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?