CHAPTER III. 



FURTHER DETAIL AS TO THE LEAVES OF THE FLOWER 



1. Function of the flower-leaves. Organs of reproduction. 



2. Sepals and petals do not take part, directly, in the process of 



reproduction. 



3. The function of the stamens. The pollen-grains are transferred to 



the stignia, and develope pollen -tubes. 



4. The ovary of each carpel contains one or more ovules. The structure 



of the ovule. It contains a large cell which a pollen-tube reaches. 

 An embryo developes in this cell. 



5. Deciduous and persistent organs of the flower. 



6. Characters are derived from the reproductive organs which form the 



principal practical basis of classification. 



I. We have already seen in the case of our Orange, that 

 the flower results in a fruit, each division of which, answer- 

 ing to a carpel, usually contains one or more seeds. The 

 seed we found to contain the minute germ of a future Orange 

 plant, which we called the embryo. As it is the special 

 function of all the leaves which compose the flower to con- 

 tribute to this formation of embryo-containing seeds, by 

 means of which the Orange is enabled to reproduce and 

 multiply its kind, we may term all the parts of the flower 

 Organs of Reproduction, in contradistinction to the organs 

 considered in our last chapter, which contribute primarily to 

 the conservation of the individual Orarige-tree, and which. 



