SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING

PLANTS

THE PLANT AND ITS PARTS.

The Vegetative Organs of Ox'alis cer'nua, the South African Sorrel.-To be a botanist, it is not enough to read about flowers, but you must always examine the living plants themselves;1 so, as soon as you can, get each of the plants referred to in this book, and compare it with what I have to say about it.

One of the commonest flowers which appears after the rains is the yellow-flowered Ox'alis called cer'nua, because of its drooping flowers, as that is the meaning of the Latin word cer'nua (Fig. 1).

Dig the whole plant up, and we will begin by studying those parts which keep the plant alive and enable it to grow, and indeed, in the case of this plant, to multiply it as well. Botanists call all such parts

1 It is advisable for the beginner to be provided with a penknife and a pocket-lens, for dissecting and examining the smaller parts of flowers.

as roots, stems, branches, leaves, and bulbs the Vegetative Organs, since any part of a plant which has something to do is called an Organ.

It is usual to call the flowers and fruit the Reproductive Organs, as their use is to make seed with which

FIG. 1.-I. Ox'alis cer'nua at day-time. Flowers and leaflets spreading.

to raise new plants; but this Ox'alis can and does also propagate itself by means of little bulbs, which are formed upon a long underground stem, and so this process is called Vegetative Multiplication.

If a plant of this Oxalis be growing among loose

stony soil, the tuft of leaves arises from the top of a long slender stem which has grown straight up from a bulb. From this slender stem true roots arise of a fine thread-like character, and spread horizontally.

A bulb of this plant consists of two or more tiny,

FIG. 1.-II. At night, flowers closed; leaflets depressed.

thick, and fleshy scales; they are really shortened and thickened leaf-stalks, without any blades, which contain a quantity of nourishment, chiefly starch, for the bud which is in the middle to live upon when it begins to grow, and until it has produced roots of its own.