CALYX. 80 



now to examine them with more minute attention, and to re- 

 mark upon their different uses in the vegetable econo'my. 



You are no doubt pleased to have arrived at that part of the 

 plant, which is the ornament of the vegetable kingdom. Flow- 

 ers are delightful to every lover of nature ; a boquet or even 

 the simplest blossom, presented by a friend, interests the heart.* 

 How many pleasant thoughts are awakened by the fresh and 

 perfumed incense which is offered by flowers ; their odour has 

 been poetically termed the language by which they hold com- 

 munion with our minds. Females are usually fond of flowers ; 

 bilt until recently, the greater number have only viewed them 

 as beautiful objects, delighting the senses by their odour and 

 fragrance ; without being aware that these objects, lovely as 

 they seemed, might be rendered doubly interesting, by a scien- 

 tific knowledge of the relations and uses of their various parts. 

 Even at the present period, there are those who spend years in 

 cultivating plants, ignorant of their botanical characters, when 

 a few hours study might unfold to them the beautiful arrange- 

 ment of Linnaeus, and open to their astonished minds a world 

 of wonders. 



Although every part of a plant offers an interesting subject 

 for study, the beauty of the blossom, seems by association, to 

 heighten the pleasure of scientific research. Flowers are in- 

 deed lovely, but like youth and beauty they are fading and 

 transient ; they are, however, destined for a higher object than 

 a short lived admiration ; for, to them, is assigned the important 

 office of producing and nourishing the fruit : like them may 

 you so improve the bloom of life, that when youth and beauty 

 shall have faded away, your mind may exhibit that fruit, which 

 it is the important business of the present season to protect and 

 nurture. 



The parts of the flower, or the organs of fructification are 

 the following, 



Calyx, Pericarp, 



Corolla, Seed, 



Stamen, Receptacle. 

 Pistil, 



Calyx. 



The Calyx is frequently wanting ; as in the tulip. The co- 

 rolla is also wanting in many plants ; as, in most of the forest 

 trees which, to a careful observer, may seem to produce no flow- 

 er, but the presence of a stamen and pistil, is in botany consider- 

 ed as constituting a perfect flower. These two organs are es- 

 sential to the perfection of the fruit ; and when a flower is des- 



Flowers delightful Many who cultivate thorn ignorant of their botanical 

 characters Flowers analogous to youth Organs of fructification Calyx, 

 sometimes wanting. 



8* 



