Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 34

Test Bank for Competing for

Advantage, 3rd Edition : Hoskisson


Go to download the full and correct content document:
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-competing-for-advantage-3rd-edition-hos
kisson/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Competing for Advantage 2nd Edition Hoskisson Solutions


Manual

https://testbankbell.com/product/competing-for-advantage-2nd-
edition-hoskisson-solutions-manual/

Test Bank for Strategic Management and Competitive


Advantage, 3rd Edition: Jay Barney

https://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-strategic-
management-and-competitive-advantage-3rd-edition-jay-barney/

Test Bank for Project Management: Achieving Competitive


Advantage, 3/E 3rd Edition Jeffery K. Pinto

https://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-project-
management-achieving-competitive-advantage-3-e-3rd-edition-
jeffery-k-pinto/

Test Bank for International Business: Competing in the


Global Marketplace, 13th Edition Charles Hill

https://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-international-
business-competing-in-the-global-marketplace-13th-edition-
charles-hill/
International Business Competing in the Global
Marketplace Hill 10th Edition Test Bank

https://testbankbell.com/product/international-business-
competing-in-the-global-marketplace-hill-10th-edition-test-bank/

Solution Manual for Project Management: Achieving


Competitive Advantage, 3/E 3rd Edition Jeffery K. Pinto

https://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-project-
management-achieving-competitive-advantage-3-e-3rd-edition-
jeffery-k-pinto/

International Business Competing and Cooperating in a


Global World 1st Edition Geringer Test Bank

https://testbankbell.com/product/international-business-
competing-and-cooperating-in-a-global-world-1st-edition-geringer-
test-bank/

International Business Competing in the Global


Marketplace Hill 10th Edition Solutions Manual

https://testbankbell.com/product/international-business-
competing-in-the-global-marketplace-hill-10th-edition-solutions-
manual/

Test Bank for Strategic Management and Competitive


Advantage, 4th Edition: Barney

https://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-strategic-
management-and-competitive-advantage-4th-edition-barney/
Test Bank for Competing for Advantage,
3rd Edition: Hoskisso

Full download chapter at: https://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-


for-competing-for-advantage-3rd-edition-hoskisson/
Chapter 1 - Introduction to Strategic Management

TRUE/FALSE

1. A sustained or sustainable competitive advantage occurs when a firm has implemented a value-
creating strategy that current competitors currently do not have, even if they are able to duplicate that
strategy in the near future.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 2


OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

2. Average returns are returns in excess of what an investor expects to earn from other investments with a
similar amount of risk.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 3


OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

3. The strategic management process requires the making of only a single decision about the overall
strategy of a firm.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 3


OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

4. Organizations must choose between the Industrial Organization Model and the Resource-Based Model
when it sets out on the strategic management process.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 3


OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

5. Businesses that have become uncompetitive because of an inability to make necessary changes for
continued success are even more common than businesses that fail.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 4


OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

6. In a hypercompetitive market, firms often aggressively challenge their competitors in hopes of


improving their competitive position and ultimately their performance.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 5


OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge
7. E-culture is the unique organizational environment created by Internet-based firms.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 7


OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

8. Information or intelligence does not help the organization compete unless it is transformed into usable
knowledge and diffused rapidly throughout the firm.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 7


OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension

9. The I/O (Industrial Organization) model assumes that a firm’s unique resources and capabilities are its
main source of above-average returns.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 11


OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

10. The I/O model suggests that above-average returns are earned when firms implement the strategy
dictated by the characteristics of the general, industry, and competitive environments.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 13 (Figure 1.2)


OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

11. The resource-based model assumes that firms may form a competitive advantage by having resources
that are rare or costly to imitate.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 14


OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

12. Resources are considered rare when they allow firms to exploit opportunities in the external
environment.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 16


OBJ: 3 NOT: knowledge

13. The I/O (Industrial Organization) model argues that core competencies are the basis of a firm’s
competitive advantage.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 14


OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

14. Customers, suppliers, unions, and local governments are examples of capital market stakeholders.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 17


OBJ: 4 NOT: knowledge

15. Employees, managers, and non-managers are examples of organizational stakeholders.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 17


