LESSONS IN BOTANY. 211 



a hasty glance, one might think the top of a plant, shrub or tree 

 a mass of disorder, yet a careful investigation would show that 

 everything was in a definite place according to a plan. 



The flower consists of parts or organs designed for the produc- 

 tion of seeds from which new plants may grow. The parts of a 

 complete flower are the calyx, the corolla, the stamens and pistil 

 or pistils. The flower is a short branch and the parts are com- 

 posed of more or less modified leaves arranged according to the 

 leaf plan of the plant. 



The calyx is the lowest or outer whorl of leaves, they usually 

 have about the same color as the foliage leaves, and are called 

 sepals. Sometimes the sepals grow together forming a cup or 

 tube, when the calyx is called monosepalous. When the sepals 

 are distinct the calyx is polysepalous. The calyx may be regular 

 when all the sepals are alike, or they may vary in form when it 

 will be irregular. 



The second whorl of leaves called petals make up the corolla. 

 They are usually of some attractive color differing widely from 

 that of the foliage leaf. The corolla may be monopetalous or 

 polypetalous, and it may be regular or irregular, and in some 

 cases it is wanting, when the flower is said to be apetalous, the 

 sepals sometimes having the appearance of petals. 



The next whorl of leaves have been changed into stamens. A 

 stamen consists of a filament or stalk and the anther. The fila- 

 ment, usually slender, is sometimes broad and leaf-like. Some- 

 times the stamens are distinct, sometimes united into a tube, 

 when they are said to be monodelphous. Sometimes they stand 

 on the common receptacle of the flower, as an independent 

 group of organs, when they are said to be hypogynous, under 

 the pistil ; they maybe on the calyx around the pistils, when they 

 are perigynous ; they may be on the ovary, when they are epigy- 

 nous; they are sometimes united with the pistil, when they are 

 gynandrous; and again they may stand on the petals, when they 

 are epipetalous. Sometimes the anthers are united, when they are 

 syngenesious. The filaments may be of different length ; if there 

 are four stamens, two long and two short, they are didynamous. 



