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STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



capable of producing flowers. It is true that they may be small and 

 insignificant, unattractive in form, color, or odor, and in fact lacking in 

 all that, to the popular mind, goes to make up a flower, but to the botanist 

 they possess the organs requisite to make them flowers. They may be 

 developed on the ends of the stems or branches, on short stalks, in the 

 axils of the leaves, on the leaves themselves, or even in the ground. Those 

 forming under ground do not open, and bear little resemblance to flowers. 

 If we take our common flowers and examine them, we shall find them 

 composed of four parts, two of which, either separately or together, are 

 really all that are necessary or essential to make up a flower. The other 

 parts are mainly useful to protect the inner organs. Beginning at the 

 center we find one or more pistils, which are surrounded by a row of 

 stamens; next comes the inner row of covering organs, known as petals, 

 which together form what is called the corolla, and last of all the sepals 

 make up the outer row or calyx. This is usually green in color and may 

 be in separate parts, like narrow pointed leaves (Fig. l,a) or they may be 



a. 



? 



Fig. I.— Calyx. 



a, Calyx distinct— Loosestrife. 



b, Calyx united part way— Erythraea. 



c, Calyx tubular— Bouncing Bet. 



d, Calyx distinct with epicalyx or calycule, («. p.)—Straivberry. 



Cobolla. 



e, Petal of Crowfoot, with scale at base. 



/, Petal of Cockle ; bl, blade; sc, scale; cl, claw. 

 <7, Petal of Hellebore, tubular. ! 

 h. Ligulate corolla — Chrysanthemum. 



fastened together at their edges, forming a sort of tube or cup (Fig. I, b, c). 

 The petals are usually of some bright color and may be grown together 

 (Fig. I,/, g) or may be entirely separate. (Fig. I, e.) The number of 

 petals may be very great, as in the case of double flowers, where the 

 stamens have been transformed into petals. In some cases the petals are 

 entirely wanting, when the sepals take their place and have some bright 

 color. In a few flowers, both sepals and petals are wanting, as, for 

 example, in the calla and cat-tail. 



