14Q 



THE CANADIAN IIORTICCLTCRIST. 



ti'odnced into England fi-om China, in 

 18.02. But we have no oct-asiou to go 

 after these ioreign species. The one 

 native to this Continent is best suited 

 to our circumstances, and in point of 

 beauty is all that can bo desired. 



If any of our readers have planted 

 this slirub, wo wisli they would com- 

 municate their experience witli it for 

 the information of others, especially 

 with reference to its hardiness and the 

 soil in which thev tind it to thrive. 



EASY LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



Bi H. B. SPuTTOX, BARRIE. 



LESSOX III. 



Our examination of the Buttei'cup 

 blossom has made us acquainted with 

 the various parts of the flowei-. In this 

 jtarticulur blossom these parts are all 

 .separately attached to the receptacle, 

 and the receptacle is simply the swollen 

 t )]) of the stem of the plant. Lower 

 down on the stem we found leaves pro- 

 ducetl at intervals, and it is time now 

 to state that all the pieces of which the 

 flowers is made up are leaves also. This 

 view of the matter has probably not oc- 

 curred to you, because the flowers are 

 so strikingly different in appearance 

 from the rest of the plant. But let us 

 see. First, there is the fact that the 

 flowers are produced on the stem and 

 its oflshoots ; this alone is suggestive of 

 the notion that their parts must be 

 leaves of some kind. Then if we ex- 

 amine a sepal we tind it to be flat and 

 thin and usually green, just like a com- 

 mon leaf but of course much smaller. 

 The petals are also like small leaves, 

 but here we miss the green color ; cor- 

 ollas are almo.st invai-iably of some color 

 other than green, and we shall presently 

 try to discover why this is so. You 

 will be dis[)Osed to admit then, on re- 

 flection, that lit any^ rate sepals and 



petals are only modified forms of com-' 

 mon leaves. But what shall we say of 

 stamens 1 Can it be possible that these 

 organs have anything of the leaf-nature 

 about them ? It may seem at first a 

 hopeless task to try to trace any resem- 

 blance. But if you take any common 

 leaf — say that of a lilac — you will see 

 that the blade is equally divided by a 

 rib which extends from the end of the 

 petiole to the tip of the leaf. The 

 anther of the stamen is divided in the 

 same way by the connective; and the 

 filament very fairly represents the pe- 

 tiole. The gi'eatest diflerence is in the 

 body of the leaf, as there is apparently 

 nothinir in an ordinary leaf-blade like 

 the gi'ains of pollen which are prodnced 

 in the anther. As to the carpels, if 

 you take the blade of a lilac leaf and 

 double it lengthwise, you will have a 

 very fair representation, on a large 

 scale, of the car|)el of the Buttercup, and 

 it is exactly by such a folding ])rocess 

 that the botanist conceives the carpel 

 to have been formed. Let us, then, un- 

 derstand that all the parts of the flower 

 are merely modified leaves. The crowd- 

 ing together of these parts in whorls i.'f 

 due to the same cause as the crowding 

 of the leaves of the Dandelion, nameh% 

 the suppression of the growth of the 

 stem at the place where the leaves are 

 produced. The ordinary green leaves 

 of the plant we shall caW foliage leaves ; 

 those of the flower will be known as 

 floral leaves. 



Having settled the question of the 

 true natui-e of the floral whorls, let us 

 now examine a flower of Hepatica. 

 Here \\ e have at the outside a whorl of 

 three little green leaves, wdiich you will 

 be pretty certain to regard as a calyx. 

 But if you carefully turn back thess 

 leaves you will discover that thei/ do 

 not belong to the flower at all, being 

 separated from the colored whorl next 

 within by a short bit of stem. They 

 are, in fact, three small foliage leaves. 



