140 NATURE TEACHING 



When, however, we examine them more closely, we find 

 that a very large number are built up on a similar plan 

 just as we found the various kinds of leaves to agree 

 in essential parts. In selecting the first flowers for 

 examination it is important to choose those whose parts 

 are large, simple, and not too numerous. A tulip or 

 any of the ordinary garden lilies affords an excellent 

 example. 



In a lily or tulip flower the following parts can be 

 made out: Six large (white, yellow, or red) leaf-like 

 bodies the petals which make the outside, showy por- 

 tion of the flower. They are obviously arranged in two 

 rings, three being inside and three outside. Inside these 

 come six bodies, each consisting of a stalk with a swollen 

 portion at the free end. These are the stamens, the end 

 portion of each of which is full of a yellow powder, the 

 pollen, which, when the stamens are ripe and open, is 

 exposed. In the midst of the stamens is another body, 

 bearing no pollen-box at its upper end, but swollen 

 out beneath into a green structure, which, if cut across, 

 is found to be divided into three compartments, each 

 containing a large number of small white bodies, the 

 future seeds. This swollen portion is the ovary and the 

 little white bodies it contains are the ovules. 



Flowers of the common meadow buttercup or crow- 

 foot may well be examined after we have made out 

 the structure of such a large and simple flower as the 

 lily or tulip. Buttercups have the advantage of being 

 very common and obtainable practically all the year 

 round. On the outside there is a ring of five greenish- 

 yellow, hairy bodies, the sepals. Inside these is another 



