JIECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



18 



Take the wallflower, another of your bunch 

 of blossoms; its petals are very different 

 from the petals of the poppy or the butter- 

 cups. The latter, you have already seen, are 

 oval and pointed at the baso (Figs. 1, 5) ; in 

 the instance before us they are prolonged 

 into the claw (Fig. 7 b), in contradistinction 

 to the broad portion or limb. A somewhat 

 similar petal you find in the scarlet or white 



Fig. 9.— Blossom of Lychnis, Fio. 10.— Petal of Lych- 

 •with pistils only, a, petal ; nis. a, limb ; 6, claw. 

 b, pistils ; e, calyx. 



lychnis (Figs. 9, 10), although in other re- 

 spects it is diverse. Clawed, likewise, but 

 less distinctly so, are the five petals of the 

 wild geranium (Figs. 11, 12). However, there 



Fig, 11.— Blossom of Com- Fig. 12.— Petal of Wild 



mon Wild Geranium Geranium, a, limb ; 



(Uerb Robert), a, petals; 6, claw. 

 b, calyx. 



is no occasion to go over in succession every 

 plant in our handful ; you can do that alone, 

 and pulling off the petals compare their 

 varied shape and cuttings, as well as their 



attachments and numbers ; having done this, 

 you wUl have gained some knowledge of one 

 of the divisions of the kingdom of botany 

 — the many-petaled {polypetalous) flowers, 

 with their petals attached beneath what 

 botanists call the pistil, but which, tdl we 

 have formally introduced it, we must call 

 the central organ of the flower. In the ma^ 

 jority of flowers, however — we shall see, 

 hereafter, not in all — between the central 

 organ and the petals we have just been exa- 

 mining, there is a greater or less number 

 of small bodies, little heads siipported on 

 slender stems (Fig 13). In the poppy and 



Fig. 13.-Stamen, Fio. 14.— Organs of Wall- 

 magnified, flower, a, stamens; 6, pistil. 



ranunculus, these little bodies are very mamer- 

 ous, almost too numerous to count easily 

 (Fig. 4) ; but look into your wallflower, you 

 have no difficulty there, for six is all you 

 can find (Fig. 14), only you wonder to see 

 that, in every blossom you examine, two 

 are shorter than the others. Put down the 

 wallflower, and take up your wUd mustard 



i 



Fig. 15. — Blossom of Common 

 Charlock, a, petal ; 6, b, 

 calyx sepals; c, stamen; d, 

 pistil. 



Fig. 16.— Calyx or 

 flower-cup of Com- 

 mon Lychnis, a, 

 calyx ; b, stamens. 



