LKSSON 13. J 



ABORTIVK Onr.ANS. 



95 



very interestiiip: to the botanist, since it tonipletes tlie symmetry of 

 the blossom. Ami lo siiow that this really is the lost stamen, it 

 now and then bears an anther, or the rudiment of one. So the 

 flower of Calalpa should likewise have Jive stamens ; but we seldom 

 find more than two good ones. Still we iM 



may generally discern the three others, 

 as vestiges or half-obliterated stamens 

 (Kig. I'JG). In separated (lowers the 

 rudiments of pistils are often found in 

 the sterile blossom, and rudimentary sta- 

 mens in the fertile blossom, as in ^loon- 

 6eed (Fig. 177). 



250. Hhillipliriitlcr. of Paris. Quite in 



the opposite way, the simple plan of the 

 flower is often more or less obscured by ( _ 

 an increase in the number of parts. In 

 the White AVater-Lily, and in many 

 Cactus-flowers (Fig. li)7), all the parts 

 are very numerous, so that it is hard 

 to say upon what number the blos- 

 som is constructed. But more com- 

 monly .<;omft of the sets are few and 

 definite in the number of their parts. 

 Tiie Buttercup, for instance, lias five 

 sepals and five petals, but many sta- r^ 

 mens and pistils ; so it is built upon 

 the plan of five. Tlie flowers of ^lag- 

 nolia have indefinitely numerous stamens 

 and pistils, and rather numerous floral 

 envelopes ; but these latter are plaiidy distinguishable into sets of 

 three; namely, there are three se,.als, and six petals in two' circles, 

 or nine in three circles, — showing that these blossoms are con- 

 structed on the number three. 



Flo. 19». Corolla of .1 piirplo Gorarclia laid open, Fhowing the four (tamen? ; tho rrotn 

 (liows whore the filth slaiiien woiihl he, if prcseiiL 



FK;. IU5. <'«irolla, laid o|)en, and sianienH of IVntxIemon crandiflonm of Iowa, &r., with 

 a Htjrilp filament in tlie plaro of the fifth Ktanien, and reproscntinK it. 



FIC. lOi). Ciirolla of Catalpa laid «|K>n, di^idaying two good HUmcnii and three alxirlive 

 veiitigeii of itaniciM. 



