12 IKTEODtrCTlON. 



Glumes are the bracts of Sedges and Grasses. 



§ 8. The Flower in General. 



A complete flower is one in which the calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils 

 are all present ; a perfect flower, one in which all these organs, or such of 

 them as are present, are capable of performing their several functions. 



Therefore, properly speaking, an incomplete flower is one in which any 

 one or more of these organs is wanting ; and an imperfect flower, one in 

 which any one or more of these organs is so altered as to be incapable of 

 properly performing its functions. These imperfect organs are said to be 

 abortive if much reduced in size or efiiciency, mdimentary if so much so as 

 to be scarcely perceptible. 



But, in many works, the term incomplete is specially applied to those 

 flowers in which the perianth is simple or wanting, and imperfect to those 

 in which either the stamens or pistils are imperfect or wanting. 

 A Flower is 



dichlamydeoiis, when the perianth is double. 



monocJilamydeous, when the perianth is single, whetherby the union of 

 the calyx and corolla, or the deficiency of either. 



asepalous, when there is no calyx. 



apetalous, when there is no corolla. 



naked, when there is no pei'ianth at all. 



liermapJirodite, when both stamens and pistils are present and per- 

 fect. 



male, or staminale, when there are one or more stamens, but either no 

 pistil at all, or an imperfect one. 



female, or 2nstiUate, when there are one or more pistils, but either no 

 stamens at all, or only imperfect ones. 



neuter, wlaen both stamens and pistils are imperfect or wanting. 



barren, or sterile, when from any cause it produces no seed. 



fertile, when it does produce seed. . 

 In many British Floras the terms barren, fertile, and perfect are used 

 respectiyely as synonymous of »rafflZe,_/eOTaZe, and hermaphrodite; but even 

 in the same works they are also occasionally iised in the more natural sense 

 given above. 



The flowers of a plant or species are said collectively to be 



imisextial, or diclinous, when the flowers are all either male or female. 



monoecious, when the male and female flowers are distinct but on the 

 same plant. 



dioecious, when the male and female flowers are on distinct plants. 



polygamous, when the male, female, and hermaplu'ochte flowers are 

 variously mixed on the same plant. 



A head of flowers is heteroc/amo^is when male, female, hermajshrodite, and 

 neuter flowers, or some of them, are included in one head ; homogamous, 

 when all the flowers mcluded in it are ahke in this respect. A spike or 

 head of flowers is androgynous when male and female flowers are mixed in 

 it. These terms are only used in the case of very few famihes. 



As the scales of buds are leaves undeveloped or reduced in size, shape, and 

 consistence, and bracts are leaves likewise reduced in size, and occasionally 

 altered in colour ; so the parts of the flower are considered as leaves still 

 further altered in shape, colour, and arrangement round the axis, and-often 

 more or less combined with each other. The details of this theory consti- 

 tute the comparatively modern branch of botany called Vegetable Meta- 



