LINN/EUS. 65 



structures), and, perceiving the essential import- 

 ance of these parts of the plant, he formed the 

 design of a new method of arrangement, founded 

 upon these organs. This was the first dawning 

 idea of that great system upon which his subsequent 

 fame was based. 



A flower of a complete kind consists of the parts 

 of the plant which reproduce or form the seed, 

 enclosed within two particular envelopes. The 

 envelopes of the flower are the beautifully coloured 

 parts called petals, which form the corolla, or inner 

 envelope, and the duller-coloured or green sepals 

 outside the corolla, and which form the calyx. 



Protected by these coverings, are the central 

 parts or organs. Quite in the middle of the flower 

 is the ovary, made up of one or several portions — 

 the pistils, which contain the future seeds or ovules. 

 The top of the whole, which projects in the middle 

 of the flower, is the stigma, and the prolonged part 

 beneath it is the style, and this surmounts the 

 seed-case or ovary. Outside this central part, and 

 between it and the corolla, are the stamens, each 

 of which — for their number varies — may consist 

 of a stalk or filament, bearing an anther, which is 

 .coloured, and contains the pollen, or dust, which 

 fertilizes the ovule, by falling on to the stigma. 



These central parts are the reproductive organs, 

 and are those which, above all others, are the most 

 important, for without them a plant cannot increase 

 and multiply, and would become extinct. The 

 floral envelopes, beautiful as they are, are not so 



I. F 



