16 WINDOW AND PARLOR GARDENING 
pound leaves; when the segment is articulated, that is, attached 
to the whole by means of a joint. Compound leaves are either 
palmate, when the leaflets are joined to a common centre, or 
pinnate, when disposed at regular distances on a main leaf- 
stalk. There are pinnate leaves with even pairs of leaflets, or 
with an odd one at the tip of the leaf, or with the end of the 
leaflet converted into a tendril, as in the sweet pea. When 
a leaf is doubly or three times pinnate, it is called bi- or tri- 
pinnate. 
According to the arrangement on the stem the leaves are 
opposite, as in the Periwinkle, or whorled, as in the Crown 
Imperial, or alternate, as in the Oleander. 
The blades of some leaves are modified into pitchers or into 
traps for catching insects, as the leaves of the common Pitcher- 
plant, the Saddle-wort, and the Fly-trap. 
Some leaves are fleshy and succulent, and serve for storage in 
the same way as fleshy stems or roots in other plants. A com- 
mon example is the American Aloe. Many plants of this class 
have dry and leathery leaves engendered by exposure for cen: 
turies upon centuries to a tropical sun. 
The flowers, in which all higher vegetable life reaches its 
fullest development, are, no matter how great the apparent 
difference, formed upon one general plan. The essential parts 
of all flowers are’ not the showy petals, but the small, insignifi- 
cant-looking organs within, the pistil and stamens. The pis- 
til is the central organ, the lower portion of which is destined 
to develop into fruit ; the stamens are the fertilizing organs. 
The pistil consists generally of three parts: the ovary, which is 
the lower part and contains the rudimentary seeds, the s¢y/e, 
and the st#/gma. The style may be absent, but the stigma 
which receives the pollen from the anthers, and the ovary, are 
