2 LLLIACEOUS FLOWERS. 



Let us not imagine that the science of Botany ends 

 in the mere acquisition of imposed names ; we may 

 become acquainted with the structure of plants and 

 their curious economy, like the human anatomist, 

 without troubling ourselves materially with the particu- 

 lar name given to the individual subject. We cannot, 

 however, proceed far, without employing something 

 like definite language for the several parts of the ob- 

 ject under view. 



We shall begin, then, by defining a perfect plant 

 to be composed of a root, of a stem with its branches, 

 of leaves, flower, and fruit ; for, in Botany, by fruit 

 is universally understood the whole fabric of the seed, 

 and that which contains it ; but we must examine 

 more at large the principal part of the plant, namely, 

 the fructification, a term which includes the idea of 

 both floiver and fruit. The flower is first offered to 

 us ; by it is elaborated nature's choicest and most 

 wonderful work, the mystery of perpetuation ; this 

 complicated organ is commonly the most brilliant, 

 symmetrical, and uniform part of the vegetable. 



Take a Lily or a Tulip; — at first it is seen in 

 bud, and green ; at length it becomes distinctly color- 

 ed, spreads open, and takes the form of a cup or 

 vase, divided into several segments. This is called 

 the corolla, and not the flower, as in common lan- 

 guage, because the flower is a composition of several 

 parts, of which the corolla is only the most conspicu- 

 ous. 



You will easily perceive that the corolla of the Lily 

 or the Tulip is not of one piece ; when it withers and 

 falls, it separates into six distinct pieces, which are 

 called petals. Thus the corolla of the Lily or the 

 Tulip is composed of six petals. A corolla, consist- 

 ing of several pieces like this, is called a polypetal- 

 ous corolla. If it were all of one piece, like the 



