Flowers

THE FLOWERS


FLOWERS

A flower is a part of a plant that forms pollen or seeds or both. Only seed-bearing plants have true flowers. Other plants like the algae, fungi, and mosses have none.And, only those parts of a plant which have to do with the forming of seeds are parts of the flower.
The bright colors, sweet smell, and nectar are necessary to attract insects. The insects are neededto help the flower make seeds that will grow into a new plant.
A person, who thinks of a flower simply as something brightly colored which grows on a plant, may be led far astray. The brilliantscarlet poinsettia blossoms which one sees at Christmas are not true flowers, but simply brilliantly colored leaves which surround the small and dull flowers at the tip of the cluster. Similarly, the largecreamy “petals” of the lovely dogwood “blossoms” that bloom in spring are not petals at all but simply brightly colored bracts surrounding the small inconspicuous flowers. In the callas that are usedso much at Easter, the great white sheath is not a single flower but a bract or leaf which surrounds and protects a club-shaped mass on which many small flowers are tightly crowded together.
Someflowers are used in the manufacture of perfumes, although they have been replaced largely by chemically manufactured products. The oils of lavender, thyme, and rosemary are three perfume oils takenpartly from flowers. Flowers are also used to a certain extent as drugs. The drugs arnica and cannabis both come from the flowering tops of plants. The nectar of flowers is used by the bees in themanufacture of honey. But the principal value of flowers to man is for beauty and the fruits which follow them. Great business enterprises deal with seeds, the breeding of young plants in nurseries, and thesale of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants as well as cut flowers.

Types of flowers
Many thousands of years flowers personify beauty, pleasure and perfection of nature.
Flowers give many...