S4 REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. CHAP. III. 



compressed with an open border at the small end, 

 furnished with several slender fibres originating in 

 the margin, and containing a transparent and watery 

 fluid, and a small bubble of air, by means of which 

 it seems to acquire a buoyancy that suspends it in 

 the water.* 



CHAPTER III. 



REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 



THE reproductive organs are such parts of the 

 plant as are essential to its propagation, correspond- 

 ing in extent to the fructification of Linnaeus, which 

 he has elegantly defined to be a temporary part of 

 the vegetable, whose object is the reproduction of 

 the species, terminating the old individual and~ 

 beginning the new.-f~ It includes the flower with 

 its immediate accompaniments or peculiarities, the 

 flower-stalk, receptacle, and inflorescence ; together 

 with the ovary or fruit. 



SECTION I. 



The Flower. 



Itsdefiui- THE flower, like the leaf, is a temporary part of 

 the plant issuing generally from the extremity of 

 the branches, but sometimes also from the root, 



* With. Arrang. ii. l>p* t Phil. Dot. sec* S(v 



I 



