6(J FtAN OF THE FLOWEK. [leSSON 13. 



LESSON XIII. 



THE PliAN OF THE FLOWER. 



235. The Flower, like every other part of the plant, is formed 

 upon a pkm, which is essentially the same in all blossoms ; and the 

 student should early get a clear idea of the plan of the flower. Then 

 the almost endless varieties which different blossoms present will be 

 at once understood whenever they occur, and will be regarded with 

 a higher interest than their most beautiful forms and richest- colors 

 are able to inspire. 



236. We have already become familiar with the plan of the vege- 

 tation ; — with the stem, consisting of joint raised upon joint, each 

 bearing a leaf or a pair of leaves ; with the leaves arranged in sym- 

 metrical order, every leaf governed by a simple arithmetical law,- 

 which fixes beforehand the precise place it is to occupy on the stem ; 

 and we have lately learned (in Lesson 11) how the position of each- 

 blossom is determined -beforehand by that of the leaves ; so that the 

 shape of every flower-cluster in a bouquet is given by the same sim- 

 ple mathematical' law which arranges the foliage. Let us now con- 

 template the flower in a similar way. Having just learned what 

 parts it consists of, let us consider the plan upon which it .is made, 

 and endeavor to trace . this plan through some of the various forms 

 which blossoms exhibit to our view. 



237. In order to give at the outset a correct idea of the blossom, 

 we took, in the last Lesson, for the purpose of explaining its parts, a 

 perfect, complete, regular, and symmetrical flower, and one nearly as 

 simple as such a flower could well be. Such a blossom the botanist 

 regards as 



238. A Typical Flower, that is, a pattern flower, because it well ex- 

 emplifies the plan upon which all flowers are made, and serves as 

 what is called a type, or standard of comparison. 



239. Another equally good typical flower (except in a single re- 

 spect, which will hereafter be mentioned), and one readily to be ob- 

 tained in the summer, is that of the Flax (Fig. 174). The parts 

 differ in shape from' those of the Stonecrop ; but the whole plan is 

 evidently just the same in both. Only, while the Stonecrop has ten 

 stamens, or in many flowers eight stamens, — in all cases just twice 



