11 



A PATTERN PLANT. 



[SECTION 2. 



1."). Blossoming, in Flax the (lowers make their appearance at the 

 end uf ili.' stem anil branches. The gro\\ th, \vhicli otherwise iniylit con- 

 tinue tiirin farther or indefinitely, now takes the form of blossom, and is 

 subservient to the production of .seed. 



111. The Flower of Flax consists, lirst, of Ihi 1 small given leaves, 

 crowded mi" a circle : this is the CALYX, or flower-cup. "\Ylieu its sepa- 

 rate Leaves are referred to they are called SEPALS, a name which distin- 

 guishes them from foliage-leaves on the one band, and from petals on the 

 other. Then come live delicate and colored leaves (in the Flax, blue). \\ liich 

 form the COROLLA, and its leaves are PETALS; then a circle of organs, in 



9 10 



which all likeness to leaves is lost, consisting of slender stalks with a knob 

 at summit, the STAMKNS; and lastly, in the centre, the rounded body, 

 which becomes a pod, surmounted by live slender or stalk-like bodies. 

 This, all together, is the PISTIL. The lower part of it, which is to contain the. 

 seeds, is the OVARY; Hie .slender organs surmounting this are STYLES; the 

 knob borne on the apex of each style is a STIGJI.V. Going back to the sta- 

 mens, these are of two parts, viz. the stalk, called Fn, \\IKNT, and the body 

 it bears, the ANTIIIK. Anthers arc filled with POLLEN, a powdery sub- 

 stance made up of minute grains. 



17- The pollen shed from the anthers when they open falls upon or is 

 convened to the stigmas ; then the pollen-grains set up a kind of growth (to 

 lie discerned only by aid of a go. M l microscope), which penetrates the st\le : 

 this gro\\th takes the form of a thread more delicate than the finest spider's 

 web, and reaches the bodies which arc to become seeds (OvTJLES they an? 

 called until this change occurs) ; these, touched by this influence, are in- 

 cited t.o a new growth within, which becomes an embryo. So, as the ovary 

 ripens into the seed-pod or capsule (Fig. 1, etc.) containing seeds, each 

 seed enclosing a rudimentary new plantlet, the round of this vegetable 

 existence is completed. 



FIG. S>. Flax t!'i\\vrs alunit natural si/t\ in. Section of a flower moderately 

 ciilai-.'i'il, showing a |>.-irt i>f tli<- petals and stamens, all five styles, and a section 

 of ovary r.itli t\\.. ovules m 1 rudimentary seeds. 