OBJ: 4 NOT: knowledge

16. An organization’s “dream” is its strategic mission created by organizational strategists.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 21


OBJ: 6 NOT: knowledge

17. A stakeholder approach to strategic management is highly pertinent to a central problem management
is facing today - a general lack of trust of corporations and their managers.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 18


OBJ: 4 NOT: comprehension

18. Strategic thinking ignores the past and only focuses on value creation in the future.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 21


OBJ: 5 NOT: knowledge

19. Firms must provide enough flexibility in their strategic management process to allow for the
incorporation of new ideas with high potential.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 21


OBJ: 5 NOT: comprehension

20. The strategic management process is an informal approach to helping firms respond effectively to the
competitive environment.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 22


OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

21. Corporate-level strategy is concerned with how a diversified firm competes in each industry in which
it is active.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 23


OBJ: 6 NOT: knowledge

22. An organization’s willingness to tolerate or encourage unethical behavior is a reflection of its core
values.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 24


OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

23. Effective strategic leadership is essential to both strategic thinking and strategic flexibility.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: easy REF: p. 8


OBJ: 5 NOT: knowledge

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. What has a firm achieved when it successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy?
a. Value creation
b. A permanently sustainable competitive advantage
c. Substantial returns
d. Average returns
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 3
OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension
2. The strategic management process is:
a. a set of activities that is guaranteed to prevent organizational failure.
b. a process concerned with a firm’s resources, capabilities, and competencies, but not the
conditions in its external environment.
c. a set of activities that to date have not been used successfully in the not-for-profit sector.
d. a dynamic process involving the full set of commitments, decisions, and actions related to
the firm.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 3
OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

3. Two of the primary drivers of the new competitive landscape are:


a. slow technological changes and increased inflation.
b. emergence of a global economy and rapid technological change.
c. increased competition and decreasing tariffs.
d. increased availability of capital and increased competition.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 4
OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

4. Which of the following is a characteristic of the global economy?


a. The spread of economic innovations around the world
b. The free movement of goods, services, people, skills, and ideas across geographic borders
c. The increased use of artificial constraints, such as tariffs
d. The ability of a firm to be first to market its products in a developing country
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 4
OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension

5. In the new competitive landscape, firms will attain competitive success by:
a. continuing current corporate strategies.
b. meeting, or exceeding, global standards.
c. avoiding challenges that change their capabilities.
d. committing more resources to international products.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 7
OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge

6. A set of capabilities used to respond to various demands and opportunities existing in a dynamic and
uncertain competitive environment is:
a. strategic flexibility.
b. disruptive technology.
c. information, intelligence and expertise.
d. performance standards.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 8
OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension

7. An aspect of global competition is that it has increased performance standards in many dimensions.
These dimensions do NOT include:
a. production cost. c. social responsibility.
b. quality of product. d. decreased production time.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1 NOT: knowledge
8. The advent of inexpensive digital cameras able to compete with film cameras is an example of ____.
a. disruptive technology c. perpetual innovation
b. global competition d. hypercompetition
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 7
OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension

9. To achieve greater strategic flexibility, firms must:


a. hire additional personnel.
b. adapt quickly to changes in their competitive landscape.
c. report net losses for a period of three years.
d. acquire competing firms.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 8
OBJ: 1 NOT: comprehension

10. Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the Industrial Organization, or I/O, model?
a. Organizational decision makers are rational and committed to acting in the firm’s best
interests.
b. Resources to implement strategies are not highly mobile across firms.
c. The external environment is assumed to impose pressures and constraints that determine
the strategies that result in superior performance.
d. Firms in given industries, or given industry segments, are assumed to control similar
strategically relevant resources.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 12
OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

11. When utilizing the Industrial Organization, or I/O, model the key to success for a firm is:
a. proper utilization of the firm’s human resources.
b. selecting the most attractive industry in which to compete.
c. identifying the firm’s key competitive advantage.
d. developing the firm’s unique resources and capabilities.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 12
OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

