.204 GENERAL BOTANY 



After a while the sepals arid petals fall off, the ovary 

 -expands and splits the staminal tube, (which also 

 withers away), and finally becomes the fruit. This 

 is cylindrical, but slightly flattened on the upper 

 side, and contains the seeds, plainly attached to the 

 upper edge by short funicles. Examine a good many 

 flowers of these, and other kinds, and notice that 

 in all the flowers of any one kind the number and 

 shapes and arrangements of the petals is always the 

 same. Flowers therefore are definitely arranged struc- 

 tures, not haphazard collections of coloured parts. 



And comparing the flowers that we have studied, 

 we find that there are certain resemblances and cer- 

 tain differences. In all we find the same kinds of 

 parts, sepals, petals, stamens (with anthers) and 

 ovary (with ovules). These parts are the organs of 

 the flower, and nearly every flower contains them all, 

 though in some, one or another is not developed. 

 The most important of them are, as we shall see later, 

 not the conspicuous gaily coloured petals, but the com- 

 paratively insignificant looking stamens and ovary. 



In other respects, too, the particular flowers studied, 

 are alike. The sepals, petals and stamens are in 

 5's,' 5, 5 and 10, and the ovary consists of a hollow 

 chamber with the ovules attached along one (the upper, 

 posterior) edge. 



In all of them, too, the sepals and petals are arranged 

 in two pairs with one odd. The odd sepal is always 

 the lowest (anterior), the other four being symmetrically 

 arranged ; and the odd petal is in the same way always 

 the uppermost (posterior). But there is this differ- 

 ence, that whereas with POINCIANA, C^SALPINIA and 



