64 



HOW PLANTS AKE PEOPAGATED. 



stamen. Pistil. Pistil. Stamen. 



192. This is a complete and regular, yet simple flower; and will serve as a pat- 

 tern, with which a great variety of flowers may be compared. 



193. When we wish to designate the 

 leaves of the blossom by one word, we call 

 them the Perianth. This name is formed 

 of two Greek words meaning " around the 

 flower." It is convenient to use in cases 

 where (as in the Lilies, illustrated on the 

 first page) we are not sure at first view 

 whether the leaves of the flower are calyx 

 or corolla, or both. 



194. A Petal is sometimes to be distin- 

 guished into two parts ; its Blade, hke the 

 blade of a leaf, and its Claw, which is a 

 kind of tapering base or foot of the blade. 

 More commonly there is only a blade ; but 

 the petals of Roses have a very short, nar- 

 row base or claw ; those of -Mustard, a 

 longer one ; those of Pinks and the like, a 

 narrow claw, which is generally longer than 

 the blade (Fig. 308). 



195. A Stamen, as we have already leai-ned (15, 17), generally consists of two 

 parts ; its Filament and its Anther. But the fllament is only a kind of footstalk, 

 no more necessary to a stamen than a petiole is to a leaf. It is therefore sometimes 

 very short or wanting ; when the anther is sessile. The anther is the essential part. 

 Its use, ns we know, is to produce pollen. 



196. The Pollen is the matter, looking like dust, which is shed 

 from the anthers when they open (Fig. 159). Here is a grain of 

 pollen, a single particle of the fine powder shed by the anther of a 

 Mallow, as seen highly magnified. In this plant the grains are beset 

 with bristly points ; in many plants they are smooth ; and they diflfer 

 greatly in appearance, size, and shape in different species, but are all just alike in 

 the same species ; so that the family a plant belongs to can often be told by seeing 

 only a grain of its pollen. The use of the pollen is to lodge on the stigma of the 

 pistil, where it grows in a peculiar way, its inner coat projecting a slender thread 



