96 MORPHOLOGY OP THE .FLOWER. [LESSON 14. 



LESSON XIV. 



MORPHOLOGY OF THE FLOWER. 



251. IN all the plant till we came to the blossom we found nothing 

 but root, stem, and leaves (23, 118). However various or strange 

 their shapes, and whatever their use, everything belongs to one of 

 these three organs, and everything above ground (excepting the rare 

 case of aerial roots) is either stem or leaf. We discern the stem 

 equally in the stalk of an herb, the trunk and branches of a tree, the 

 trailing or twining Vine, the straw of Wheat or other Grasses, the 

 columnar trunk of Palms (Fig. 47), in the flattened joints of the 

 Prickly-Pear Cactus, and the rounded body of the Melon Cactus 

 (Fig. 76). Also in the slender runners of the Strawberry, the 

 tendrils of the Grape-vine and Virginia Creeper, the creeping 

 subterranean shoots of the Mint and Couchgrass, the tubers of the 

 Potato and Artichoke, the solid bulb of the Crocus, and the solid 

 part or base of scaly bulbs ; as is fully shown in Lesson 6. And in 

 Lesson 7 and elsewhere we have learned to recognize the leaf alike 

 in the thick seed-leaves of the Almond, Bean, Horsechestnut, and the 

 like (Fig. 9-24), in the scales of buds (Fig. 77), and the thickened 



FIG. 187. A Cactus-flower, viz. of Mamillaria cspitosa of the Upper Missouri 



