214 FLOWER-LAND. 



a hundred natural orders (British), it is not always 

 easy to find out to which of them your plant belongs. 



So to help you, botanists divide the classes into 

 sub-classes and divisions, different writers doing so 

 upon different plans. You will be able to understand 

 and use these classifications if you remember what I 

 have told you in the chapters on morphology, with 

 one or two additions, which I will now give you. 



So let us see if we can find a buttercup. . I want 

 you to notice the position of the ovaries relatively 

 to that of the stamens, the corollas, and the 

 calyx. You see the ovaries are superior (p. 118) 

 right at the top of the flower stalk. If you pull off 

 the stamens, petals, and -sepals, you 

 take them from the stalk below the 

 ovaries of the pistil (Fig. 176). So 

 because the other parts of the flower 

 are inserted under the pistil, a flower of 

 this kind is called " hypogynous "' 



Fig. 176. Buttercup (Fig- 1 77> H )- 

 flower, calyx, corolla, 

 and stamens re- 

 moved ; / ovaries, a But often it is not so, and then the 

 stamens, s peduncle, 



x receptacle. flower is either " pengynous or 

 " epigynous." It is "perigynous "* when the other floral 

 parts are inserted upon the receptacle or extended axis 

 of the flower-stalk so as to be around but not under 



* From the Greek " hupo" under ; "peri" around; "*$*" upon 

 the ovary. These terms are also applied to stamens and petals to 

 describe their insertion. 



