BOTANY OF LA SALL,E COUNTY. 27 



The fruit or seed, for correctly speaking 1 , a peapod, 

 a peach, an apple, a pumpkin, a tomato, a hickory nut, 

 an acorn, and a kernel of corn are all fruits, that is, 

 they are each of them the product of one flower, is 

 usually perfected in one season, but in some cases not 

 until the second year. Fruits differ much from each 

 other and should be carefully examined. 



The stem bearing- a leaf is called a petiole. I/eaves 

 having 1 a stem, as those of the apple, are said to be 

 peteolate; if they have no stem, as in the thistle, they 

 are said to be sessile. 



The stem bearing- a flower is called a peduncle; 

 flowers having- no stem are called sessile. 



A stem having- no reg-ular leaf, but one or more 

 flowers is called a seape, as the flower bearing- stem of 

 the bloodroot, hepatica, oxalis. Sometimes there is a 

 small leaf or a pair of them at the base of the leaf 

 stem; these are called stipules. They may be very 

 small, no more than bristles, and sometimes fall off 

 soon after the leaf expands. Sometimes there are 

 small leaves below the flower; these are called bracts. 

 If we plant a bean or squash seed, in time, two thick 

 leaves appear above ground and from between these 

 other leaves will spring-, different in form and larg-er. 

 These first leaves are called cotyledons and most of 

 the seeds we plant send up two of them and are called 

 dicotyledons or two cotyledons, di meaning- two. But 

 if we plant corn, wheat, oats, only one cotyledon ap- 

 pears and all plantsthe grass and sedg-e families, as 

 also the lilies and many others having- but one seed 

 leaf are called monocotyledons (mono meaning one). 

 The pines and their allies have more than two cotyle- 

 dons and may be called polycotyledons. 



