Flora de Barral

“ But even here, there are visible traces of cultivation working in the spirit of a mountainous region—a few glades of the purest verdure opened out among the tall brackens, with a birch-tree or two dropped just where the eye of taste could have wished, had the painter planted the sapling, instead of the winds of heaven having wafted thither the seed—a small croft of barley, surrounded by a cairn-like wall made up of stones cleared from the soil, and a patch of potato ground, neat almost as the garden that shows in a nook its fruit-bushes and a few flowers. ”

“ It is interesting to note the various ways in which flowers render themselves conspicuous in order to attract insects. In the majority of Seed Plants, such as the Buttercup, Pea, Rose, Foxglove, it is the corolla, formed either of separate petals, as in the first three, or of petals fused together, as in the last, which by its bright colour or colours renders the flower noticeable. In other species the calyx takes on the function of advertisement, the corolla being in comparison insignificant—we may study examples of this in the Anemones, Hellebores, and Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) . ”

“ In garden flowers, also, we see most striking results of continuous selection. By taking advantage of the tendency of stamens and carpels to change occasionally into petals, and of petals to increase in number, “double flowers” have been effected. When “doubling” is complete—that is, when the conversion into petals is thorough—no seed can of course be produced, and the plants must be propagated by cuttings. Different other slight natural variations, exaggerated by selection and cultivation, have been the source of innumerable “varieties” in our gardens. ”

“ There are ninety species of plants, all told, common alike to Southwestern England and Ireland, and to the Pyrenean and Italian region. They represent an old flora no longer adapted to the country,—a flora of warmth and sunshine,—and now dying out under the advance of hardier, more vigorous and congenial species. They may be regarded as the last floral relics of the submerged land, that semi-tropical western land whose plants and flowers are not of Scandinavian origin, but derived from Southern Europe. ”

“ Leaf disease has now extended to every coffee-growing country in the Old World from Natal to Fiji.
In a tropical country leaves supply a substratum to a little flora of their own, consisting of organisms partly algal, partly fungal, in their affinity. Ward, who had already developed his characteristic habit of never neglecting any point incidental to a research, carefully studied them, in order both to ascertain how far their presence affected the health of the leaf itself and to work out their life-history. ”

“ Every hour—yea, every minute—on his upward journey, he is greeted by new forms of vegetable life and must needs at the same time bid farewell to others that may not accompany him beyond their own proper zones. But, although Flora’s children are ever changing, they are always beautiful and it would be difficult for the botanist to say where they challenge the most admiration—in the hot plains of the Orinoco and the Meta or high up on the cheerless and inhospitable paramo. ”

“ The shrubs of the alpine zone are mostly small and creeping, weaving themselves among the vegetation, and with low grasses and sedges forming a mat which is equally resistant to all inimical conditions. Their leaves are small, to avoid damage by wind or by excessive transpiration. In some genera—for instance, Veronica—the diminution of leaf surface accompanying more elevated habitat is very striking. ”

“ It literally covers the earth with a close carpet of rich golden bloom, and other plants, such as scarlet paint-brushes, blue Phacelias, and yellow and white tidy-tips, rise out of its golden tapestry. Mile after mile of it whirls by the car-window as we journey along, or long stretches of it gild the gently rounded hill-slopes of the distant landscape.
There are several other species of Bæria, but this is the most abundant and widespread. In some localities this little plant is so much frequented by a small fly, which feeds upon its pollen, that it is called "fly-flower." ”

“ Bhaer, in the dear old-fashioned way, “there was a great and wise gardener who had the largest garden ever seen. A wonderful and lovely place it was, and he watched over it with the greatest skill and care, and raised all manner of excellent and useful things. But weeds would grow even in this fine garden; often the ground was bad and the good seeds sown in it would not spring up. ”

“ There is a remarkable absence of undergrowth in the forests: few shrubs, and hardly any herbaceous plants appear. Among the former is the beautiful holly-leaved barberry, which, except the Veronica elliptica (V. decussata of our gardens) , is the only very handsome-flowered plant in this part of Fuegia. Two or three other woody plants, a second species of barberry, an Arbutus and an Escallonia (the latter allied to the saxifrages of the northern hemisphere) , almost conclude the list of shrubs. The banks and rocks that border the torrents exhibit a few Ferns and a luxuriant growth of Mosses. ”

“ But when the plant is old enough to flower, then branches devoid of roots grow out towards the light, so that the blossoms may be borne in the open, where they may be seen and visited by the numerous insects which, in their search for nectar, pollinate them. ”

“ This slender trailing plant may be found in open grassy thickets, by road side wastes, at the foot of old stumps, and similar localities, with the common Cinquefoil or Silver Leaf. This last species is much the most attractive plant to the lover of wild flowers. It abounds in dry gravelly and sandy soil, courting the open sunshine, rooting among stones, over which it spreads its slender reddish stalk, enlivening the dry arid wastes with its silvery silken leaves and gay golden rose-shaped blossoms. ”

“ In these the flowers are much larger owing to the increased size of the petals, which are of brilliant colour and of various shape. Pollen is mostly much reduced in quantity, since insects flying direct from flower to flower afford a far more economical mode of distribution than is offered by the wind. The pollen grains, moreover, are sticky and covered with tiny spines or knobs, to render them more liable to adhere to the body or head of an insect; the pollen grains of wind-fertilized flowers being, on the other hand, smooth, dry, and dust-like. ”

