79 



CHAPTER XL 



BLOSSOMS. 



Their Functions. Their Accessory and Essential Parts. The Calyx. The Corolla. 

 The Pistils. The Anthers. The Pollen. Insects as Means of Fructification. 

 The Vallisneria Spiralis. 



NOTHING can equal the immense variety of flowers, their charm- 

 ing colours, or their delicious fragrance. How differently formed 

 are the radiate aster and the hooded wolf's-bane, the bell-shaped 

 campanula and the papilionaceous lupin, and yet it would be 

 difficult to say which of them most pleases the eye. 



The colours with which the flowers are adorned baffle descrip- 

 tion. The snowy whiteness of our fruit-trees adds new beauties 

 to spring, and the purple heath invests the bleak and barren 

 Highlands of the north with a magnificence equal to the warm 

 tints of Italy or Spain. The humble daisy, the golden butter- 

 cup enamel our verdant meads, and every hue of the rainbow is 

 reflected in the gay parterres of our gardens, or in the conserva- 

 tories where Flora assembles her favourites from all parts of the 

 world. 



The foliage of many plants exhales an agreeable odour, but 

 no leaf produces a balsam which can in any way equal the 

 aroma of the violet or the rose, of the pink or of the lily of the 

 valley. Without the flowers, the variety of perfumes which 

 regale our sense of smell would be but small ; without them its 

 faculties of enjoyment would not have harmonised with the 

 outer world. 



But the corolla on which Nature has thus lavished all that can 

 gratify the senses, plays after all but an accessory part in the 

 economy of the vegetable kingdom, as, conjointly with the 

 calyx, it merely serves as a protecting cover, or as an orna- 

 mental envelope to the pistil and to the stamina, which, though 

 generally of a more humble appearance, are the essential organs 



