14 the microscope and xnE flower garden. 



( Tagetes patula) may bo taken as a common and instructive example. It will be observed 

 tbat within the dark green cup which forms the exterior whorl (involucrum) of the flower- 

 head, there are several florets having a broad yellow strap-shaped expansion striped with 

 brown, then constituting what are called the ray of the flower-head. The little tube in 

 which each terminates, encloses a slender forked body, the stylo, which is well seen with 

 the microscope, as are also the minute hairs feahjxj that encircle the base of the tube. 

 But the parts of the flower-head more particularly to be noticed, are the florets which are 

 within the ray and which arc termed collectively the disk Upon removing one of these 

 florets, we observe the two beautiful stigmas, or terminations of a central column or style, 

 this st3de being enclosed in a little cylinder, which our microscope shows to be formed of 

 five oblong bodies or anthers, united together by their edges, and which contain the 

 fertilizing granules called pollen. The style arises from the summit of a small oblong 

 capsule termed the ovary, in which, upon opening it, we find a single ovule or young seed, 

 and crowning the ovary are a few serrated hairs or scales resembling those of the ray florets. 



In many of the plants of the same order, this appendage or pappus is an extremely 

 beautiful microscopic object. That of the Dandelion is well known, and in the pretty 

 Catananche ccerulea, it will be found equally interesting. In the genus Valeriana, the 

 hairs composing the pappus are at first rolled inwards, but as the seed ripens, they expand 

 and assist in wafting the fruit. The common annual, Kaulfussia amelloides, has the pappus 

 of the ray florets so divided as to present the appearance of a fringe. 



The anthers of many plants are highly attractive, both from the variation in their forms, 

 and the different mode in which they open to allow the pollen to escape. In the Oleander, 

 the anther terminates at its apex in a long feathery prolongation, and is divided at its base 

 into two lobes, which diverge so as to present an arrow-like appearance. In Gaultlicria 

 procumbens, a North American shrub, each of the pointed anther lobes is divided into two 

 horns, the entire anther thus having a four-forked aspect. 



Erythraa aggregata a pretty little plant of the Gentian family presents us with a curious 

 example of the twisted anther ; in Commelina ccclestis, the three barren stamens have a 

 highly singular form, differing greatly from the fertile ones, and in Rhexia, a North 

 American genus of melastomaceous plants, one or two species of which are sometimes 

 found in English gardens, the anthers are bent in a very unusual manner, and have a 

 small spur at their base. 



In the genus Tupa, formerly included in Lobelia, the anthers are densely hairy, and the 

 filaments of a considerable number of plants, among which we may mention Salpiglossis, 

 and M-ythrolcena conspicua, the scarlet Mexican thistle, are also more or less pubescent and 

 present a beautiful appearance when viewed through the Stanhope lens. 



In the majority of cases, the pollen is discharged by longitudinal openings, but in the 

 Heath Order, to which belong the Azaleas, Ehododendrons, and Ericas of our gardens, the 

 anthers open by pores generally situated at the apex. 



In the Barberry, each lobe opens by a valve, which rolls up from the base to the apex, 

 while in some of the laurel tribe there are two such separating valves for each anther-lobe, 

 or four in all. 



