104 



THE FLOWER. 



354. Combined with suppression of Perianth. This, which is 

 found inmost amentaceous or catkin-bearing trees, in some with 

 partial suppression of perianth, is well illustrated 

 in Willows, the flowers of which are all uchlamydeous 

 and dioecious. (347.) The little scale (gland or nec- 

 tary) at the inside of each blossom might be sup- 

 posed to represent a perianth, reduced to a single 

 piece ; but an extended comparison of forms refers 

 it rather to the receptacle. Willow-blossoms (Fig. 

 370-372) are crowded in catkins, each one in the axil of a bract : 

 the staminate flowers consist of a few stamens merely, in this 

 species of only two, and the pistillate of a pistil merely. In 

 Salix purpurea, the male flower seems to be a single stamen 

 (Fig. 374) ; but it consists of two stamens, united into one 



body. Here extreme 

 suppression is ac- 

 companied with co- 

 alescence of the 

 existing members. 



355. Still more 

 simplified flowers, 

 but more difficult 

 to comprehend, are 

 those of Euphorbia, 

 or Spurge. These 

 are in fact monoeci- 

 ous ; and the female 

 flower is a pistil, the 

 male is a stamen. 

 The pistillate flower 

 (of three carpels, 

 their ovaries united 

 into one three-lobed 

 compound ovary) 

 surmounts a slender peduncle which terminates each branch of the 

 flowering plant. (Fig. 375.) From around the base of this pe- 

 duncle rise other smaller and shorter peduncles, each from the 

 axil of a slender bract, and surmounted by a single stamen, 

 which represents a male flower. (Fig. 376, 377.) This umbel-like 



FIG. 374. A separate staminate flower of Salix purpnrea, with the stamens coa- 

 lescent (monadelphous and svngenesious). so as to appear like a. single one. 



FIG. 375. Flowering branch of Euphorbia corollata. 37C. Calyx-like involucre 

 diviilecl lengthwise, showingthe staminate flowers around a pistillate flower (a). 377. A 

 more magnified staminate flower detached with its bract, a; its peduncle or pedicel b, 

 surmounted by the solitary stamen, c. 378. Pistil in fruit, cut across, showing the 

 three one-seeded carpels of which it is composed. 



