84 



THE PLAN OF THE FLOWER. 



Regular, the organs of the same kind similar, and 

 Symmetrical, the same number of organs in each whorl. 



413. SELDOM REALIZED. Happily, this our conception of the typical flower is 

 not often realized in nature, although the tendency toward it is universal. Devia- 

 tions occur \n every imaginable mode and degree, causing that endless variety in 

 the floral world which we never cease to admire. 



414. EXAMPLES. In our cut (Pink, 258) illustrating the organization of the flower 

 the tendency in this direction is evident, but the stamens are too many and the pis- 

 tils seem too few. Among the Maxworts and the Houseleek tribe, however, arc 

 some good examples. The flower of the flax combines very nearly all the condi- 

 tions above specified. It is complete, regular, symmetrical Its organs are alter- 

 nate and all separate, and (disregarding the slight cohesion of the pistils at their 

 base) this flower well realizes our type. But 



263 261 262 



260, &is, Flower of Crassula lactea, regular, symmetrical, organs distinct. 261, Diagram showing 

 its plan. 262, Flower of the Scarlet Flax. 263, Diagram of its plan. 



415. THE FLOWERS OF CRASSULA, an African genus sometimes cultivated, afford 

 unexceptionable examples, the sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils each being five 

 in number, regularly alternating and perfectly separate. 



416. FLOWERS OF SEDUM. Admitting two whorls of stamens instead of one, we 

 have a good example of our type in stone-crop (Sedum ternatum), a little fleshy 

 herb of our woods. Its flowers are both 4-parted and 5-parted in the same plant. 

 See also the 12-parted flowers of the common houseleek. 



417. How* TO STUDY THE FLOWER. If, with thistype as our adopted standard of 

 the floral structure, we compare any of the myriads of different forms which occur, 

 we shall be able to trace out the features of the general plan even among the 

 widest deviations. The more important of them are included in the following sy- 

 nopsis : 



1. Variations in the radical number of the flower. 



2. Deficiencies rendering the flower 

 1 a, Incomplete, 



6, Imperfect, 



c, Unsymmetrical, 



d, Organs opposite. 



