FLOEAL FORMS AND THEIR RELATIONS TO INSECTS 321 



FIG. 388. BUTTERCUP. 



Corolhi (r) ; stamens (s). 



If we take a simple flower say a 

 Buttercup and examine it, we find 

 that it consists of four distinct sets of 

 parts, or organs. Starting from the 

 outside (fig. 389) we have, first of all, 

 a green calyx (k) composed in this case 

 of five leaf -like organs or sepals then 

 the showy yellow leaves or petals (figs. 

 388 and 389, c), which are also five in 

 number, and are called collectively the 

 corolla next a number of delicate and 

 slender bodies the stamens (s), each of 

 which is furnished with a thread-like 

 stalk the filament, surmounted by a 

 sort of double sac the anther, which 



opens at the sides by two slits and contains in each of its cells or lobes a 

 yellow powder the pollen. The small part of the filament which runs up 

 between the anther-cells is appropriately termed the connective. Lastly, 

 in the very centre of the flower we come upon the fourth set of organs, 

 consisting of a number of tiny green bodies the carpels, seated upon a 

 small elevated portion of the receptacle, and known collectively as the pistil 

 (fig. 391). Looked at under a magnifying glass, each of these carpels 

 is found to consist of a roundish part or ovary, which is gradually con- 

 tracted above into a kind of short bent horn the style, of which the tip 

 or stigma is somewhat wider and more shiny than the rest. The ovary is 

 hollow and contains the ovule, or precursor of the seed (fig. 390). 



The only parts of a flower which are absolutely necessary for the pro- 

 duction of seeds are the stamen, or male organ, and the pistil, or female 

 organ ; and they are called on that 

 account the essential floral organs. They 

 stand in the same relation to the seed 

 as parents to a child ; in fact, they are 

 the father and mother of the seed. The 

 calyx or corolla are of altogether 

 secondary importance, and are merely 

 spoken of as the floral envelopes. 



Some writers have seen an analogy 

 between a flowering plant and a bee- 

 hive, and certainly a community of 

 bees affords an instructive illustration 

 if the search for resemblances be not 

 pushed too far. Normally speaking, a 

 hive contains three kinds of bees : 

 first, the workers, which are of no sex, 

 ii 3 



FIQ. 389. BUTTERCUP FROM BELOW. 



Corolla fc) ; calyx (*\ 



