100 



Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



Note.— This chapter will contain many new names. We 

 must have them when we study flowers. Do not try to 

 learn them all at once, but find as many flowers as you 

 can and make out each part named in this chapter. You 

 will have the names in mind before you know it. 



Within the calyx, the second row of flower leaves is the 

 corolla, or little crown. It is usually the showy part of the 



flower. Sometimes the calyx 

 is brightly coloured, and may 

 at first be mistaken for the 

 corolla. Calyx and corolla 

 taken together make the 

 perianth. 



The third whorl bears 

 little resemblance to leaves. 

 It consists of as many slender 

 threads as there are petals; 

 each thread ends in a yellow 

 knob. They are the sta- 

 mens. The thread of the 

 stamen is the filament {filamen thread), and the knob the 

 anther. The anther is really the powder-box, and each box 

 contains very valuable powder, called pollen. In the centre 

 of the flower are several boat-shaped bodies, tapering to a 

 point. They are the pistils or carpels. The lower part of 

 the pistil is the ovary or egg-box. It contains small rounded 

 bodies, the ovules, which are destined to form seeds. 



You can find these parts in Hibiscus. The stamens, 

 however, are joined by their filaments into a tube. Above 

 the stamens are five crimson velvety cushions, the stigmas. 

 Carefully split down the stamen tube, and see how these five 

 cushions are borne at the top of a long slender stalk, the 

 style. By following the style down its entire length, we 

 come to the ovary. A cut across the ovary shows as many 

 parts or carpels as there are stigmas. Within the cavities 

 or locules are the ovules. Remember that the ovules are 

 not at first seeds, any more than a new-laid fowl's egg is a 

 chicken. 



Fig. loi. — Crcissula centauroides. Thumb. 

 (From Edmonds and MarlotH's " Elemen- 

 tary Botany for South Africa.") 



