FLOWER TYPES 



57 



become petal-like in character. This tendency in plants makes 

 it possible for the florist to develop double flowers from the 

 natural single ones; the wild rose has but five petals, and 

 numerous stamens, but the double rose has many petals and few 

 or no stamens, they having bean transformed into petals, more 

 or less like the other petals. 



The pistils are more distinct than the stamens but will 

 sometimes assume petal-like characters. The organs of some 



a 



$ 



FIG. 44. a, twig and two clusters of elm blossoms; b and c, diagrammatic longitudinal and 

 cross- sections of a single blossom. 



flowers are imperfect and of no use to the plant. If all of the 

 stamens or all of the pistils are imperfect the plant cannot 

 produce seeds and, therefore, must be propagated by some 

 method other than by seeds. This will be explained later. 

 (Chapter VI.) 



Flower Types. A flower which is composed of the four sets 

 of organs is said to be complete (Fig. 40), and a flower pos- 

 sessing both stamens and pistils, regardless of the presence or 

 absence of calyx and corolla, is said to be perfect. (Fig. 40.) 

 A flower in which the number of organs in each set is the same 

 or a multiple of the same is symmetrical. (Figs. 42 and 43.) 



