THE STUDY OF TYPICAL FLOWERS 147 
to the sepals. In an opening flower observe the arrangement of the 
edges of the petals,— how many entirely outside the others, how 
many entirely inside, how many with one edge in and the other out. 
Cut off a sepal and a petal, each close to its attachment to the 
flower; place both, face down, on a sheet of paper, and sketch about 
twice the natural size and label it x 2. Describe the difference in 
appearance between the outer and the inner surface of the sepal and 
of the petal. Note the little scale at the base of the petal, inside. 
Strip off all the parts from a flower which has lost its petals, 
until nothing is left but a slender conical object a little more than 
an eighth of an inch in length. This is the receptacle or summit of 
the peduncle. 
In a fully opened flower note the numerous yellow-tipped stamens, 
each consisting of a short stalk, the filament, and an enlarged yellow 
knob at the end, the anther. Note the division of the anther into 
two portions, which appear from the outside as parallel ridges, but 
which are really closed tubes, the anther-cells. 
Observe in the interior of the flower the somewhat globular mass 
(in a young flower almost covered by the stamens). This is a group 
of pistils. Study one of these groups in a flower from which the 
stamens have mostly fallen off, and make an enlarged sketch of the 
head of pistils. Remove some of the pistils from a mature head, 
and sketch a single one as seen with the magnifying glass. Label 
the little knob or beak at the upper end of the pistil stigma, and the 
main body of the pistil the ovary. Make a section of one of the 
pistils, parallel to the flattened surfaces, like that shown in Fig. 136, 
and note the partially matured seed within.! 
1 After Chapter XV has been completed the teacher may find it advisable 
to dictate additional studies of some bilaterally symmetrical flowers. 
