AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



75 



or, The Apple Blossom, a common perfect or bisexual Flower. 

 &, Cucumber Blossoms, a monoecious Plant. 



1, The Fertilizer, or false Blossom. 



2, The fertile Blossom attached to the young Fruit. 



c, The Fertilizer, or false Hop-vine, with its blossoms, \ 



d, The fertile Hop-vine, its blossoms being hid between the > 



scales of the " Hop," ) 



a dioecious 

 Plant. 



The following figures present the arrangement of the various 

 floral organs without their petals, and are inserted for farther 

 and clearer illustration. 



Fig. 61. 



1, A perfect or bisexual Blossom. 



2, Monoecious Blossoms, on the same Root. 



3, 4, Dioecious Blossoms, on separate Roots. 



a, a, a, Fertilizing Organs, or Stamens. 

 &, &, &, Fertile Organs, or Pistils. 



All flowers have a sexual character, that is, they are fur- 

 nished with fertilizing or fertile organs, or both, known in bot- 

 any as stamens and pistils. For the most part, these organs 

 grow together in each individual blossom, as in the apple and 

 all our common fruit-trees, the flowers of which are perfect or 

 bisexual. Flowers of this class are distinguished in botany by 

 the number and peculiar character of these organs, which vary 

 in the different Linnaean orders from a single stamen and pistil 

 to an indefinite number of each (Figs. 60 a, 61, 1). 



In some cases they reside in separate blossoms, though upon 

 the same root, as in corn, melons, cucumbers, &c., Figs. 60 Z>, 

 61, 2 ; the topgallant in corn, what are called false blossoms 

 in cucumbers, and melons, the catkins of the birch and hazel, 

 &c., being only the fertilizers, which of themselves bear no 

 fruit. These plants are called in botany " monoecious," or of 

 one house. In others they are borne upon separate roots, as in 



