CHAPTER XIV. 



THE INFLORESCENCE, AND THE FLOWER. 1 



In Flowering Plants Sexual Reproduction is carried out in the Flower. 

 It results in the production of Seed. Contained in each ripe seed is 

 the Germ of a new individual. The Flower which serves this uniform 

 purpose of producing new germs may take an infinite variety of 

 forms in plants. But however various the appearance of the Flower 

 may be in outline, or in the number or complexity of its parts, 

 comparison shows that the organs which are directly connected with 

 the sexual process, and the details of that process, are in all cases 

 essentially the same. This suggests that the differences are accessory, 

 and that the propagative process itself is the real end. 



The Flower. 



The Flower is found to consist of parts which fall into certain definite 

 groups, or kinds of organs. But they may vary greatly in number, 

 while all the kinds of organs need not be represented in the same 

 flower. Some like the Water-Lily, or the Rose or Quince, consist of 

 numerous parts representing all the kinds of organs (Fig. 177). In 

 other cases the flower in the strict sense may comprise only a few parts, 

 or in extreme cases only a single one of them, as in the Spurge (Fig. 178). 

 There is usually a prolongation of the stalk to bear the floral parts ; 

 but it terminates abruptly and is apt to be more or less widened out 

 laterally, so that the appendages can be closely crowded upon it. 

 This widened tip of the stem is called the floral receptacle and since its 

 apical growth stops, the result is that the flower is always distal, 



L This chapter will be best understood after a number of the types of Floral 

 Construction described in Appendix A have been dissected and examined. 



2 54 