12. The Industrial Organization, or I/O model, argues that:


a. the characteristics of the general, industry, and competitor environments dictate successful
organizational strategy.
b. the firm’s internal resources and capabilities represent the foundation for development of a
value-creating strategy.
c. internationalization in certain industries will lead to globalization.
d. firms should seek to maximize their returns by organizing their organizational structure in
a manner consistent with the most efficient producers in any given industry.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 11
OBJ: 2 NOT: knowledge

13. Research into the causes of firm profitability suggests a reciprocal relationship between ____ and ____
affects firm performance.
a. employee training, capital resources
b. the number of competitors, product innovation
c. the board of directors, corporate managers
d. the environment, firm strategy
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 11
OBJ: 2 NOT: comprehension

14. Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the resource-based model?


a. Each firm is a unique collection of resources and capabilities.
b. All firms possess the same strategically relevant resources.
c. Resources are not highly mobile across firms.
d. Firms acquire different resources and capabilities over time.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 14
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

15. The I/O model and the resource-based view of the firm suggest conditions that firms should study in
order to:
a. compete in domestic but not international markets.
b. examine strategic outputs achieved mainly in the last 5-year period.
c. engage in different sets of competitive dynamics.
d. develop the most effective strategy.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 14
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

16. The resource-based view of the firm:


a. suggests that resources, as compared to capabilities, are more closely linked with
sustainable competitive advantage.
b. argues that the industry environment has a stronger influence on firms’ ability to
implement strategies successfully than does the competitor environment.
c. calls for firms to focus on their homogeneous skills to compete against their rivals.
d. assumes that resources may not be mobile across firms.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 14
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

17. The resource-based model of the firm argues that:


a. all resources have the potential to be the basis of sustained competitive advantage.
b. resources are not a source of potential competitive advantage.
c. the key to competitive success is the structure of the industry in which the firm competes.
d. resources that are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and non-substitutable form the basis of a
firm’s core competencies.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 16
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

18. Which of the following is NOT a criterion that must be met in order for resources and capabilities to
become a competitive advantage under the resource-based model?
a. The resources and capabilities possessed by competitors are common.
b. The resources and capabilities are costly to imitate when firms cannot obtain them.
c. The resources and capabilities have no structural equivalents.
d. The resources and capabilities are valuable if they can be used to exploit opportunities.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 16
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

19. To have the potential to become sources of competitive advantage, resources and capabilities must be
valuable, ____, and ____.
a. common, easy to imitate.
b. easy to imitate, difficult to implement.
c. rare, costly to imitate.
d. easy to implement, costly to imitate.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 16
OBJ: 3 NOT: comprehension

20. Strategic intent seeks to ensure that:


a. the goals of the firm are realistic.
b. the goals of the firm are non-specific in order to allow creativity.
c. only top-level managers are committed to the goals of the organization.
d. all of the organization’s employees are focused on achieving the firm’s goals.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 21
OBJ: 5 NOT: knowledge

21. ____ has been effectively formed when employees believe fervently in their company’s product and
are totally focused on their firm’s ability to outcompete its competitors.
a. A culture of success c. An organizational mission
b. Competitive vision d. Strategic intent
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 21
OBJ: 5 NOT: knowledge

22. Strategic intent is primarily:


a. internally focused. c. industry focused.
b. externally focused. d. chief executive officer focused.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 21
OBJ: 5 NOT: comprehension

23. Product market stakeholders include the firm’s customers, and the principal concern of this
stakeholder group is:
a. maximizing the firm’s return on investment.
b. providing a stimulating career environment for employees.
c. to obtain reliable products at the lowest possible price.
d. increasing the profitability of the firm.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 18
OBJ: 4 NOT: comprehension

24. Stakeholders’ interests may conflict, and the organization must prioritize its stakeholders because it
cannot satisfy them all. The ____ is the most critical criterion in prioritizing stakeholders
a. Power of each stakeholder
b. Urgency of satisfying each stakeholder
c. Importance of each stakeholder to the firm
d. Influence of each stakeholder
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 20
OBJ: 4 NOT: knowledge

