i4 



ELEMENTS OP SXRCCTURAL BOTANY. 



its long side will show the existence of five minute points, 

 or teeth, from which we infer that the tube is made up of 

 five coherent petals. As the corolla is on the ovary, 

 it is said to be EpigynoiLS. 



Out of the corolla protrudes the long style, divided 

 at its summit into two stigmas. 



To discern the stamens will require the greatest 

 nicety of observation. Fig. 56 will help you in your 

 task. The stamens are five in number. They are 

 inserted on the tube of the corolla (epipetalous) and 

 Pig. 56. their anthers cohere (Fig. 57), and form a ring about 

 the style. When the anthers are united in this way, the 

 stamens are said to be syngenesious. 



61. It appears, then, that the Dandelion, instead 

 of being a single flower, is in reality a compound of 

 a great many flowers upon a common receptacle, and 

 what seemed at first to be a calyx is, in 

 reality, an involucre, made up of many '^is^b^• 

 bracts. 



But have the single flowers, or florets, as 

 they are properly called, no calyx ? The 

 theory is that they have one, but that it is 

 adherent to the surface of the ovary, and that 

 the tuft of silky hairs which we noticed is a 

 prolongation of it. 



Now turn to your specimen having the 

 seeds ready to blow away. The seeds are aU single ; the 

 little bit of stalk at the top has grown into a long slender 

 thread, and the tuft of hairs has spread out like the rays 

 of an umbrella (Fig. 58). But though the seeds are 



■ Pig. 56. — Corolla laid open to show epipetalous stamens. 

 Fig. 57.— Syngenesious anthers of Dandelion. Pig. 58.— Fruit of Dandelion. 



Pig. 68. 



