ON THE DISSECTION OF FLOWERS. Jrg 



fig. 4 laid within fig. 3, and 4 and 3 within fig. 2 : the line o£- 

 life, and pistil done being taken out, which are seen at fig. 5. 

 When these are replaced the flower is perfect, and has been 

 regularly dissected, as I promised, skin from skin; and be* 

 tween each cylinder the mechanism is concealed, that be- 

 longs to each division. 



Of the many hundreds (I might say thousands) of flowers 



dissected in this manner, of every class and order, I never All flowers dis- 



scc*ci O'viirlv 

 yet found one that did not admit of this arrangement. The the same. 



gynandria tribe is exactly tbe same with respect to its cy- 

 linders, which are always to be taken off in progressive order ; 

 and let the stamens appear where they will in the flowers, 

 their vessels always pass up in this manner, whether after- 

 ward bound to the corolla, the calyx, or the pistil. 



I shall now show the flower when divided into two halves, 

 and cut perpendicularly down the middle. I have magnified Perpendicular 

 T • , , , , i -, section of the 



this in n en, in order to snow how completely the several parts flower through 



are appropriated ; and how separate the line of life and pistil t,,e middle » 

 are from every other division, till they join the stalk. At 

 fig. 6. are three buds thus cut, without their corollas or ca- 

 lyxes, but having their own peculiar cylinders, which reach 

 up to them. All within the points and the letter E is 

 the pistil belonging to each flower, with the line of life 

 running up to each pistil; which in the stem bounds the 

 pith, till it' stops, and then runs u\> to form the female. It 

 may be seen dividing the seed at F, and halving the corcu- 

 lum. G is the interior of the flower. HI K are the thrfe cy- 

 linders of the stamen, corolla, and calyx ; (at 1< ast the skins 

 to which those pans are fastened, and which conveys ihe ves- 

 sels or mechanism up to them ;) and L is the rind. I have 

 not properly proportioned the thickness of the cylinders ; as 

 I feared they would not be seen ; nature requires so thin a 

 skin, to which it will fasten and adapt such powerful mechan- 

 ism, and such ^i quantity of vessels, that rt requires a long 

 practice in dissection before we can give credit to our sight 

 in this respect. I have shown sc era] buds starting from 

 the line of life, at TTT ; and at u wiii be seen how the ves- 

 sels arrange themselves, to enter the different par s of the 

 stalk to which they belong. Fig. 7 is now my last dissection, 

 it is a horizontal cutting of tine part taken from fig. 6 at M, 



to 



