u 



A PATTERN PLANT. 



[SECTION 



15. Blossoming. In Flax the (lowers make their appearance at the 

 end of the stem and branches. The growtli, uhich otherwise niiglit cou- 

 tinne them farther or indefinitely, now takes the form of blossom, and is 

 subservient to the production of seed. 



16. The Flower of Elax consists, first, of five small green leaves, 

 crowded into a circle : this is the Calyx, or flower-cup. When its sepa- 

 rate leaves are referred to they are called Sepals, a name which distin- 

 guishes them from foliage-leaves on the one hand, and from petals on the 

 other. Then come five delicate and colored leaves (in tiie Flax, blue), which 

 form the Couolla, and its leaves are Petals ; then a circle of organs, in 



wliich all likeness to leaves is lost, consisting of slender stalks with a knob 

 at summit, the Stamens ; and lastly, in the centre, the rounded body, 

 which becomes a pod, surmounted by five slender or stalk-like bodies. 

 This, all together, is the Pistil. The lower part of it, which is to contain the 

 seeds, is the Ovary; the slender organs surmounting this are Styles; the 

 knob borne on the apex of each style is a Stigma. Going back to the sta- 

 mens, these are of two parts, viz. the stalk, called Filament, and the body 

 it b(;ars, the Anther. Anthers are filled with Pollen, a powdery sub- 

 stance made up of uiinute grains. 



17. The pollen shed from the anthers when they open falls upon or is 

 conveyed to the stigmas ; then the pollen-grains set up a kind of growth (to 

 be discerned only by aid of a good microscope), which penetrates the style : 

 this growth takes the form of a thread more delicate than the finest spider's 

 web, and reaches the bodies wliich are to become seeds (Ovules they are 

 called until this change occurs) ; these, touched by this influence, are in- 

 cited to a new growth within, which becomes an embryo. So, as the ovary 

 ripens into the seed-])od or capsule (Fig. 1, etc.) containing seeds, eacli 

 seed enclosing a rudimentary new ])lantlet, the round of this vegcfal)ie 

 existence is completed. 



Fig. 9. Flax-flowers about natural .size. 10. Section of a flower moderately 

 enlarged, showing a part of tlie petals and stamens, all five styles, and a section 

 of ovary with two ovules or rudimentary seeds. 



