66 STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS. 



gamous (from the Greek, kruptos, concealed, and gamos, mar 

 riage). 



12. The flower consists of the assemblage of organs, upon 

 which spring the germs of phanero'gamous plants, and the parts 

 which immediately surround them. Its use is to secure the pro- 

 duction of these germs, and their fecundation (fertilization), that 

 's, to endow them with the faculty of living and of developing 

 themselves so as to be able to become plants, similar to those 

 from which they were derived. 



13. The fruit is the assemblage of these germs already 

 fecundated, and of organs destined to protect them until they 

 attain maturity, that is, the state of perfect seeds. 



14. And the seed is the germ furnished with various envelopes, 

 that is, the body which, by its development, becomes the new 

 plant, and the organs designed to protect it, or to furnish the 

 young plant its first nourishment. 



Of the Structure of Flowers. 



15. The flowers, as we have stated above, are the parts in 

 which the germ of the new plant is produced and acquires the 

 property of living and of developing itself. They are composed 

 of appendages analogous to leaves, but of various forms, which 

 arise from the extremity of the stem or its ramifications. 



16. Sometimes the flowers arise immediately from the stem 

 without being attached to it by a tail or any accessory part; in 

 this case they are termed sessile (from the Latin, sessilis, dwarfish, 

 that is, without a stalk or stem) ; but in general that portion of 

 the stem which bears them is prolonged and constitutes a sort of 

 tail, analogous to the petiole of a leaf; to this support we give 

 the name of peduncle (from the Latin, pes, a foot,) a little foot, 

 (Jigs. 81, 82, 96);. and when it is divided, each one of the 

 divisions that is terminated by a flower is called a pedicil. (See 

 fig. I, page 11). 



17. For example : pedunculate flowers have the tailor stem 

 simple, as in the common pink ; and pedicelate flowers have 

 several tails springing from one common to the whole, as in 

 hunches or clusters of lilac, of the vine, &c. 



18. The peduncle or the pedicil of a flower may arse from 



12. Of what does the flower consist ? What is its use ? 



] 3 What is meant by the fruit ? 



14. What is the seed ? 



15. Of what are flowers composed ? 



1 6. What is the peduncle of a flower ? What is a pediciJ? 



17. What is meant by pedicelate flowers? 



18. What is a floral leaf? What is a bract ? 



