270 



A TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



[Ch. VI, 2 



they are rounded (as in the Peony), or else elongated, or 

 otherwise shaped. Typically green like leaves, they some- 

 times assume both the color and shapes of the next inner 

 parts, the petals, as with Anemone and Four-o'clock. Usu- 

 ally persisting for a time in the opened flower, they some- 

 times fall off as it opens, as in Poppies. Commonly composed 

 of separate sepals (polysepalous), the calyx is often one 

 piece (gamosepalous), forming a saucer-, cup-, urn-, or tube- 

 shaped structure, from the summit of which the free sepals 



project. Oftenest five 

 in number, the sepals 

 may be two, three, 

 four, six, or more, in 

 lessening frequency. 

 The student may 

 easily confirm all of 

 these matters for him- 

 self, and extend them, 

 in any garden or green- 

 house. 



Next inside the 

 calyx comes the co- 

 rolla, formed, in the 

 Peony, of a whorl of 

 five brightly-colored 

 petals. Collectively they open out in a way to display a disk 

 of color surrounding the sexual parts ; and herein, as will later 

 appear, consists their function, — that of showing to insects 

 the position of those parts. The separate petals are here 

 broadest towards their tips, with narrow bases ; but from 

 this typical condition there are wide deviations. The bases 

 are extended into greatly elongated stalks, as in Carnation ; 

 or their tips are pointed, elongated, cleft, fringed, and vari- 

 ously formed, as the flowers of any greenhouse or garden il- 

 lustrate ; while the most remarkable spurs, hoods, and other 

 structures occur, as in Larkspur and Columbine (Fig. 207). 



Fig. 



of Pceonia 



183. — A typical flower 

 peregrina ; X |. 

 Some of the sepals and petals have been 

 removed in order to show clearly the stamens, 

 a, and the pistils, g. (From Strasburger.) 