25. Generally speaking, product market stakeholders are satisfied when:


a. a firm’s profit margin yields the lowest return to capital market stakeholders that is
acceptable to them.
b. a firm’s profit margin yields an above-average return to its capital market stakeholders.
c. the interests of the firm’s organizational stakeholders have been maximized.
d. a firm grounds its operations in the principles of the resource-based view of the firm rather
than the principles of the I/O model.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: hard REF: p. 18
OBJ: 4 NOT: comprehension

26. Organizational stakeholders are usually satisfied when:


a. their return on investment has been maximized.
b. customers pay the highest sustainable price for the goods and services they receive.
c. companies are willing to be longer-term employers.
d. companies are growing and helping individuals develop their skills.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 18
OBJ: 4 NOT: evaluation

27. The strategic management process is intended to be a rational approach to help a firm:
a. analyze its position in the marketplace.
b. understand its rivals’ competitive moves.
c. design an extensive mission statement.
d. respond effectively to the challenges of the competitive environment.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 22
OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

28. In a diversified firm, corporate-level strategy is concerned with:


a. operating each individual business.
b. determining how each functional department of the firm will operate.
c. determining in which businesses to compete and how resources will be allocated between
businesses.
d. maximizing product distribution over rivals.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 23
OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

29. A business-level strategy describes:


a. the businesses in which the company intends to compete.
b. all policies and procedures used in functional departments.
c. the firm’s actions to exploit its competitive advantage over rivals.
d. a firm’s resources, intent, and mission.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 23
OBJ: 6 NOT: comprehension

30. Caterpillar’s performance during the recent economic recession is an example of:
a. the benefits of globalization.
b. advantages enabled by technological advances.
c. potential opportunities related to economic volatility.
d. threats existing in the competitive environment.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: med REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1 NOT: application

ESSAY
1. Define value creation and above-average returns.

ANS:
Value creation is achieved when firms develop and successfully implement a value-creating strategy.
Above-average returns are returns in excess of what investors expect to earn from other investments
with similar risk levels.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 2|p. 3 OBJ: 1

2. What is the 21st century competitive landscape?

ANS:
The pace of change in the 21st century is relentless and increasing. Even determining the boundaries of
an industry has become challenging. Conventional sources of competitive advantage, such as economics
of scale, are not as effective as they once were. Hypercompetition is characteristic of the 21 st century
competitive landscape. It results from the dynamics of strategic maneuvering among global and
innovative competitors. The primary drivers of hypercompetition are the emergence of a global economy
and rapid technological change.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 3|p. 8 OBJ: 1

3. Describe the Industrial Organization, or I/O, model of strategy.

ANS:
The I/O model is grounded in the economics discipline and argues that the external environment is the
primary determinant of firm success. The model has four underlying assumptions. First, the external
environment is assumed to impose pressures and constraints that determine the strategies that would
result in superior performance. Second, most firms competing within a particular industry, or in a
certain segment of the industry, are assumed to control similar strategically relevant resources and
pursue similar strategies in light of those resources. Third, resources used to implement strategies are
mobile across firms, which results in resource differences between firms being short lived. Fourth,
organizational decision makers are assumed to be rational and committed to acting in the firm’s best
interests as shown by their profit maximizing behaviors. The challenge for firms within the I/O model
is to find the best industries in which to compete.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 11|p. 14 OBJ: 2

4. Describe and discuss the resource-based model of the firm.

ANS:
The resource-based model of the firm focuses on the internal resources and capabilities of the firm as a
source of competitive advantage. The model assumes that each firm is a collection of unique resources
and capabilities. Resources are not highly mobile across firms. All firms within a particular industry
may not possess the same strategically relevant resources and capabilities. The resource-based model
suggests that core competencies are the basis for a firm’s value creation and its ability to earn above-
average returns.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 14|p. 17 OBJ: 3

5. Describe and discuss strategic intent and strategic mission.

ANS:
Strategic intent is the leveraging of a firm’s internal resources, capabilities, and core competencies to
accomplish the firm’s goals in the competitive environment. Strategic intent exists when all employees
of the organization are committed to the pursuit of a specific (and significant) performance criterion.
Based on its internal strategic intent, the firm then develops its externally oriented strategic mission. The
strategic mission is a statement of a firm’s unique purpose and the scope of its operations in product and
market terms. The mission provides the general description of the products a firm intends to produce
and the market(s) it will serve. The mission should establish the firm’s individuality and be inspiring
and relevant to all stakeholders.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 21|p. 23 OBJ: 5

