ERYTHRONIUM. 33 



places severally. The inner circle shows the position of the 

 3 united ovaries (o o o, called also carpeU), Each member 

 alternates in position with its next neighbors; e. g., the 

 petals with the sepals and the outer stamens, «&;c. And the 

 members are all in 3s — 3 sepals, 3 petals, 3 outer stamens, 

 &c. Hence the flower is said to be alternating, syuwietrical, 

 and S-jjaried, 



The J^ricit is the full-grown and complete ovary. The 

 flower is of short duration. The sepals, petals, stamens and 

 stjde soon fade, wither, and fall. They are decidaoiis. But 

 the ovary is persistent, growing, and ripening a month after 

 the flower has done its work. It is then a dry seed-box — a 

 capside, having its 3 cells packed full of seeds. 



Here we come to the ultimate product of the plant, that 

 for which it lived, grew, bloomed, and labored. In the shell 

 of the seed (called the testa) is safely inclosed the rudiment 

 of a new plant ready to be developed into the likeness of the 

 parent. A careful dissection (6) will show the structure 

 of this rudiment — the emlryo. It appears a simple cylin- 

 drical body lying in a white fleshy substance called albumen. 

 (See p. 42.) 



Classification.— The Dogtooth Violet, by the presence 

 of its conspicuous flower, is in marked contrast with the 

 Pigeon-wheat and the Polypod. They represent the Flow- 

 erless (Cryptogamia) and this the Flowering Plants (Phenc- 

 gamia).* Moreover, by the presence of parallel-veined le&ves, 

 S-jmrted fiotvers, and seeds with a simple {not lohed) tnnlryOy 

 this plant represents the Endogens, one of the two provinces 

 into which the Flowering Plants are divided. (For the other 

 province, see p. 43.) 



The Name. — This plant is a Lily rather than a Violet, 



* Thus the Vegetahle Kingdom is parted into two suhkingdoms, known by the 

 ahsence or presence of visible flowers. This division was first recognized A. D. 1682, 

 by John Ray, of England. 



