The uses and wonders of plant-hairs / by Kate E. Styan.

  • Styan, Kate E.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The uses and wonders of plant-hairs / by Kate E. Styan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    corona (termed a subsidiary organ of the flower) is made up of three weels; single ones are found in some species of Lilium, but specially in the Gentianaceae. In the true Gentians, a horizontal row of very beautiful, delicate hairs or fimbriations surrounds the opening of each corolla tube, forming a “ guard ” to the flower. Then, again, the lovely Buck-bean (Menyanthes trifoliata) owes its rich beauty to its frised or hairy petals, each of which is covered with a mass of tiny, pearly-pink, fimbriations, so closely packed that no creeping insect can easily cross its surface, and the appearance of the whole blossom, with its five pale pink petals, is one of very great charm. Sometimes the hairs forming these barriers, weels, etc., are pure white, but they very often partake of the same tone as the organ from whence they spring, as, for instance, lilac in the Gentian and pink in the Buck-bean. At the base of the corolla tube, and contiguous with the bases of the epipetalous stamens of the Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna), lies a circle of ver)^ soft, delicate greenish-white hairs, which protect the nectaries that are seated immediately beneath the hairy ring. In the Garden Pansy, a thick tuft of hairs stands at the base of each anterior petal, preventing the ingress of small insects as well as rain, and, in addition to proving useful, add a charm to the appearance of the bloom. It may, perhaps, sound strange to say so, but nevertheless is true, that in a few rare cases hairs may be regarded as instruments of imprisonment, as, for instance, in the Arum maculatum and Aris- tolochia clematitis. In the former, the fleshy spadix, upon which the pistils and stamens are borne, lies within an enveloping bract called the spathe, which