6. Describe an organization’s various stakeholders and their different interests.

ANS:
Stakeholders are the individuals and groups who can affect and are affected by the strategic outcomes
achieved and who have enforceable claims on a firm’s performance. There are three principal types of
stakeholders. First, there are the capital market stakeholders. These stakeholders include the
shareholders and the major suppliers of capital to the firm. They are most interested in the return on
capital and profitability of the firm. The second group of stakeholders is the product market
stakeholders. This group includes customers, suppliers, host communities, and unions representing
workers. The customers seek a reliable product at the lowest possible price. The suppliers seek assured
customers willing to pay the highest sustainable price. Host communities want companies willing to be
long-term employers and providers of tax revenues. Union officials want secure jobs with good
working conditions for the workers they represent. The final group of stakeholders is the
organizational stakeholders. This group includes the employees (both managerial and non-
managerial). These stakeholders expect a firm to provide a dynamic, stimulating, and rewarding work
environment.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 17|p. 20 OBJ: 5

7. Explain the strategic management process.

ANS:
The strategic management process calls for a rational and disciplined approach to the development of
competitive advantage. In the strategic management process, the firm studies its internal and external
environments to identify marketplace threats and opportunities. It determines how to use its core
competencies to pursue its desired strategic outcomes. With this knowledge, the firm forms its
strategic intent and strategic mission, ultimately achieving (if successful) value creation and above-
average returns.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 22|p. 24 OBJ: 6

8. Discuss Michael Porter’s contributions to the I/O model of above-average returns.

ANS:
Michael Porter’s five forces model suggests that an industry’s profitability is a function of interactions
among suppliers, buyers, competitive rivalry, product substitutes, and potential entrants to the industry.
The model reinforces the importance of economic theory, offers an analytical approach that was
previously lacking in the field of strategy, describes the forces that determine the nature and level of
competition and profit potential in an industry, and suggests how an organization can use the analysis
to establish a competitive advantage.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 12 OBJ: 2


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
AN AFRICAN.

There’s a native of Cape Town


Always wears a scarlet crown.
Not a lord of high degree,
But a simple peasant he.

You will see him, if you look,


Resting in some sunny nook.
He’s no Boer nor Englishman,
But a native African!
He just wanders up and down
O’er the wilds of hot Cape Town;
Takes no part in strife or war,—
Doesn’t know what it is for.

Boers may fight if they must needs.


Calm he sits among the weeds.
No soldier he in battle’s hum,
But just a red geranium!
PELARGONIUM LEAVES.
Some of the pelargoniums decorate their leaves with horseshoes.
All are in the habit of folding their leaves fan-like in the bud. When
they grow large these folds straighten out. It is a good thing to be
folded up fan-like in the bud; the leaf then takes up less room, and is
kept snug and safe until it grows strong enough to care for itself. The
pelargonium indulges in large stipules. These are green, leaf-like
bodies growing on the leaf stalk where it is attached to the stem of
the plant. They fold over the young leaf and protect it; but after the
leaf comes out of the motherly arms of the stipules and stands up on
a long stem, the work of the stipules is done, and gradually they fade
and wither away.

