THE FLOWEE. 23 



examined by transmitted light. The best kind of leaves to select for 

 the purpose are those of succulent and fleshy plants. 



Now as to the mode of their action. Chemical experiments have 

 shewn that vegetable life is endued with the wonderful power of 

 decomposing the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and that this 

 process is effected in the leaves, during the day-time, or when the 

 sun shines. The oxygen is set free, and the carbon retained in the 

 leaf, and applied, along with the water and other matters absorbed 

 from the soil and air, to the manufacture of the wood, the pulp, the 

 peculiar juices, and everything else that enters into the composition 

 of the plant, each particular product being sent down, as fast as made, 

 into the root, or the stem, or some other part of the general store- 

 house underneath. In a word, after the plant has emerged, like an 

 infant, from the seed, its enlargement is entirely owing to the leaves, 

 which come out fresh and fresh every spring, work diligently all the 

 summer, and having wrought their manifold and useful works, each 

 in its own way, die as quietly and contentedly as they have lived, 

 beautiful images of all true and noble souls, and in their decayed 

 remains replenish the earth anew. 



If leaves be not developed, the surface of the stem is provided with 

 a cuticle which answers the same end, as in the cactus. 



THE FLOWER. 



The Flower is by no means the simple thing it appears at a distance. 

 Ordinarily there are present in it no less than four distinct parts, two 

 of which are composed of still finer ones. There are important 

 varieties also in the general structure of flowers, rendering it neces- 

 sary to separate them at the very outset into the three following 

 classes : — 



Complete and Simple. 



Complete and Compound. 



Incomplete. 



We shall take them in the order named, confining our attention first 

 of all to complete and simple flowers, such as the lily, the polyanthus, 

 and the lilac. 



The most striking and beautiful portion of such a flower is that 

 wherein the colour usually lies. Botanists call it the " corolla " or 

 " little crown," the flower being the consummate glory of the plant, 

 that which makes and signalizes its day of greatest honour, like the 



