FOR THE GIRLS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS

THE BLOSSOMING OF, A FLOWER

MAGIC. My Dear Girls, — I confess I screamed-—quite frankly and unashamedly I confess— but then who wouldn't when they discovered a great fat ugly spider crawling up their arm. Just as I was about to dash it to death Peter Pan intervened to save its life. "See," he said, "it has come from that bunch of lovely flowers on your desk—and if you killed all the spiders in the world, do you- know what would happen?" And so he went on from spiders to flies, birds, trees and animals, showing how one preyed on the other and proving that without them man's life would be impossible. He has gone off now to write a Tetter to you all about it, and the spider glares malevolently at me from his sanctuary amongst my pretty blooms. But Peter Pan has set me thinking, and I wonder what part flowers play in the grert scheme. Is it for their beauty, to gladden a dull world? Is it for their scent to sweeten the air? Or is it to fill the combs of industrious bees? Great as these services are, I feel that these count least amongst all their functions. Below the ground 1 , as well as- above, even the tiniest bloom is a royal slave working at the bidding of the Nature mother. Every blade of grass, every green stalk toils ceaselessly to create oxygen, without which man must surely die. Beneath the soil this roots of many produce nftrogen to purify and sweeten the earth that plants may grow in profusion Then in their appointed season comes, the flower the glory which crowns the plant's efforts. Sweet scent draws the bees to tasty nectar and the bee tenders his thanks by spreading the flower's golden nolle™' to propagate the species. , y " I hadf hoped to tell you more of the wonders of plant life girls but glancing up a moment or so ago from writing this letter, I observed' witl! a sinking feeling in my heart, thfct my spider enemy has been joined bv a fellow comrade. It is too unnerving. In desperation Peter Pan W been summoned to the rescue. My frayed nerves can stand the no longer. The spiders must go! strain And, would you believe it, aill that very provoking j . read to me, in a very calm and complacent tone, " wl ° extracts from his Boys' Letter, wherein he explains AyJ the necessity of insect and animal life to mankind. ».\/l He is very unsympathetic, your Club Captain, —