C 62 ] 



it incloses and defends the essential parts in the inte- 

 rior, and supplies the juices of the sap to them. These 

 parts are, 3d,, the stamens and the pistils. 



The essential part of the stamens are the sum- 

 mits or anthers, which are usually circular and of a 

 highly vascular texture, and covered with a fine dust 

 called the pollen. 



The pistil is cylindrical, and surmounted by the 

 style ; and top of which is generally round and pro- 

 tuberant.* 



In the pistil, when it is examined by the micro- 

 scope, congeries of spherical forms may usually be 

 perceived, which seem to be the bases of the future 

 seeds. 



It is upon the arrangement of the stamens and 

 the pistils, that the Linnean classification is founded. 

 The numbers of the stamens and pistils in the same 

 flower, their arrangements, or their division in differ- 

 ent flowers, are the circumstances which guided the 

 Swedish philosopher, and enabled him to form a sys- 

 tem admirably adapted to assist the memory, and ren- 

 der botany of easy acquisition ; and which, though it 

 does not always associate together the plants most 

 analogous to each other in their general characters, is 

 yet so ingeniously contrived as to denote all the analo- 

 gies of their most essential parts. 



The pistil is the organ which contains the rudi- 

 ments of the seed ; but the seed is never formed as a 



Fig. 12 represents the common lilly, a, the corolla, bbbbb t the anthers, 

 c, the pistil. 



