183 



CHAPTER XIX. 



OF THE FLOWER AND FRUIT. 



HAVING examined the general structure and external 

 form of plants* we now come to more important and 

 even essential, though more transitory organs the 

 flower and fruit, or parts of fructification. By these 

 each species is perpetually renewed without limits, so 

 far at least as the observation of mankind has reached; 

 while, as we have already mentioned, all other modes 

 of propagation are but the extension of an individual, 

 and sooner or later terminate in its total extinction. 



Nothing can be more happy than the Linnaean de- 

 finition of these organs ; PhiL Eot. 52. " The fruc- 

 tification is a temporary part of vegetables, destined 

 for the reproduction of the species, terminating the old 

 individual and beginning the new." 



Pliny had long ago beautifully said that " blossoms 

 are the joy of trees, in bearing which they assume a 

 new aspect, vyeing with each other in the luxuriance 

 and variety of their colours." Linnaeus has justly 

 applied this to plants in general, and, improving upon 

 the idea, he considers their herbage as only a mask or 

 clothing, by no means indicative of their true nature 

 or character, which can be learned from the flower and 

 fruit alone. 



