XVI. 

 THE BEAN-PLANT (Vicia Faba). 



IN this, which is selected as a convenient example of a 

 Flowering Plant, the same parts are to be distinguished as 

 in the Fern; but the axis is erect and consists of a root im- 

 bedded in the earth and a stem which rises into the air. The 

 appendages of the stem are leaves, developed from the op- 

 posite sides of successive nodes; and the internodes become 

 shorter and shorter towards the summit of the stem, which 

 ends in a terminal bud. Buds are also developed in the 

 axils of the leaves, and some of them grow into branches, 

 which repeat the characters of the stem ; but others, when 

 the plant attains its full development, grow into stalks which 

 support the flowers ; each of which consists of a calyx, a 

 corolla, ten stamens and a central pistil; the latter is ter- 

 minated by a style, the free end of which is the stigma. 



The flower-stalks are modified branches, and the flower 

 itself consists of several whorls of modified leaves. 



The stamens form a tube which ends in ten filaments, 

 four of which are rather shorter than the rest ; and the fila- 

 ments bear oval bodies, the anthers, which, when ripe, give 

 exit to a fine powder, made up of minute pollen grains, each 

 of which is a single cell. The pistil is hollow ; and, attached 

 by short stalks along the ventral side of it, or that turned 

 towards the axis, is a longitudinal series of minute bodies, 

 the ovules. Each ovule consists of a central conical nncellus, 



