VIII. 

 THE BEAN-PLANT (Vicia fabd). 



IN this, which is selected as a convenient example of a 

 Flowering Plant, the same parts are to be distinguished as 

 in the Fern ; but the axis is erect and consists of a root im- 

 bedded in the earth and a stem which rises into the air. The 

 appendages of the stem are leaves, developed from the op- 

 posite sides of successive nodes ; and the internodes become 

 shorter and shorter towards the summit of the stem, which 

 ends in a terminal bud. Buds are also developed in the 

 axils of the leaves, and some of them grow into branches, 

 which repeat the characters of the stem ; but others, when 

 the plant attains its full development, grow into stalks which 

 support the flowers; each of which consists of a calyx, a 

 corolla, a staminal tube and a central pistil; the latter is ter- 

 minated by a style, the free end of which is the stigma. 



The staminal tube ends in ten filaments, four of which 

 are rather shorter than the rest; and the filaments bear oval 

 bodies, the anthers, which, when ripe, give exit to a fine 

 powder, made up of minute pollen grains. The pistil is 

 hollow; and, attached by short stalks along the ventral side 

 of it, or that turned towards the axis, is a longitudinal series 

 of minute bodies, the ovules. Each ovule consists of a central 

 conical nucleus, invested by two coats, an outer and an inner. 

 Opposite the summit of the nucleus, these coats are per- 

 forated by a canal, the micropyle, which leads down to the 



