38 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



encircling the internal parts with its foliage, is well calculated to 

 answer the defensive purposes to which we have alluded. 



The receptacle is the base of the flower close to the stalk 

 upon which all the other parts rest, as may be seen in the arti- 

 choke, when the leaves are removed ; and which, no doubt, 

 though we may not comprehend it, serves some other useful 

 purpose in the economy of vegetation, independently of the 

 support it affords to the flower. 



The nectarium, or nectary, consists of a small sac or bag, 

 situated most frequently (though not uniformly) at the base of 

 each petal, from which the honey is secreted that is supposed to 

 be the source of nourishment to the internal parts of the flower. 

 When the nectarium is wanting, nature has given greater activity 

 to the other nutritive organs ; and when in the place of honey, a 

 strong poisonous fluid is secreted, (as is sometimes the case) it 

 is intended to keep off and destroy insects in those flowers which 

 are particularly liable to their attacks. 



Having described the contributive, secondary, or auxiliary 

 parts of fructification, we come now to the essential ; and these 

 are the stamens and pistils. 



The stamens, which are formed of the woody part of the 

 plant, are slender, thread-like substances, varying in number in 

 different flowers, and placed within the corolla, and on the 

 outside of the pistil which they surround. On the top, or upper 

 extremity, is situated the anther ; a small prominent bag, or 

 viscus, which contains in cells, or rather in globules, the pollen, 

 farina, or dust, (most frequently of a white, though sometimes of 

 a yellow, orange, or of a violet color,) that forms the great 

 principle of fertilization. From the anther descends a fine line 

 of communication called the filament, which attaches the stamen 

 to the receptacle, though sometimes to another part of the flower, 

 according to the varying circumstances of each individual. 



The pistil, which is supposed to be formed of the pith of the 

 plant, is a small and column-shaped substance, occupying almost 

 invariably the centre of the flower, where it is encompassed 

 immediately by the stamens. The pistils vary in number, being 

 sometimes one, as in the cherry, and at others more than one, 



