Zbc 3Beaut^ ot tbc jflower 89 



sprout, as seeds in soil, and send long threads down 

 through the hollow style into the ovary. These 

 threads are hollow also, and through them the 

 quivering life atoms reach the ovules, which at once 

 receive power to grow into true seeds. The whole 

 plant then sets itself to protect and nourish the 

 seeds. The germ box or capsule hardens its fabric, 

 the sap brings the choicest food, and the growing 

 seed develops all those parts which we noticed in 

 the sprouting of the seedling — case, cotyledons, albu- 

 men-food, tiny plant embr^^o. 



The buttercup, as we have seen, is made up of 

 four circles, each composed of several distinct j^arts. 

 A flower with several petals is called polypetalous. 

 Other flowers have but one petal; they are styled 

 monopetalous.* In fact, in such one-jjetaled flowers 

 a number of petals have simply grown together. 

 Let us take a morning-glory as an example. Pull 

 off" the calyx ; it comes off as a whole, but is cleft 

 half way down into five lobes, showing that it is 

 truly composed of five united sepals. Now pull the 

 corolla from another calyx cup ; it comes as a whole, 

 and is not cleft as the calyx is, but it has five stripes, 

 and at each stripe the margin has a little point, and 



* Gramopetalous and gamosepalous are newer and better 

 terms. 



