nl .] A BUTTERCUP. 



CHAPTER III. 



FURTHER EXAMINATION OF A BUTTERCUP. 



I Function of the flower-leaves. Organs of reproduction. 



2. Sepals and petals do not take part, directly, in the process 



of reproduction. 



3. The function of the stamens. The pollen-grains are trans- 



ferred to the stigma, and develop pollen-tube?. 



4. The ovary of each carpel contains an ovule. The structure 



of the ovule. It 'contains a large cell to which a pollen- 

 tube reaches. An embryo develops in this cell. 



5. Deciduous and persistent organs of the flower. 



6. Characters are derived from the reproductive organs, which 



form the principal practical basis of classification. 



i. T T 7E have already seen in the case of our butter- 

 VV cup that the flower results in a head of fruit- 

 carpels, each carpel containing a seed. The seed we 

 found to contain the minute germ of a future buttercup, 

 which we called the embryo. As it is the special function 

 of all the leaves which compose the flower to contribute 

 to this formation of embryo-containing seeds, by means 

 of which the buttercup is enabled to reproduce and mult- 

 iply its kind, we may term all the parts of the flower 

 organs of Reproduction, in contradistinction to the organs 

 considered in our last chapter, which contribute primarily 

 to the conservation of the individual buttercup, and 

 which., from their functions, we styled, collectively, organs 

 of Nutrition. 



2. The four series of leaves of which the flower is com- 

 posed do not each fulfil an equally essential' part in the 

 production of the seed. The calyx, the corolla, and the 

 stamens are deciduous. They fall away, leaving the 



O.B. C 



