Life Histories of Familiar Plants By John J. Ward

Product details

Publisher ‏: Daya Publishing House
Author : John J. Ward
Language ‏: English
Edition : Latest By Publishers
Book Cover : Hard Back
ISBN : 9788170351665

Table of Content

Contents Chapter 1: The Wild Camomile: A Weed of Eminence; The advent of the cammomile On the rubbish heap A veritable sea of daisy blooms Eminence in rank Its relations The daisy-like inflorescence under a magnifying lens Primitive flowers Insects and pollen Nectar Plants the first advertisers Specialisation for insect visitors Origin of petals Saving the times of the busy bee Fertilisation Why daisies are so lasting as cut Flowers The white florets Mimicry of a flower Foliage Difference in the behaviour of the camomile and field daisy at night; Chapter 2: The Sycamore Key; The boisterous wind and the sycamore trees Its seeds or Keys Provision for its offspring Dispersion of the seeds The young root and the nurse-leaves First pair of true leaves Buds and branches The pendent stalk of flowers A veritable flies picnic Flowers a fly speciality The schemefor pollination Unisexual flowers and cross-fertilisation Hairs from the body of the bee Keys in the process of manufacture The seedling plant within the Key Development of Wings The whirling flight; Chapter 3: The Common Arum or Cuckoo-Pint; Science reveals economy in the beauties of nature A function for every detail associated with the organism The quaint form of the inflorescence A veritable army of midge-flies within How the arum starts life Development Function of the leaves Meaning of the quaint floral structure The midge-fly Drunken orgies within the bloom Buried in the yellow pollen dust Temperature inside the bloom Effects of the cooler air The reason of the arums generosity Arum not a flower Structural details The purple club How the midges are entrapped The flowers mature Cross-fertilisation Intoxicating nectar Showers of pollen How the pollen in conveyed Taking in the signpost Brilliant red berries A self-contradictory theory Thrushes development of a power to resist poison A successful plant more to nature than a foolish animal; Chapter 4: Catkins; All forest trees bear flowers Plants that do not appear to produce flowers Fruit necessarily a product of the flower Hazel catkins and hedge-nuts The catkin a pendent spike of male flowers Female catkins Bee and catkins Insects not desired Little shelves loaded with pollen Wind and clouds of pollen Structure beautifully adapted for action of the wind Pollen blown to distant towns Size of pollen grains Stigmas and pollination Their crimson colour Germination of the pollen grain Cross-pollination Alder catkins Flowers of the ash and the elm The perfect unity that underlies all natures processes; Chapter 5: Sensitive Plants; The Woolly Bear or larva of the tiger-moth and its sense of touch The hedgehog Defensive actions of caterpillar and hedgehog Sense of touch in plants The sensitive plant Grazing animals and sensitive plants Tempting green leaves instantly become scrubby fare Protective movements A caterpillar amongst the leaves How the