21. Taking a flower apart

The lesson, step by step

1. Hook question

   SayWhy does a primrose bother to be yellow? Green would protect its seeds just as well.

   Buckley calls this "a secret well worth knowing." Keep the question in mind.

2. Read together

   Read pages 163 and 164.

   Remember that the seed is the one important thing, and then notice how the flower protects it.

   The green outer cup (calyx) wraps the bud. The colored crown (corolla) opens next. Inside are little yellow bags full of dust:

   the same as the powder which sticks to your nose when you put it into a lily

3. Try it: take a flower apart

   On the white paper, gently pull the flower apart from the outside in, laying each part in a row:

   1. The green sepals (the calyx).

   2. The colored petals (the corolla).

   3. The stamens: stalks with pollen bags on top. Tap one on the paper to see the pollen dust.

   4. The pistil in the middle: a sticky top (stigma), a stalk, and a fat seed-box at the bottom. Cut the seed-box open with a fingernail and look for the tiny ovules with the magnifying glass.

   Tape a sample of each part into the notebook and label it.

   Safety: lily pollen stains clothes, and lilies are poisonous to cats; wash hands afterward.

4. The two kinds of primrose

   If you have a primrose, look down the tube: do you see the yellow pollen bags at the top, or a round green knob? Look at Fig. 43 on page 163. Some primroses have one kind, some the other. Buckley explains (pages 166 to 168) that a bee visiting both kinds carries pollen exactly from the right place in one to the right place in the other.

   The seeds are much stronger and better if the dust or pollen of one flower is carried away and left on the knob or stigma of another flower

5. The secret of the golden crown

   Read page 168.

   And so we see that the pretty sweet-scented corolla is not only delightful for us to look at and to smell, but it is really very useful in helping the primrose to make strong healthy seeds

   Buckley says the tube tastes sweet with honey. Never eat or taste wild flowers, leaves or berries. Just look for the sweet spot at the bottom of the tube with the magnifying glass.

6. Tell it back and check

   Your child tells the primrose's life story from seed to seed. Then ask:

   1. What is the most important thing a flower makes?

   2. Where is the pollen?

   3. Why do flowers have bright colors and sweet smells?

7. What we know now

   The two kinds of primrose are called "pin" (the knob at the top) and "thrum" (the pollen bags at the top). Charles Darwin studied them, just as Buckley says. Buckley ends by suggesting you burn dry leaves to see the stored sunbeams come back as flame; please don't. And she says plant life is a mystery from the "Great Father": read that as your family wishes.