FLORISTS' PLANTS 



FLOWER 



1245 



the greenhouses according to order and sent to the stores 

 where all that is needed is to add the basket and 

 the ribbons. The latter plan relieves the store of much 

 work in the busy season, but may not result in as artistic 

 combinations as can be secured by a person trained in 

 the work. The manufacturers of florist supplies are 

 striving to meet the demand for something new in 

 baskets and boxes. New material, weaves and shapes, 

 are seen every year. There is also a great variety of 

 coloring. There are green, gilt, white, red, ivory, bronze 

 and copper shades as well as two-tone effects, as red 

 and green, white and green, blue and white, pink and 

 white, and yellow and white. The variety offered is 

 such that baskets can be secured in sizes to suit either 

 the high-class or popular trade. The small florist 



1513. Longitudinal section 

 of a buttercup flower. 



1512. A made-up basket of living plants. 



usually begins by using some of the willow, rattan or 

 splint baskets which are filled with inexpensive plants. 

 Cedar tubs, wood and terra-cotta boxes are also used. 

 The demand for pleasing arrangements of flowering 

 and foliage plants in boxes, jardinieres, hampers, 

 baskets, pans and dishes of fanciful design, light and 

 airy, dainty and graceful, is increasing and is receiving 

 the attention of the growers of holiday plants. It is 

 generally recognized that the work offers as wide a 

 scope for inventive genius and artistic discernment as 

 any phase of the florist business. A. C. BEAL. 



FLOWER is a popular or semi-technical term for the 

 aggregate of structures having to do with sexual 

 reproduction in the higher plants. The concept 

 usually includes color, and a definite organization as 

 outlined below; therefore, gymnosperms, ferns, and 

 the lower plants are said not to have true flowers. As 

 ordinarily understood, the flower is a showy structure 

 useful for esthetic purposes, gratifying in color and often 

 in odor, and in some way intimately connected with 

 the production of seed; but analogous although incon- 

 spicuous structures are sometimes popularly recog- 

 nized as "flowers." To the layman, many of our com- 

 mon herbs, shrubs and trees are said not to bear flowers 

 at all, although the botanist recognizes that at least 

 inconspicuous greenish flowers are borne by all of these 

 plants unless they be ferns or gymnosperms. 



Botanically considered, the flower when complete 

 consists of four sets of organs from the center outward : 

 the gyncecium, andrcecium, corolla, and calyx, to which 

 may possibly be added a fifth, 

 the disk (Figs. 1513-1516). 



The gynoscium Figs. 1517- 

 1519). In the center are one 

 or more small flask-like or 

 pouch-like organs (pistils) which 

 are hollow and contain tiny 

 bud-like growths (ovules) . The 

 pistils collectively are termed 

 the gyncecium (female house- 

 hold). The hollow ovule-bear- 

 ing part of the pistil is the ovary. At the summit of the 

 ovary is a more or less sticky or roughened 

 surface, the stigma, which may rest directly 

 on the ovary (sessile) or may be raised aloft 

 on a stalk (the style) . From the ovules seeds 

 are developed (see Fertilization). 



The fundamental or unit foliar organ of 

 the gyncecium is termed a carpel. In the 

 simplest case there is but one carpel, folded 

 to form a pouch with the upper ventral leaf- 

 surface within, and the margins forming a 

 suture down one side. The structure thus 

 formed is a simple pistil. The suture bears 

 the ovules and is termed the placenta, and 

 is normally ovuliferous throughout, but fre- 

 quently only the uppermost or basal ovule 

 of the row is present (apical and 

 suspended, or basal and erect). In 

 other cases there are several or 

 many carpels but these remain dis- 

 tinct, then forming many simple 

 pistils. In most cases, however, the 

 carpels are more or less fused, at 

 least below, and the resulting pistil is said to 

 be compound. The sutures are axially placed 

 and the midribs are outward (anterior), the 

 ventral surface of each carpel lining the 

 ovarian cavity. There are, therefore, nor- 

 mally as many cells or locules in a compound 

 ovary as there are carpels. Through the 

 partical opening-out of each carpel while the 

 margins of adjacent carpels still remain 

 united, the ovary may become one-celled 

 though still compound, as in the violet. 

 The placenta will in this case be parietal (on the 

 walls). In certain families (Caryophyllaceae, Primu- 

 laceae) the compound ovaries are one-celled but have 

 a basal placenta, or this basal placenta may project 

 upward into the single chamber of the ovary as a 

 central post on which the ovules are borne (free-central 

 placenta) (Fig. 1515). To determine the number of 

 carpels in a given pistil is often difficult. If there are 

 several separate stigmas or styles, it is usually safe to 

 infer that each represents a carpel. If the ovary is sev- 

 eral-celled, each 



cell usually de- 6J ^^^ 



notes a carpel and 

 in one-celled ova- 

 ries the placentae, 

 if parietal, denote 

 the number of car- 

 pels. In the case 

 of a pistil with a 

 one-celled ovary, 

 basal placenta, 

 one style and one 

 stigma, only de- 

 velopmental or 

 phylogenetic 

 studies will show 

 how many carpels 

 are present. 



1514. Structure of flower. The plum. 



se. sepals; p. petals; sta. stamens; o. 

 ovary; s. style: st. stigma. The pistil con- 

 sists of the ovary, style, and stigma. It 

 contains the seed part. The stamens are 

 tipped with anthers, in which the pollen is 

 borne. The ovary, o, ripens into the fruit. 



