EECllEATIVE SCIENCE. 



125 



A very few trials with tlie plants we have 

 now put into your hand will show that with 

 them this cannot be done. If you take 

 calyx, you take likewise stamens and petals, 

 for to it they are attached, and not to the 

 receptacle. All the examples you have will 



k 



Fro. 29. — Collection of Blossoms of Common Bram- 

 ble, arranged in a corymb, a, petals ; b, calyx sepals ; 

 c, stamens ; d, pistils ; e, pedicels ; /, bracts ; 

 g, setse or bristles ; h, compound leaf 



not show this equally well ; but in some 

 such as the strawberry 

 (Fig. 28) and others it is 

 very well marked. Per- 

 haps this little difference 

 in the attachment of the 

 I)arts appears to a begin- 

 ner a very little difference 

 to say so much about ; 

 and yet, slight as seems 

 tho line of demarcation, it severs groups 

 of plants by a strictly natural distinc- 



Fio. 29a.— Section of 

 blossom of Common 

 Bramble. 



tion, which differ widely, not only in their 

 outward appearance, but in their medi- 

 cinal and economical properties. We dwell 

 upon it, therefore, because it teaches one of 

 the most useful and well-marked lessons in 

 botanical distinction which we can lay before 



Fio. 80. — Umbels of Common Beaked Parsley, ar- 

 ranged in compound umbels, a, central point of 

 primary umbel ; h, bracts, or inrolucel, at central 

 point of umbellule. 



a beginner, and because it is one which he 

 can so easily verify for himself by means of 

 the commonest wayside weeds or flowers. 

 Here, then, we have the grand distinction 

 between Handful I. and Handful II., both 

 made up of many-petaled plants ; but in the 

 former the petals and stamens are attached 

 to the receptacle underneath the pistil, in 

 the latter to the calyx. 



Spencer Thomson, M.P. 

 lie 



