OF TENNESSEE. 53 



dows and pastures, embraces within its ranks many a mem- 

 ber capable of putting into motion certain parts of their 

 bodies either as .a response or reaction to external mechani- 

 cal or chemical irritation, executing them with considerable 

 dispatch and regularity. Or again, some others possess the 

 faculty of giving gradual direction to some of their organs 

 by which unmistakeable advantages are gained for the posi- 

 tion, the growth or seed production of the individual. 



In selecting one type of this family, and explaining its 

 parts and functions, the characteristics of the Leguminous 

 family, and along with it the process of fructification and 

 seed production jn all Phsenogamous plants will be ex- 

 plained. Take the bean plant. The principal member of 

 it is the axis, which rises into the air; erect, with one part, 

 while the other is imbedded in the earth and forms the root. 



The appendages of the stem are leaves, developed from 

 the opposite sides of successive nodes, the parts between 

 these nodes are called inter-nodes, which become shorter 

 and shorter towards the summit of the stem, which ends in 

 a terminal bud. Buds are also developed in the axils of the 

 leaves, and some of them grow into branches which repeat 

 the characters of the stem, but others, when the plant at- 

 tains its full development, grow into stalks which support 

 flowers, each of which consists of a calyx:, a corolla, a stam- 

 inal tube and a central pistil ; the latter is terminated by a 

 style, the free end of which is the stigma. The staminal 

 tube ends in ten filaments, four of which are rather shorter 

 than the rest, nine of them are grown together into a tube, 

 one is free to its point of insertion. Such an arrangement 

 has in botanical terminology been called " diadelphous," 

 (dis two aldephus- brother). The pistil is hollow, and 

 within, along the ventral side, (the side turned towards the 

 axis), is attached, by short stalks, a longitudinal series of 

 minute bodies, the ovules. Each ovule consists of a central 

 conical nucleus, invested by two coats, an outer and an 

 inner. Opposite the summit of the nucleus these coats are 



