FUNDAMENTAL TERMS. 5 



your little people the opportunity of making the at- 

 tempt. AVith such assistance as I shall be happy to 

 give you, I cannot doubt of their succeeding. 



You need not be told, that plants have generally five 

 very distinct parts, viz. root, stem, leaf, flower, 

 and FRUIT ; the application of the three first of these 

 terms, in their common acceptation, is already well 

 known to you ; the last is applied by Botanists, not 

 only to such objects as apples, pears, cherries, and the 

 like, but also to any part which contains the seed ; 

 so that the grains of corn, the heads of the poppy, 

 the nuts of the filbert, and even the little bodies 

 which are commonly called caraways, are all diffe- 

 rent kinds of fruit. These terms may pass without 

 further explanation for the present. 



It is in the flower that the beauty of plants 

 chiefly resides ; it is there that we find all the curious 

 apparatus by means of which they are perpetuated, 

 and it is the spot where the greatest number of parts 

 are found, the names of which are unusual, and re- 

 quire to be remembered. To illustrate these let us take 

 a very common plant, to be found in every meadow, 

 by the learned called Ranunculus, by the vulgar 

 Buttercup, or Crowfoot. 



On the outside of the flower of this plant, about the 

 middle of its stalk, are one or two little leaves, which 

 look like the other leaves, only they are a great deal 

 smaller ; indeed, they are so small as to resemble 

 scales ; these are the bracts (PI. I. 1. a. a.). 



Next them, and forming the external part of the 

 flower itself, are five small greenish-yellow hairy 



