UTRUCTURE OF PLA.\TS. 



% 



low case or pod containing the rudimentary seeds called ovules; the style, or column {b), 

 wanting in certain flowers, which bears aloft the third part, known as the stigma (c). 

 This is the extreme viscous tip of the flower, and is exposed on all sides for the reception 

 of the impregnating pollen from the encircling stamens. Sometimes an ovary has several 

 styles and stigmas, when the pistil is called compound, and each part a carpel, as in the 

 Blackberry (67). Some flowers have only stamens, while others of the same plant have 

 only pistils as in the Cucumber (68), and as those alone that have pistils produce seed, they 

 are called ycr/-/«7e, while those possessing stamens only are designated barren. Again, the 

 pistils and stamens are sometimes to be found only in different plants of the same species, 

 as in the Willow (69). When in different flowers of the same plant, ihev are called 

 monoecious, from two Greek words meaning single-housed, as in the Cucumber; when in 

 different plants, they are termed dicecious, or two-housed, as in the Willows. When the 

 ovary is above the base of the perianth, it is termed superior, as in the Purslane (70); 

 when below, as in the Roses, it is called inferior. 



Pericarp (from the Greek peri, around, and karpos, fruit), or seed-vessel, is the 

 case, pod or covering of the seed or seeds of a plant, the enlarged anil ripened ovary, 

 which with the enclosed seeds constitutes the fruit. It presents various forms in different 

 plants, as the capsule in the Purslane (71), the silique in the common Mustard (72), the 

 silicic or capsella, a short pod (72), in the Shepherd's Purse, the legume or long pod in 

 the Bean (73), the berry in the Currant (74), the nut in the Hazel (75), the drupe in the 

 Hawthorn (76), and the cone in the Pine (77). Fruits ms Jleshy when the seeds are en- 

 circled by a juicy, pulpy substance, as in the Apple, the Pear, the Melon and many others. 

 Stone-fruits is the name given to those in which the pulpy matter incloses tlie hard, horny 

 substance, or " stone," which covers the seed. They are called dry fruits when the seed- 

 vessel does not become juicy or pulpy, but is a mere husk or dry covering, as in Wheat, 

 the Five-finger, the Ground Cherry, etc. 



Seed. — This is the portion destined to reproduce the plant, and is itself the result of 

 the action between the stamens and the pistil, indicated above. The stigma receives the 

 pollen, which is conveyed through the style to the ovary, where it comes in contact with 

 the ovules, j^roducing the seed that in due time arrives at the maturity necessary to repro- 

 duce the plant according to its kind. When the plumule or embryo plant is enclosed in a 

 seed of two cotyledons, it is styled, from the Greek, dicotyledonous, that is, having two 

 lobes, as in the Bean (78), when in one, it is monocotyledonous, as in the common Grasses 

 or Sugar-cane; and when there is no apparent nourishing seed-lobe, it is called acotyle- 

 donous, as in the Ferns. 



Receptacle is the top of the stem, or apex of the flowerstalk, from which the 

 organs of the flower spring, and into which thcv may therefore be conceived as gathered 

 or inserted, whence the name. It is conical (79), as in the Obeliscaria, chaffy (So), as 

 in the Thistle, or bristly, as in the Cactus (81), and is the part on which the other portions 

 of the flower rest, as in the Scabious (82). 



Nectary is a term applied to any of the organs which may happen to contain nectar, 

 that is, the sweet secretions from the plants. The nectary of the Crown Imperial 

 comprises a number of cells around the center of the flower, while in the Crowfoot it is a 

 scale at the base of the petals (S3). 



'1 . ..^^ 



