Lesson CXXV

The Bluets

Leading thought—The bluets have two forms of flowers, the anthers and stigmas being placed in different positions in the two, in order to secure cross-pollenation by visiting insects.

Method—Ask the children to bring in several bits of sod covered with bluets. During recess let the pupils, with the aid of a lens if necessary, find the two different forms of flowers. Later, let each see a flower of each form with the tube opened lengthwise.

Observations—1. Where do the bluets grow? Do they grow singly or in masses? On what kind of soil do they grow, in woods or meadows? At what time of year do they bloom?

2. Describe the bluet flower, its color, the shape of its sepals, the form of the corolla, the color of the corolla-tube and lobes.

3. Where is the nectar in the bluet? What color shows where the nectar is to be found?

4. Look directly into the flowers. Do you see any with the stigmas thrust out of the corolla-tube? Is there more than one style? Has it one or two stigmas? Open this flower-tube and describe where the anthers are situated in it. How many anthers are there?

5. Look for a flower where the stigmas do not protrude and the anthers close the throat of the tube. Where are the stigmas in this flower, below or above the anthers? Where are the anthers attached?

6. Work out this problem: How do the insects gathering nectar from one form of the bluets become dusted with pollen in such a way as to leave it upon the stigma of the other form of the bluet flower?

7. How many sepals are there? Do they fall off when the blossom falls?

“So frail, these smiling babies,
Near mossy pasture bars,
Where the bloodroot now so coyly
Puts forth her snowy stars;
And the maple tall and slender,
With blossoms red and sweet,
Looks down upon the bluets
Close nestled at her feet.

‘Innocents’, the children call them,⁠—
These floral babies small,
Of Mother Nature olden,
Whose broad lap holds them all.”

—Ray Laurance.