104 EXAMINATION OF FLOWERb. 



growing, or immediately after they are plucked, otherwise 

 their parts will become indistinct by withering, an<j occasion 

 additional perplexity. Small flowers should be examined by 

 means of a lens. 



1. In the first ten classes, the parts which claim the prin' 

 cipal attention are the stamens and pistils, and here to deter- 

 mine the class and order, little or nothing more is required 

 than to ascertain the number of these parts. Thus, if the 

 flower has rive stamens, it belongs to PENTANDRIA, and if it 

 has only a single style, it belongs to the order MONOGY- 

 NIA, &c. 



2. In the examination of the calyx and corolla, for the pur- 

 pose of determining the genus, much caution is necessary 

 lest the number of divisions in the first, should be mistaken 

 for the number of sepals, and those of the second for the 

 number of petals. In the first place, examine the corolla by 

 pulling off each petal, or division separately. If it is found 

 that they cohere, or grow together at the base, the corolla is 

 monopetalous, and the petals instead of being distinct parts, 

 as in a polypetalous corolla, are merely deep divisions. The 

 flower of the Iris, for example, might easily be mistaken for 

 a corolla with six petals. See p. 60, and Fig. 115. 



3. The corolla being examined and removed, the calyx, 

 if deeply divided, should be inspected in the same manner. 

 Every calyx, the leaves or sepals of which are joined at the 

 base, is monophyllous or single leaved, however deeply it may 

 be divided. In the Violet, for example, the calyx consists of 

 five sepals, each of which may be removed separately, and 

 without disturbing the others. In the Rose and Apple, the 

 < alyx is five cleft, the division all being united at the base. 

 ]n the Violet, therefore, the calyx is polyphyllous, or polyse- 

 palous. In the Rose, it is monosepalous. 



4. In many flowers the stigmas are so elongated, or deeply 

 cleft, as easily to be mistaken for styles. It is necessary, 

 therefore, in the examination of these parts, to ascertain 

 whether they unite below, in which case only one style is to 

 be counted. The Iris has three petaloid stigmas, but only a 

 single style. 



5. In many of the classes, particularly in the fifth, sixth, 

 and tenth, the genera are often in part distinguished by the 

 superior or inferior situation of the calyx, or corolla, or of 

 both. Sometimes, also, these parts are half superior. These 

 points are easily determined. When the calyx, or corolla 



