THE STUDY OF FLOWERS AND FRUIT 29 



Now the purpose of this book is to enable a person to 

 name the shrubs without a previous study of botany or 

 the use of the microscope. Nothing will be required but a 

 close examination by the unaided eye. Wherever an illus- 

 stration will make the work easier, it will be found. 



Flower Organs. — A few words about the great and 

 important flower organs. The introduction will bring to 

 the mind in review what most of us have known. Flowers 

 are for the production of fruit and seed, and the bright 

 colors and strong odors are for the purpose of attracting 

 the proper insects so that better seeds shall result. The 

 bright and conspicuous parts of the flower are called petals 

 and together the petals form the corolla. Inside these 

 showy parts the all-important organs for seed production, 

 stamens and pistils, are to be found. The stamens 

 furnish a fine dust (^pollen) from tlieir enlarged end 

 (anther^ ; the presence of this can be seen in nearly all 

 flowers which are not so double as to have lost the pollen 

 and thus the power to form seeds. This pollen is needed 

 on the end (^stigma') of the central organ of a flower 

 (pistil), and by its aid the seeds are formed within the 

 bottom of the pistil (ovary). The ripened ovary is the 

 fruit. 



In many flowers the petals grow more or less together. 

 They are fully united in the common morning glory, 

 partially so in lilac blossoms, and entirely separated in 

 apple and cherry blossoms. Sometimes the number of 

 petals will be required, a matter easy to determine when 

 the parts are separated as in apple blossoms, about as easy 

 in the lilac flowers because their edge has lobes represent- 

 ing them, and even in the morning glory peculiar stripes 

 mark the division of the petals. 



The number of stamens will occasionally be wanted, but 

 in most flowers they are few and can readily be counted. 

 If over twentj', they will be called "many." In a few 

 cases a little caution is necessary in counting, as the anther 

 at the end of stamens is almost universally 2-lobed because 



