STRUCTURE OF THE FLOWER AND ITS ORGANS. 145 
petals have fallen and the seed has ripened. The receptacle 
of the rose, Fig. 120, is hollow and the pistils arise from its 
interior surface. 
178. Imperfect or Separated Flowers. —The stamens and 
pistils may be produced in separate flowers, which are, of 
course, imperfect. This term does not imply that such flowers 
do their work any less perfectly than others, but only that 
they have not both kinds of essential organs. 
In the very simple imperfect flowers of the 
willow, Fig. 121, each flower of the catkin, 
Fig. 108, consists merely of a pistil or a group 
of (usually two) stamens, springing from the 
axil of a small bract. 
Staminate and pistillate flowers may be 
borne on different plants, as they are in the 
willow, or they may be borne on the same 
plant, as in the hickory and the hazel, among 
trees, or in the castor-oil plant, Indian corn, Fie. 120.—A Rose, 
and the begonias. When staminate and pis- Pegs & ari 
tillate flowers are borne on separate plants, 
such a plant is said to be diewcious, that is, of-two-households ; 
when both kinds of flower appear on the same individual, the 
plant is said to be monecious, that is, of-one-household. 
179. Study of Imperfect Flowers. —Examine, draw, and describe 
the imperfect flowers of some of the following dicecious plants and one 
of the monecious plants! : 
early meadow rue, 
Dicecious plants willow, 
poplar. 
walnut, oak, chestnut, 
Moneecious plants hickory, alder, beech, 
ii birch, hazel, begonia. 
1¥For figures and descriptions of these or allied flowers consult Gray’s Manual of 
Botany, Emerson’s Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, Newhall’s Trees of the 
Northern United States, or Le Maout and Decaisne’s T'raité Général de Botanique. 
