232 THE HYACINTH. 



plants, such as ferns, lichens, and mosses, in which the stamens and 

 pistils are either imperfectly or not at all known. 



To a person commencing the study of botany, and desirous of 

 making himself acquainted with the names and characters of tlie 

 plants he may meet with in his walks, the Linnsean system will be of 

 the greatest use. To count the number oflktamens and pistils is 

 generally a very easy process ; this at once establishes the class and 

 order, and nothing then remains but to determine the genus and 

 species, which a little practice in the examination of characters will 

 enable any intelligent person to do, with the aid of books in which 

 these are laid down. 



The stamen consists of two parts, the filament and anther; the 

 filament is to the anther what the foot-stalk is to the leaf, it is that 

 on which the anther rests and through which it obtains nutriment for 

 its growth and support. On the point of the filament is placed the 

 anther, which, in the lily, is a narrow reddish-brown body, having a 

 deej) funow passing dowTi its longer diameter, and being thus sepa- 

 rated into two parallel lobes. In course of time the sides of the lobe 

 contract and separate at the furrow, which consequently opens and 

 allows a brownish-orange powder to fall out, or projects it upon the 

 summit of the pistil, which is always within the inclosure of "the 

 stamens when both are on the same flower ; the two sides of the lobe 

 when they thus separate are called valves, and the furrow itself the 

 suture or line of dehiscence. The pollen, then, is considered the 

 fertilizing material of the vegetable, and it is only when this is cast 

 on the stigma, or summit of the pistil, and thence conveyed to the 

 ova.rium, or ovula deposit, that fecundation can take place, the seed 

 be produced, and reproduction of the vegetable effected. 



The fructifying system, or pistil, or female portion of the plant, 

 by all of which designations it is known, occupies the centre of the 

 flower and is the part round which all the other parts are arranged. 

 It is divided into three portions; the upper portion or stigma, the 

 middle portion or style, and the lower portion or ovary (germen of 

 the old writers), which contains the ovules. 



The appearance of the stigma is very various in the different tribes 

 of plants. In the saffron-crocus we have already observed it to be of 

 a beautiful red colour, of a fragrant odour, and hanging in shreds 



