1-2-t 



THE CANADIAN HOBTICULTURIST. 



of one pattci'ii and some of another. 

 Those pieces whicli are of the same 

 }>attern, or type, will be seen to form 

 a circle or group by themselves. In 

 fact, all the parts of the flower are 

 arranged in circles, or lohorls, as they 

 are called. 



Look at the outer whorl of all. Count 

 the pieces in it. There are five. Notice 

 their color. They are green, or nearly 

 so ; at all events they are not so bright 

 in color as the whorl next within. 

 Take hold of one of these five pieces 

 and pull it away from the flower. You 

 see it comes off" readily without disturb- 

 ing the other four. Tliis outer whorl 

 Ave shall call the calyx, and each of its 

 five pieces a sepal ; and because we can 

 remove each sepal without interfering 

 with the others we shall say that the 

 calyx is p-ylij/^epaloKS. 



Pull ofl' all tlie sepals, and then look 

 at the next whorl. This consists of 

 five bi'ight yellow leaves, and you may 

 notice that the leaves of this second 

 whorl are placed alternate?!/ with those 

 of the calyx, that is, each of them is 

 not immediately in front of a sepal, but 

 in front of the space between two sepals. 

 As in the calyx, you will find that each 

 leaf of the second whorl is separate 

 from its neighbor, and can be pulled off 

 alone. This whorl of bright-colored 

 leaves is the corolla ; each of its pieces 

 is a petal ; and because the petals are 

 separate from each other, the corolla 

 is polypetalous. 



Now strij) ofi" the petals, so as to 

 expose the third whorl. In this the 

 pieces are much more numerous than 

 in the calyx and corolla, and are of a 

 totally different shape. As there are 

 more than ten of these pieces we shall 

 not take the trouble to count them, 

 but merely say that they are numerous. 

 As with the calyx and corolla, each of 

 these pieces of the third pattern grows 

 separately from the others. Take ofi" 

 one, and if you have a magnifying glass 



of any kind it will help you very much 

 to see how it is made. First there is 

 a slender stalk, then at the top of this 

 a swollen part divided lengthwise by a 

 kind of rib. If the blossom has been 

 open for a day or two, you will find 

 that this swollen top has split open 

 down its outer edges, and that a line 

 yellow dust is escaping through the 

 slits. The pieces of this third type are 

 called stamens; the slender stalk of 

 each is its filament ; the swollen top is 

 the anther ; the two parts of the anther, 

 separated by the rib, and containing 

 the yellow dust, are the anther-cells ; 

 the rib is the connective, and the yellow- 

 dust is the pollen. We shall have more 

 to say about the pollen presently. As 

 the stamens are all separate from each 

 other, and at the same time numerous, 

 we may speak of them as polyandrous. 

 Pull off all the stamens, and we find 

 still left, in the centre of the flower, 

 a number of pieces different in pattern 

 from either sepals, jjetals, or stamens. 

 As before, however, they are all separ- 

 ate from each other. Remove one, and 

 look at it through your magnifying 

 glass. It is gr-een in color, and the 

 lower part has a swollen appearance, 

 whilst towards the top it gradually ta- 

 pers away to a hooked point. Very likely 

 you will find some of the pollen from 

 the anthers sticking on this hooked 

 point. Try, with a sharp knife, to split 

 open the lower swollen part. If you suc- 

 ceed, you will discover that it is hollow, 

 and that it contains a little seed-like 

 substance attached to the wall of the 

 cavity by its lower end. Each of these 

 pieces of the fourth sort is a carpel ; 

 taken all together they make the pistil 

 of the flower. The hooked point upon 

 which the pollen sticks is the stiyma, 

 and the lower swollen part is the ovary. 

 The little body in the ovary is called 

 at first the ovule ; and later on in its 

 history it becomes the seed. As the 

 carpels are all separate, we shall say 



