l8o 



Elementary Botany 



Fagus, Beech. Staminate flowers in a globose catkin ; 

 stamens five to fifteen ; fruit two three-cornered nuts in a 

 prickly involucre. The wood yields 

 good charcoal. 



Quercus, Oak. Stamens five to 

 ten ; staminate flowers in a long 

 drooping catkin ; fruit surrounded 

 with a cup-shaped involucre. The 

 timber is most valuable for many 

 purposes. Cork is the outer bark of 

 Q. suber. Oak-galls and Oak-apples 

 are also obtained from various spe- 

 cies, whilst the bark is often used for 

 tanning. 



Exotic plants of interest belonging 

 to this order are — Carya, Hickory; 

 Castanea, Sweet Chestnut ; Juglans, 

 Walnut ; Liquidambar, species of which yield resins known as 

 storax and liquidambar ; and Ostrya, Ironwood. 



Fig. 31^. — Fruit of the Hom- 

 its three-loped perianth, 





beam {Carpinus Betuius), with 



MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



FETALOIDJE. 

 ORCHIDACE^. 



Typical plant, Spotted Oxc\as {Orchis maculatd). 



Note, the plant is herbaceous ; flowers very irregular (fig. 

 314) J perianth superior (liote, the twisted ovary may be mis- 

 taken for a stalk), six-lobed ; there are three outer and three 

 inner segments, all petaloid ; one of the inner lobes is flattened 

 out, forming a lip or labellum, and is also prolonged below 

 into a spur. Behind the labellum there is a short column 

 terminating in a knob, the rostellum (fig. 314, 11., r), and a 

 single stamen with two anther lobes (fig. 314, 11., l, p), con- 

 taining not free pollen, but a mass united together and stalked, 

 a poUinium (fig. 314, iv.). Below the rostellum and stamen is 

 the stigma (fig. 314, 11., st), so that the arrangement is 

 gynandrous. Below is the one-celled ovary with three parietal 

 placentas. 



