FLOWERS AND THEIR MARVELS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19067, 12 January 1924, Page 3

FLOWERS AND THEIR MARVELS

There are many beautiful things in Nature, but flowers, from their variety, multiplicity of colouring and diverse forms, have always attracted man’s attention. Nothing can be more brilliant and fascinating than the plumage of some birds, notably the humming birds of America, and the birds of paradise of New Guinea and adjacent islands, but these are d’.sappeaiing, and can be seen alive by only a few. The butterflies of tropical lands are also a dream of beauty, but cannot live in this and other cool climates. The vast majority of us can see them, often much faded, only in the cabinets of museums. Many shells are extremely lovely, but are deep in the sea beyond our vision. Such gems as the emerald, diamond, and opal, require much labour and skilled treatment, in order to bring out their charms, and they can be imitated ; but flowers are living things, to be found everywhere where civilised or savage men exist, and those of the most rare kinds can be raised in artificial temperatures in any clime. In the desert, even, flowers are found, also in the coldest regions. Spitzbergen, those islands in the farthest north, during their short spring and summer, produce more than 80 kinds of plants which bear flowers, many of them very attractive. Western Australia, though a dry area, is noted for its exquisite wild flowers. On very high mountains native flowers grow profusely during spring and summer, and on the far Southern Auckland Islands, 300 miles south of New Zealand, there, is one place known as Fairchild’s Garden, after, the late Captain Fairchild, where flbwers, not sown', but growing naturally, form such a ■beautiful sight vtliat it has been declared by competent authorities that the field at a certain season is one of the most beautiful sights in the world, and well worth travelling thousands of miles to see. We consider that these gorgeous living few’els were specially created for our enjoyment, but that is not so. They often flourish where human eyes never see them, and were in existence long, long before man appeared on the earth. With their ravishing colours, scents, and nectars, they captivate and bewilder us, but behind all these allurements there is much more that is marvellous and one purpose only that runs throughout the whole floral creation. The concealed marvels are the amazing structures of flowers bv which this purpose is effected, and the aim of the colours, odours, honeys, nectars, and structures is to ensure'" the meeting of male and female germs, so necessary to the continuance of the higher forms of life. Before a seed can be produced by any flowering plant there must be this union. The pollen, or male cell, must find its way to the ovum, egg or female cell, on the same plant or on another near or far away. This great event in the life of all living things, except the one-celled lowly plants and animals, is the sole purpose of flowers. All the entrancing loveliness of flowers, their varied odours, secreted sweets, and extraordinary forms, have their origin in this cll-importaut necessity of bringing the tiny pollen cells and ova together. Without this meeting there can he no seeds to start again the mysterious cycle of life. The lives of flowers are almost as strange as anything in the universe.—M. J. W. Poynton, S.M., in the Young Citizen.