FI'»"~™!ai!ll.,ia. l!L'-"i!!'i"lJllJLt..J., 



I 



FLOWKHS: THi:iK FORMS AND KINPS. 



69 



109 

 IlyilraM'jca. 



mens only, and others perfect , liMviri;^' both stamens and pistils, eitlier on tho s.-mie 

 or on different individii;ils. Thf Red Maplu is a very ^ood rase of this kiu<l ; the 

 two or three sorts 

 of flowers look- 

 ing very dilVer- 

 ently when they 

 apjioar in early 

 spriii",' ; those of 

 one tree havin*,' 

 lonu red stamens 

 and no <;ood pis- 

 til, thoso of otlipr 

 trees having con- 

 spicuous pistils, 

 in some blossoms 

 with no goo^ sta- 

 mens at all, in 

 others with shoit ones. There are also what are called ahortiv or 



206. Neutral Flowers, having neither stamens nor pistils, and so good for nothing 

 except for sliow. Jn the Snowbull of the gardens and in richly cultivated Ilydran- 

 geas all tlie Idossoms are neutral, and no fruit is formed. 

 Even in the wild state of these shrubs, some of the' 

 blossoms aroinid tho margin of the cluster are neutral 

 (as in the Wild Hydrangea, Fig. 169), consisting only 

 of three or four tlower-leaves, very nuich lai-ger than 

 the small perfect ilowers which make up the rest of the 

 cluster. Also what the gardener calls Donhlc Flniroy,^, 

 when full, are neutral, as in doid)le Eoses and Buttercups. 

 These are blossoms which by cultivation have all their 

 stamens and pistils changed into petals, 



207. A Symmetrical Flower is one which has an equal 

 number of parts of each kind or in each set or row. 



This is so in the 8tonecrop (Fig. 153), which has five sepals in the calyx, five petals 

 in the corolla, ten stamens (that is, two sets of stamens of five each), and five 

 pistils. Or often it hos flowers with four sepals, and then there are oidy four 



