62 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 
color, and odor that shall best please our fancy. But nature 
created flowers to serve certain purposes of the plant and not 
to please man. Without them the plant could not form seeds, 
and without seeds most kinds of plants would soon die out, for 
there would be no young plants to take the place of the old. 
Some flowers require the help of insects to produce seeds, 
and to secure that help they must be both bright and sweet. 
That is why nature has given them beauty and fragrance. 
Farther on in this chapter, under ‘ Use of pollen,” we shall 
learn more about this subject. 
The Parts of a Flower.— The Corolla.— A flower, as we 
may see in the rose or the sweet pea, consists of ‘several dis- 
tinct parts. The colored part is called the corolla, and 
when composed of separate leaves these are called peials. 
In many flowers the corolla is not divided into separate 
petals, but may be funnel-shaped, as in the morning glory, 
or wheel-shaped, as in the potato, or of various other shapes. 
The Calyx. — Below the corolla, or outside of it, is the 
calyx, which in the pea and rose and most other flowers is 
green. When it is composed of separate leaves these are 
called sepals. In many flowers, as in the rose and the apple, 
the calyx is not divided into separate sepals, but is a cup 
with the upper edge divided into lobes. 
The Stamens. — Within the corolla we usually find two 
kinds of organs called stamens and pistils, the latter being 
at the very center of the flower. Let us notice the stamens 
first. They have very slender stems with knobs at their 
ends. The stems are called filaments or stalks and the knobs 
are called anthers. These anthers are very essential organs, 
for within them is produced the pollen. When the anthers 
are ripe they burst open and let the pollen grains escape. 
The stamens vary greatly in number with different flowers. 
