of its cradle! It did not hurt it to fall out, for it tumbled and rolled down to the earth, where, at last, the wind came and covered it with leaves, as the robins covered up the babes in the woods. And the little black seed-babies lay there as snug as seed-babies could be.

Then the snow came and spread a blanket over them, and the leaves and the snow kept them as warm as they wanted to be until springtime came and the snow went away; and the seeds began to stretch themselves and think it was time to wake up and go out and see what was going on in the big world above.

THE OVULES

When the ovules get ready to grow, the flower prepares to bloom.

All about the ovules the delicate walls of the ovary shut tightly.

The white filaments of the stamens group themselves about it; you cannot see the ovary, they stand so close to it.

Their anther cells reach halfway up to the stigma, for the white stigma stands above the anthers. The anthers and the stigma are there for the sake of the ovules.

But this is not all.

A delicate corolla of bright colors surrounds the stamens and pistil. It holds them in its white tube, and spreads the bright border out wide for the bees to see and come to the help of the ovules.

But this is not all.

The green calyx wraps its sepals about the end of the corolla tube, and when the corolla falls the calyx covers nicely the ovary and helps it protect the ovules.

But this is not all.

When the bees have been and have left their message of life, and when the corolla has faded and fallen, the stems of the flowers turn down and hide the ovary with its seedlets under the leaves.

But this is not all.

The leaves work day and night to make food for the plant, and some of it goes to the ovules. The leaves eat what is in the air and change it to food for the rest of the plant and the ovules.

But this is not all.

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