62 FAMILIAR LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



pine, fir, hop, cypress, etc., are examples. They are long 

 in the pine, small in the birch, chaffy in the hop, round in 

 the fir and c}'press. 



150. You will certainly be able to desig- 

 nate all the different varieties of seed-vessels 

 in the future. Botanists make other divi- 

 sions, but we have considered those made by 

 Linnaeus a sufficient tax upon your memory 

 at present, and you will please now repeat 

 them: Drupe, nut or glans, pome, berry, 

 pod or legume, follicle, capsule, strobilium. 

 You will pause now a moment, and arrange in your minds 

 the different organs in succession, and their various func- 

 tions. The root, stem, bud, petiole, pedicel, leaf, peduncle, 

 calyx, corolla, stamens, pistils, anther, pollen, germ, ovule, 

 ovary, receptacle, and the pericarp. 



Section II. — Seed. 



151. Wi now come to the last and connecting link in 

 the grand chain, the perfect ovule, the seed. Here we see 

 that " extremes meet ; " for this crowning work, the pro- 

 duct of all the other organs, holds within its narrow casket 

 the root and germ of the future plant. Though it was 

 born and bred in the sunshine, the very child of light and 

 air, yet, strangely incomprehensible, it has to go under the 

 dark earth, and there in darkness and mystery the im- 

 prisoned plant is freed, and mounts in beauty to the upper 

 air again, to perform the work alloted by the Divine hand 

 that formed it. 



152. Does not the language of St. Paul, in the svw; lime 



150. Have botanists made other divisions? What of Linnaeus' divisions? 

 Name the different organs in succession. 



151. Wliat does this chain of organs now bring us to ? And what axiom does 

 the seed confirm? What mysterious change incomprehensible to the human 

 mind now takes place ? 



152. What use does St. Paul make of the seed in illustrating a more mysteri- 

 ous change ? 