Most pelargonium leaves are covered with a fine coat of hairs. In


the warm countries where pelargoniums grow wild they need a coat
of down to prevent the sun from scorching them.
As long as there is plenty of water in the leaves the sun cannot
harm them, no matter how warmly it shines; but if it can draw out
the water, then the leaf must fade. The coat of hairs for one thing
prevents the water from evaporating too rapidly. Thus the
pelargonium does not wear its fuzzy coat to protect it from the cold,
but from the sun. The hairs also prevent the rain or dew from
stopping up the breathing pores of the leaf.
Most pelargonium leaves have a habit of using perfumery of one
kind or another. They make it themselves out of the food they find in
the earth and the air. The rose geraniums we think are particularly
successful in this respect.
Why do you suppose the pelargoniums perfume their leaves?
Perhaps it is to prevent animals from grazing them, for animals do
not like to eat strong-scented things, even if to our senses the odor is
agreeable. If this is the reason, we are glad the pelargoniums selected
a perfume that we can enjoy.
We think there may be some such reason for the fragrance of the
pelargonium, because plants are never wasteful. They make only
what will be useful to them in some way. They love to be beautiful,
but are never satisfied unless theirs is a useful beauty. The fragrance
of the leaves, however, may be due to some cause and useful for
some purpose that we know not of.
THE GERANIUM FAMILY.
The Geranium People are rather unsettled as to their relatives—or,
rather, we are somewhat confused on the subject. Probably the
geraniums know all about it, but they will not tell the botanists, so
the botanists have to do the best they can by themselves.

Some say the tropæolum belongs to the Geranium Family, and it


certainly does bear quite a strong family resemblance to the
geraniums.
They also say the Impatiens Family is a branch of the geraniums
and the pelargoniums, which you know we always call geraniums.
The crane’s bills and herb Roberts and all their near relations of
course are geraniums, and some say the wood sorrels belong to this
distinguished family.
Whether these all belong to one family or not, one thing is certain:
they are all agreeable to us, and are not so very numerous even when
taken all together. The whole of them do not number half so many as
do the branches of the Convolvulus Family.
Like the race of white people, they belong principally to temperate
climates.
They do not all belong to our climate, however.
The nasturtiums, for instance, are South Americans and Mexicans.
They like to keep warm better than some other members of their
family, and their seeds cannot, as a rule, live through our cold
winters. But if we gather the seeds and put them away out of the
fierce winter cold and plant them in the spring, then the nasturtiums
will grow their best and please us with their bright flowers. We
cannot help liking them, they are so jolly with their gay flowers and
their round leaves with twisting stalks.
We like them, too, because the flower stem curls up and draws the
seeds under the leaves out of the way of the young buds that are
waiting to bloom.
I do not know whether wild nasturtiums are as large and bright as
the cultivated ones. Very likely not, as people have taken great pains
to make them large and bright by selecting the seeds of the largest
flowers from year to year and giving them good soil in which to grow.
Perhaps the members of the Geranium Family we really know best
are the pelargoniums from the Cape of Good Hope. It is about as
warm in their African home as it is in our Florida, so of course they
cannot live out of doors through our cold Northern winters. But we
take them in the house when cold weather comes, and sometimes put
them in the cellar.
Of course they do not grow much in the cellar, but they rest there,
and when they are taken out in the spring are all ready to wake up
and blossom.
The whole Geranium Family seems to take extra care of its seeds.
We know how the nasturtium curls up its stem so as to draw the
seeds below the leaves out of the way, giving the buds a chance to
come out, and also protecting the seeds.
The pelargoniums do not do that, but they do something much
more elaborate for the sake of their seed-children, as we know. They
give them a parachute to fly with, for one thing. A parachute, you
know, is a contrivance by which bodies can be sustained in the air
while falling or blowing along in the wind.
But the parachute is not all,—they give them an auger by which to
bore into the ground and plant themselves.
The North American crane’s bill seeds
perform in a very similar way, their
flowers and seed-cases being quite like
those of the pelargonium.
How do you suppose North American
crane’s bills came to be like South
African pelargoniums?
This is a matter which needs
investigating.
The pelargoniums are not as juicy as
the nasturtiums, but they are somewhat
juicy, and their juice has a slightly acid
taste instead of being pungent, like the
nasturtium juice.
Where pelargoniums live out of doors
the year round they grow very large and
have stems that are quite woody.
Some of them, as we know, are useful
to the human race as well as ornamental,
supplying food and an oil highly
esteemed as a perfume.
The wood sorrels do not look much
like the rest of the Geranium Family. But
they do resemble it in their habit of caring for their seeds. Out in the
fields you will find the small, yellow-flowered sheep sorrel, with its
clover-like, sour-tasting leaves. Now hunt for a seed-pod. They are
pretty little things that stand up something like Christmas candles.
Touch a ripe one and it splits open down each of its five cells and
shows you a row of white seeds in each. You think the seeds are not
ripe because they are white, and you touch one of them. What has
happened? That seed surely exploded! No, there it is—the other side
of the table, not white, but dark brown. Queer performance, this. You
touch another and another, and at last you get to understand it. Each
seed is surrounded by an elastic white covering, and this it is that
suddenly curls up, very much as the impatiens pod does, and sends
the seed within it flying!

