22, 23.] 



PLAN OF THE FLOWEK. 



27 



e, That the organs be distinct, all disconnected and 

 free from each other. 



61. This is the TYPE. But it is seldom fully real- 

 ized in the flowers as they actually grow, although the 

 tendency toward it is universal. Deviations occur in 

 every imaginable mode and degree, causing that end- 

 less variety in the floral world which we never cease 

 to admire. For example, in our pattern flowers (5, 6, 

 7), the pistils seem too few in the Pink and Lily, and 

 the stamens too many in all of them. 



62. The flower of the Max (10) combines very nearly all the conditions 

 above specified. It is complete, regular, symmetrical. Its organs are alter- 

 nate and all separate; and (disregarding the slight cohesion of the pistils at 

 their base) this flower well realizes our type. Admitting two whorls of 

 stamens instead of one, we have a good example of our type in Stone-crop 

 (Sedum ternatum), a little fleshy herb of our woods. Its flowers are both 

 4-parted and 5-parted in the same plant. See also the 12-parted flowers of 

 the common Houseleek. 



8, Flower of Crassula lactea, regular, symmetrical, organs distinct. 9, Diagram showing its plan. 

 10, Flower of the Scarlet Flax. 11, Diagram of its plan. 



63. The flowers of Crassula (8), an African genus 

 sometimes cultivated, afford unexceptionable examples, 

 the sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils each being five 

 in number, regularly alternating and perfectly separate. 



