66 



HISTORY OF THE VEGKTABLE KINGDOM. 



the enveloping of the young fruit may be all 

 distinctly perceived. The peach tree produces 

 its flowers in April, hut if a hud is dissected in 

 the month of February preceding, the whole of 

 the parts of fructification may be perceived in 

 miniature, wrapped up in the calyx by the 

 overlopping of its divisions. The coroUa is ex- 

 tremely small, hut the stamens and pistils are 

 very perceptible, and the pollen may even be 

 discerned in the anthers. If a bud producing 

 both leaf and flower, is taken and dissected in 

 the foregoing manner, the rudiments of its future 

 products may be also distinctly perceived long 

 before the period of its evolution. A bud of the 

 horse chestnut about the size of a pea, dissected 

 in the winter, exhibited four branch leaves 

 covering a flower like spike, consisting of up- 

 wards of sixty florets. Another bud opened in 

 the spring, contained, amid sixteen scales, a pair 

 of opposite leaves, with the divisions closely 

 matted together by a fine do%'ni ; within there 

 was a flower spike, consisting of not less than a 

 hundred florets closely crowded together, each 

 enveloped by its downy calyx, which on being 

 opened, disclosed the corolla, stamens, and pistO, 

 with the rudiments of the future fruit distinctly 

 visible in the ovary. The petals of the corolla, 

 before their evolution, are wrapped up in a 

 flower bud, like the young leaves of the plant 

 in the leaf bud, and are also found to exhibit 

 similar varieties of envolution. 



The flower, like the leaf, is a temporary part of 

 the plant, and takes its rise either from the extre- 

 mities of the branches immediately from the stem, 

 or the root, and sometimes from a leaf. It is the 

 apparatus appropriated by nature for the produc- 

 tion of the seed, and in addition to this important 

 end, it forms one of the most interesting objects 

 in nature, being possessed of colour, odour, and 

 in many cases, a nectareous juice, or honey; 

 hence, it has been styled by Pliny "the joy of 

 plants," fios gaudiwm arhonim. When the flower 

 is supported by a flower stalk, it is said, like the 

 leaf, to be pedunculate; when the stalk is want- 

 ing, sessile. When the stalk branches out and 

 supports a number of flowers, it is said to be 

 peclicillate. Sometimes the flower is surrounded 

 by a number of small leaves of a distinct form 

 from the rest of those on the plant; these are 

 named hractea. A complete or perfect flower 

 consists of the calyx or cup, the corolla or 

 coloured part, the stamens and pistil; many 

 flowers, however, have no calyx, and others 

 neither calyx nor corolla. All the monocotyle- 

 donous plants are destitute of a corolla. Linnseus 

 gave the general name of perianth to the whole 

 of the floral envelopes wliich surround the sexual 

 organs. When the perianth is single, it is called 

 calyx; when double, the innermost envelope is 

 called the corolla. These floral envelopes, not- 

 withstanding the delicacy of their texture, and 



the varied colours which they fi-equently exliibit, 

 are in general nothing more than leaves with 

 slight modifications. This is particularly the 

 case in the calyx, which in many flowers is 

 exactly like leaves. 



jg_ The cali/x, a, is the outer 



envelope, or cup, in which 

 the flower rests; it is either 

 single or formed of several 

 leaves; which may be more 

 or less distinct or divided. 

 It is called, when it con- 

 sists of a single piece, 

 monosepaloiis. This al- 

 ways occurs when the 

 calyx is united to the 



a, calyx; b, corolla; c, sta- ovary ; or in other words, 

 mous aDd pistil. ^j^gjj jjjg p^j^j.^ jg inferior. 



It generally remains after the fecundation of the 

 seed, and in many cases till it is ripe. When 

 the calyx consists of several parts, it is termed 

 polj/sepalous. This description commonly falls 

 off immediately after fecundation, and fre- 

 quently on the first expansion of the flower, as 

 in the common poppy. The calyx is of various 

 shapes, as pear shaped, ui-ceolate, as in roses, in- 

 flated, campanulate, or bell shaped, cup shaped, 

 cylindrical, &c. Generally the calyx is green, 

 occasionally it is coloured, especially where there 

 is no coroUa. 



The glume, c, is a chaf- 

 fy membranaceous sub- 

 stance accompanying the 

 flowers of grasses, and 

 grains,and coiTespondsto 

 the calyx of other plants, 

 although not formed 

 like a cup. Sometimes 

 it is composed of one 

 piece only, at other 

 times of two distinct 

 pieces or valves, and 

 these valves vary in 

 figure in different plants. The scale is another 

 kind of calyx found in the willow and pine. 



The Corolla, cut 38, fig . J. The corolla is the ex- 

 terior envelope of the flower, investing the central 

 parts, but invested by the calyx; the corolla, 

 therefore, never exists unless when there is a 

 double perianth of which it forms the interior 

 part. It is generally of a finer and more delicate 

 texture than the calyx, and is of all the parts of 

 fructification the most showy and ornamental, 

 being always, or with few exceptions, that which 

 is the most highly coloured; hence commonly 

 regarded as alone constituting the flower as well 

 as that from which the flower imparts its rich 

 perfume, delighting at the same time both the 

 sight and the smell. To this the most elegant 

 part of the fructification, the term corolla has 

 been very happily applied bj^ Linnaus, signify- 



a, stamens ; b, pistil ; c, glume ; 

 d, d, lepiceue. 