When night comes the sorrel goes to sleep. Its leaflets droop and
shut together as you see in the picture, and the flowers, too, close.
The sorrel loves the sunshine, and often does not open on cloudy
days.
There are a great many sorrels in the world besides our sheep
sorrel; in fact, we are told there are about two hundred and five of
them!
We have only three or four out of all that number, and they are not
all yellow like the sheep sorrel. One that lives in the cool Northern
woods is white, with delicate pink veins. Pretty little things they are,
and farther South there lives a pretty violet one.
Like the pelargoniums, the sorrels are to be found at the Cape of
Good Hope. In fact, most of the two hundred and five kinds live there
and in South America.
Like the pelargoniums, too, the South African sorrels are much
larger and brighter than their American relatives.
We like them so well we raise them in our greenhouses and
window boxes. They are much larger than our wild sorrels and have
bright pink or white or yellow corollas.
Down in Peru, too, there grows a very useful sorrel; they call it
“oca,” and raise it for its potatolike tubers which the people eat.
The Mexicans also have a sorrel with edible bulbs and bright red
flowers. In fact, the sorrel, like the potato, has a habit of storing up
plenty of underground food which is also good food for man, and
several species of sorrel are raised for this purpose in different parts
of the world.
In those places, instead of a potato field you have a sorrel field.
We often eat the leaves of the wood sorrel for the sake of their
pleasant acid taste. The proper name of the sorrel is “oxalis,” and
comes from a Greek word meaning “acid.” But if we were to extract
this acid from the sorrel and then eat it, we would have a serious
time, for in its concentrated form it is a fearful poison. It is sold
under the misleading name of “salt of lemons,” and for this reason
people often ignorantly taste it, thinking that “salt of lemons” can do
them no harm.
This dangerous “salt of lemons” is very useful in calico printing, in
dyeing, and in the bleaching of flax and straw.
The next time you come across a patch of sheep sorrel, stop and
think of all it and its relatives are able to do for us.
We usually think of the Geranium Family as being merely
ornamental; but, as we have seen, some kinds of tropæolum, several
kinds of sorrel, and at least one kind of pelargonium yield edible
tubers which are eaten in different parts of the world, and the
modest little oxalis yields a substance valuable for manufacturing
purposes.
Even our commonplace crane’s bill that blooms so abundantly in
the woods in early summer has something for us, for from its roots a
medicine is obtained.
Hyacinth Stories
THE HYACINTH.

Out in the garden there’s something so dear!


Just as dear,
Do you hear?
Something that comes in the spring of the year
Fragrant as roses and fresh as the dew,
Purple and pink and violet too.
Something new,
Darling too.
Guess what it is and I’ll show it to you!
SIGNS OF SPRING.
Out of doors are signs of spring. The buds on the trees look full,
and some are beginning to burst. But there is very little life as yet.
Only in the hyacinth bed it is different, for
there the hyacinths have waked up; their stiff
leaves have opened the door of the earth for the
blossoms to come out. The flower clusters are
nearly ready to bloom, but the buds are still
green. The tall stem has lifted them up into the
air and sunlight, and, although the air is still
cold, they continue to grow.
Soon the green buds undergo a change. The
topmost one on each flower cluster softens to a
tender blue or pink.
The green buds grow lovely as they stand on
their stems in the sun. Delicate tints steal over
them, the green color fades away, and many
colors take its place.
They open into charming flowers and give
forth a delightful fragrance. The whole garden is
sweet with the odor of hyacinths, and we feel that
the beautiful summer has sent us a messenger.
THE HYACINTH’S SCEPTRE.

Kings bear a sceptre, and so do I.


