THE PLANT. 11 



flax the type of a natural family of plants, which they 

 thence call the Linacece. According to the Linn scan 

 system, it belongs to the class Pentandria, and to the 

 order Pentagynia ; that is, each blossom contains live 

 stamens, or fructifying organs, called the male parts of 

 the flowers, and also five pistils, or terminating points of 

 the embryo fruit, forming what are looked upon as the 

 female organs. Each stamen is tipped with a little 

 roundish head, called an anther, which when arrived at 

 maturity sheds a fine dust, called the pollen; the pollen 

 coming into contact with the pistils causes the seed to 

 grow, and to become reproductive in its turn. In all 

 plants the influence of the pollen upon the germ, through 

 the absorbing medium of the pistils, is absolutely neces- 

 sary to render them fertile. In flowers, like those of flax, 

 in which both stamens and pistils are present, seed may 

 be expected from every flower, except in case of accident 

 and injury. In other plants all the male flowers grow 

 upon one individual, and all the female upon another. 

 Such is the case with hemp, the second subject of the 

 present treatise. Unless the male or pollen-bearing plants 

 are allowed to grow up together with the fruit-bearing, 

 or female, until the anthers and the pollen they contain 

 are ripe enough to be shed and wafted by the breeze, the 

 immature seed withers and becomes abortive. "Willows, 

 and the date palm, are other well-known instances in 

 which the male and female blossoms are always produced 

 by separate plants ; so that each individual willow or 

 date-tree is either male or female for the whole term of 

 its existence. The hazel and the filbert-tree bear blos- 

 soms of different sexes, but both are found growing upon 

 the same tree, promiscuously dispersed amongst the 

 branches. In the temperate zone, the majority of plants 

 resemble flax 2 in bearing blossoms which contain both 

 stamens and pistils, and are thence styled hermaphrodite 

 flowers. 



Elax starts from the ground with only its two seed- 

 leaves, or cotyledons, developed. It then rises with an 

 upright hollow stem, which divides into branches when 