“ Vegetation is wonderfully rapid in its growth, the sunshine being so nearly constant during the ten weeks which intervene between seed-time and harvest. Barley grows here two and a half inches and peas three inches in twenty-four hours, for several consecutive days. It is an interesting fact that if the barley-seed be brought from a warmer climate it requires to become acclimated, and does not yield a good crop until after two or three seasons. The flowers of the torrid and temperate zones as a rule close their eye-lids like human beings, and sleep a third or half of the twenty-four hours ”

“ Is it, therefore, remarkable that a plant introduced from Japan into Europe, exposed to the influences of this great diversity of climate, should produce imperfect sexual organs incapable of further propagating the plant from seeds? A rich soil, with the necessary amount of moisture, will never engender double flowers." [567]
Mr. Darwin [568] describes a peculiar form of Gentiana Amarella, in which the parts of the flower were more or less replaced by compact aggregations of purple scales in great numbers. ”

“ Golden pollen from rye fields fairly flew in the air. Then came butterflies, so big that they looked like flying lilies. The bee-hive in a hollow oak was already so full of honey that it dripped down on the trunk of the tree. Then all the flowers whose seeds had been brought from foreign lands began to blossom. The loveliest roses climbed up the mountain wall in a race with the blackberry vines, and from the forest meadow sprang flowers as large as human faces.
Abbot Hans thought of the flower he was to pluck for Bishop Absalon ”

“ Baron von Müller's Report of 1857 on the researches made by him alone in the North Australian exploring expedition under Mr Gregory, exhibits 2000 new species, representing more than 800 genera, which belong to 160 different orders. He could discover no new natural order, or fundamental form of the vegetable kingdom, in a minute examination of the flora of Arnhem Land, the country around the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the Victoria River, but 60 genera were found that had not been noticed by any earlier Australian botanist. ”

“ But in a large number of instances—many of them of a most interesting nature—the inter-relations are such as to benefit both the actors, each obtaining from the other what is useful to it. One of the most conspicuous and widespread relationships of this kind is that prevailing between flowers and insects, the insect receiving food in the form of nectar, and at the same time carrying pollen from flower to flower, without which transfer no fertile seed would be formed. ”

“ It seems probable that they were evolved from Cycads, such as the Bennettiteæ, recent researches on magnificent fossil material discovered in America showing striking analogies between certain Cycadaceous flowers and those of such plants as Magnolias, Water Lilies, and Buttercups. Once established, the Angiosperms rose to primary importance in an extraordinarily short time—very possibly owing to the “invention” of insect pollination, which may have arisen at that period. ”

“ Berries have their seeds dropped afar by birds. Aquatic plants and those that grow beside running water travel by river and flood. European species reach our shores among the ballast. Darwin raised over sixty wild plants from seed carried in a pellet of mud taken from the leg of a partridge. So on and so on. The imagination delights to picture these floral vagabonds, each with its own clever method of getting a fresh start in the world. But by none of these methods just mentioned do the tick-trefoils spread abroad. ”

“ The plant has, nevertheless, not yet developed submersed pollination, the pollen-grains rising to the surface, where they are caught by the stigmas of floating female flowers. It follows that the individuals rooted in the deeper water, though growing vigorously, do not mature seed, for the production of which the species has to rely on plants which, at least at low water, are rooted sufficiently near the surface to allow the flowers to rise above it. ”

“ Even the Holly fern, and the Hay-scented, and the pretty Polystichum-proliferum [Pg 87] that most people consider a greenhouse plant, come up every year, punctual as the morning sunshine, and want nothing but water, and some fresh leaf-mould to grow into, now and then. Sometimes in the autumn we scatter them with dead leaves, and always leave the fronds to wither as they will; no tidying up is allowed. Here Nature holds her sway, and the touch of wildness in an otherwise well-ordered garden is refreshing. ”

“ Active motion, local and general, though usually of relatively small amount, accompanies all plant-growth. Throughout root, stem, leaf, and flower transference of material is going forward vigorously. The root hairs and stomata are working at high pressure; the chlorophyll never ceases its activities while daylight lasts. Externally, the growing branches, leaves, and flowers also display incessant movement, sweeping the air in small circles, or in the case of climbing plants in curves of considerable amplitude. ”

“ Each association, if the plants composing it be examined, will be found to consist of an assemblage of species, large and small, brought together by their superior fitness for the particular conditions which prevail. There are mostly in each association one or more dominant species—such as the trees of an Oak wood, or the Heather of a moor—which by their abundance or vigorous growth control the association. The shelter which they give may protect some of the members of the community: the shade which they cast may keep out other plants which otherwise would invade the ground. ”

“ Willows, birches, dwarfed to insignificant underbrush, venture as far as the southern extremities of Lapland, where the cultivation of barley, the hardiest of cultivated plants ceases. Beyond this point all woody vegetation ceases; and during the summer there are found only occasional tufts of grass and moss, hastily ripening their seeds in the sheltered hollows of the rocks. Further on the summer is too short for the snow and ice to melt completely; the ground is never bare, and all vegetation is impossible. ”

“ The Seed Plants, then, achieved their wonderful abundance and variety owing to the highly stimulating conditions offered by a terrestrial existence; we must assign to all the existing types a long terrestrial ancestry. How, then, about the water plants whose leaves and flowers so decorate our lakes? There seems no doubt [13] that they are species which have left the land to resume the aquatic habits of their remote ancestors. With few exceptions they retain the aerial mode of pollination which is the pride of the specialized land plants. ”

“ Once more, we have already from Farleton Fell observed that plants do not grow higgledy-piggledy over the country, but are arranged in more or less definite societies depending on similarity of climate, soil, and other external conditions. Studied from this point of view, the flora resolves itself into a series of communities, each requiring a certain set of conditions for its continued welfare. ”