Theirs is a symbol of power, and so is mine.
Theirs is a costly rod with an emblem at the top
Mine is a tall green rod bearing flower bells.
My sceptre is called a “scape.”
“Scape” means “sceptre,” the sign of kings.
TUNICS.
A tunic, as everybody knows, is a dress worn by the old Romans.
The Greeks wore a garment very much like that of the Romans, and
it, too, is often called a tunic.
Tunics did very well in a climate where it was always summer and
upon people who did not have to hurry about and work hard. But,
graceful as they are, and appropriate to Greece and Italy, they would
hardly be suitable for an American business costume in midwinter.
For a tunic is not very close fitting. It is a loose garment which would
be apt to fly away in our Northern gales.
The tunic was sometimes confined at the waist by a girdle and
sometimes let to hang loose.
We do not wear tunics, but we admire them very much in pictures,
for they show the beautiful lines of the human form instead of
concealing and altering them and making them ugly by ridiculous
and tight-fitting clothes—very often tight in the wrong place, as is the
case with modern garments.
But there are tunics worn in America, and they are never tight in
the wrong place, though, truth to tell, they are not loose and flowing
like the Roman or Greek tunic.
Perhaps you do not know that so
commonplace an object as an onion
wears a tunic, yet I assure you it is
true. And the onion does not come
from Rome or Greece,—that is,
probably not. As far as we can find
out, that homely vegetable first saw
the light in the southwestern part of
Asia, but it was known in Rome and
Greece at a very early date, and lived
in those places long before it found
its way to us.
So it has seen more tunics than we
have, if it is not a native Greek or
Roman. Not that its garments look
at all like a classical tunic!
Probably its bulb is said to be
“tunicated,” or covered with tunics,
because the different scales wrap
about it like so many garments, and
in a general way the word “tunic” is
used to mean any garment.
The hyacinth, too, has a tunicated bulb. It came from the Levant, a
country where people wear loose garments like the Greek and
Roman tunic. I do not think, however, the bulbs are called
“tunicated” because they came from the lands where tunics are worn.
I think it is merely a name the botanists gave them for convenience
to tell that they were covered by coats or scales.
What do you suppose a hyacinth tunic is, anyway? Merely a leaf
scale! That is, instead of growing into a leaf it remained a scale, and
some of the scales on a full-grown bulb are really the lower parts of
the leaves. The upper part has fallen off and left the fleshy base to
feed the plant.
Tulips have tunics too, and so have many other plants. And bulb
tunics are a very convenient sort of garment to have, for they not
only wrap up the plant, but feed it!
They answer the same purpose that tubers do on potato roots. You
know what tubers are? They are just swollen portions of
underground stems. When you eat your next potato remember it is a
tuber, and that a tuber is merely a short piece of stem very much
thickened. If you cannot believe this, look a potato in the eyes. There
you will see the truth, for the eyes are merely the joints of the stem,
and at each is a little bud that in the spring will start to grow, just like
the buds on the branches of a tree. The bud grows at the expense of
the material in the tuber, and the hyacinth grows at the expense of
the food stored in the bulb. Of course, after a while green leaves form
and make more food, but the very first food comes from the thick
underground scales.
The hyacinth belongs to the royal Lily
Family, and is a very great favorite with
people all over the world. Sometimes its
flowers are single and sometimes double,
and they always give forth a delightful
fragrance. Its home, as we know, is in the
Levant, a country made up of the islands
and the coast along the eastern part of the
Mediterranean Sea, particularly of Asia
Minor and Syria.
It grows so readily and comes up so
early in the spring and is so lovely it is no
wonder people everywhere cherish it. Its
bulb is large and fleshy, and, as we know,
is made up of thick scales. These scales are
full of starch and other food materials to
feed the young plant.
For the young plant is in the very center
of the bulb, with the fleshy scales folded
about it very much as the scales are folded
about a tree bud. In fact, a bulb is very
much like a bud. The bottom of the bulb is
a very short, broad stem. The scales grow
on this stem as the leaves do on a branch.
They are alternate in arrangement, but
packed so closely together you have to look very carefully in order to

You might also like