LESSON 31.J HOW TO STUDY PLANTS. 189 



styles, with their ovaries all combined into one compound ovary. 

 We note, also, that the several parts of the blos- 

 som are all free and unconnected, — the leaves 

 of the calyx, the petals, and the stamens all ris- 

 ing separately one after another from the recep- 

 tacle underneath the ovary ; but the filaments, 

 on clo.-e inspection, may show a slight union 

 among themselves, at the base. 



545. So our plant, having 5 separate petals, is of the Polypeta- 

 LOUS division of the first class, for the analysis of which see page 14. 



546. But it does not belong to the primary division A, which has 

 more than 10 stamens. The student passes on, therefore, to the 

 counterpart division B, on page 16, to which the few stamens, here 

 only five, refer it. 



547. Of the three subdivisions, with numerals prefixed, only the 

 second answers ; for the calyx is free from the ovary, and there is 

 only one ovary, althouglrHhe styles are five. 



548. The divisions subordinate to this form a couplet ; and our 

 plant agrees with the second member of it, having " Stamens of the 

 same number as the petals " [5] and " alternate with them." The 

 division under this is a triplet, of which we take the third member ; 

 for the " Leaves are not punctate with pellucid dots." Under this, 

 in turn, is a triplet beginning with the word Ovary, and the five, if 

 not ten cells, determine our choice of the third member of it, 

 " Ovary compound." Under this we have no less than nine choices, 

 dependent upon the structure of ,the ovary, the number of ovules 

 and seeds, &o. But the 5-celled ovary with a pair of ovules in 

 each cell, separated by a false partition projecting from the back 

 (Fig. 365), so that the pod becomes in fact 10-celled, with a sol- 

 itary seed in each cell, is described only in the ninth and last of 

 the set, p. 18. Under this, again, we have to choose among five 

 propositions relating to the seeds. Here the fifth — " Seeds and 

 ovules only one or two in each cell " — alone meets the case. 

 Under this, finally, we have to choose from six lines, beginning 

 with the words Tree, Shrubs, or Herbs. The fifth alone agrees, 

 and leads to the Flax Family, p. 77. 



549. There is only ,one genus of it in this country, namely, the 

 Flax genus itself, or Linum. To determine the species, look first 



FIG. 365. Cross-section of an unexpanded flower of the same, a sort of diagram. ' 



