68 FLAN OF THE FLOWER. [LESSON 13. 



LESSON XIII. 



THE PLAN OF THE FLOWER. 



235. THE FLOWER, like every other part of the plant, is formed 

 upon a plan, which is essentially the same in all blossoms ; and the 

 student should early get a clear idea of the plan of the flower. Then 

 the almost endless varieties which different blossoms present will be 

 at once understood whenever they occur, and will be regarded with 

 a higher interest than their most beautiful forms and richest colors 

 are able to inspire. 



236. We have already become familiar with the plan of the vege- 

 tation; with the stem, consisting of joint raised upon joint, each 

 bearing a leaf or a pair of leaves ; with the leaves arranged in sym- 

 metrical order, every leaf governed by a simple arithmetical law, 

 which fixes beforehand the precise place it is to occupy on the stem; 

 and we have lately learned (in Lesson 11) how the position of each 

 blossom is determined beforehand by that of the leaves ; so that the 

 shape of every flower-cluster in a bouquet is given by the same sim- 

 ple mathematical law which arranges the foliage. Let us now con- 

 template the flower in a similar way. Having just learned what 

 parts it consists of, let us consider the plan upon which it is made, 

 and endeavor to trace this plan through some of the various forms 

 which blossoms exhibit to our view. 



237. In order to give at the outset a correct idea of the blossom, 

 we took, in the last Lesson, for the purpose of explaining its parts, a 

 perfect, complete, regular, and symmetrical flower, and one nearly as 

 simple as such a flower could well be. Such a blossom the botanist 

 regards as 



238. A Typical Flower, that is, a pattern flower, because it well ex- 

 emplifies the plan upon which all flowers are made, and serves as 

 what is called a type, or standard of comparison. 



239. Another equally good typical flower (except in a single re- 

 spect, which will hereafter be mentioned), and one readily to be ob- 

 tained in the summer, is that of the Flax (Fig. 174). The parts 

 differ in shape from those of the Stonecrop ; but the whole plan is 

 evidently just the same in both. Only, while the Stonecrop has ten 

 stamens, or in many flowers eight stamens, in till cases just twice 



