Xll 



OUTLINES OF 



§ 8. The Flower in General. 



84. A complete Flower (15) is one in which the calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil 

 are all present ; a perfect flower, one in which all these organs, or such of them as 

 are present, are capable of performing their several functions. Therefore, properly 

 speaking, an incomplete flower is one in which any one or more of these organs is 

 wanting ; and an imperfect flower, one in which any one or more of these organs i? 

 so altered as to be incapable of properly performing its functions. These imperfect 

 organs are said to be abortive if much reduced in size or efiiciency, rudimentary if so 

 much so as to be scarcely perceptible. But in many works, the term incomplete is 

 specially applied to those flowers in which the perianth is simple or wanting, and 

 imperfect to those in which either the stamens or pistils are imperfect or wanting. 



85. A Plower is 



diclilamydeousj when the perianth is double, both calyx and corolla being present 

 and distinct. 



monochlamydeouSy when the perianth is single, whether by the union of the 

 calyx and coroUa, or the deficiency of either. 



asepalous^ when there is no calyx, 



apefaloiis, when there is no corolla. 



naked^ or achlamydeousy when there is no perianth at all. 



hermaphrodite or bisexual, when both stamens and pistil are present and perfect. 



male or staminate^ when there are one or more stamens, but either no pistil at 

 all or an imi>erfect one, • 



female or pistillate^ when there is a pistil, but either no stamens at all, or only 

 imperfect ones. 



.neuter when both stamens and pistil are imperfect or wanting, 

 barren or sterile, when from any cause it produces no seed. 

 fertile, when it does produce seed. In some works the terms ban^en, fertile^ and 

 j^rfect. are also used respectively as sjTionyms of male, female, and hermaphrodite}^ 



86. The flowers of a plant or species are said collectively to be unisexual or dicli' 

 nous when the flowers are all either male or female. 



monoecious, when the male and female flowers are distinct, but on the same plant. 

 dicecioits, when the male and female flowers are on distinct plants. 

 polygamous, when there are male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers on the 

 same or on distinct plants. 



. 87. A head of flowers is heterogamous when male, female, hermaphrodite, and 

 neuter flowers, or any two or three of them, are included iu one head : homogamons, 

 when aU the flowers included in one head are alike in this respect. • A spike or head 

 of flowers is androgynous when male and female flowers are mixed in it. These 

 terms are only used in the case of very few Natural Orders. 



88. As the scales of buds are leaves undeveloped or reduced in size and altered in 

 shape and consistence, and bracts are leaves likewise reduced in size, and occasionally 

 altered in colour; so the parts of the flower are considered as leaves still further 

 altered in shape, colour, and arrangement round the axis, and often more or less 

 combined with each other. The details of this theory constitute the comparatively 

 modern branch of botany called Vegetable Metamorphosis or Homology, sometimes 

 improperly termed Morphology (8). 



89. To understand the arrangement of the floral parts, let us take a complete 

 flower, in which moreover all the parts are free from each other, d^nite in number, 

 i.f., always the same in the same species, and symmetrical or isomerous, i.e., when 

 each whorl consists of the same number of parts. 



90. Such a complete symmetrical flower consists usually of either four or five 

 whorls of altered leaves (88), placed immediately one within the other. > 



The Calyx forms the outer whorl. Its parts are called sepals. 



The Corolla forms the next whorL Its parts, called petals, usually alternate 

 with the sepals ; that is to say, the centre of each petal is immediately over 6r 

 within the interval between two sepals. 



The Stamens form one or two whorls within 'the petals. If two, those of the 

 outer whorl (the outer stamens) alternate with the petals, and are' c,oii,sequently 



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