i9°3 Flowers and Inflorescences 241 



Although a flower must possess the four sets of organs 

 already enumerated, to be a " complete " flower, it is only 

 necessary for it to possess the essential or reproductive 

 organs, namely, stamens and pistils, to be a " perfect " flower ; 

 therefore a complete flower is a perfect flower, but it does 

 not follow that a perfect flower is a complete flower. For 

 instance, a buttercup is a complete perfect flower, and a 

 marsh marigold is an incomplete perfect flower. The 

 flower of the ash (Fraxinus excelsior} is a perfect incomplete 

 flower, but the flowers of the willow are incomplete and 

 imperfect, because each individual flower consists solely of 

 stamens in one case, and a single pistil in the other. Then, 

 again, there are flowers which have their calyces and 

 corollas composed of separate sepals and separate petals ; 

 whilst there are others where the sepals are joined together 

 by their edges and comprise a tube-like organ, and are 

 termed " gamoscpalous." The petals are likewise joined 

 together in the same fashion, and are termed "gamopetalous." 

 Hut it does not follow that a flower having a gamosepalous 

 calyx has a gamopetalous corolla. For instance, the calyx 

 of campion is tubular and the sepals joined together, except- 

 ing at the free end, where it is broken up into short points 

 or teeth, whilst the petals are separate one from another. 



One more form of the flower is the perianth, commonly 

 seen in the petaloid monocotyledons, where the floral 

 envelope is formed of sepals and petals, so resembling each 

 other that nothing but a close examination can determine 

 the position of the respective whorls ; both protecting and 

 both attracting. Look, for instance, at the white Mary-lily, 

 which is so graceful a plant in sheltered gardens in summer- 

 time, there are six broad white divisions of the perianth 

 all precisely alike in shape and colour ; or the lily-of-the- 

 valley with its rounded bells, the wild hyacinth or the iris, or 

 dozens of others which are found to have the same peculiarity. 



Some polypctalous flowers are almost geometrically 

 developed, all the parts being alike in shape, such as those 

 of the wild rose or the buttercup ; on the other hand, some 

 are developed irregularly, some of the petals distinctly and 

 invariably unlike the others. We have the pansy and the 

 sweet-pea and many of their near relations, with what are 



VOL. II. — NO. 7. Q 



