HOW TO STUDY A PLANT. 125 



Our first care shall be to determine what series it is in — 

 flowers visible or invisible. These are visible, and there- 

 fore it belongs to the first series, Phaenogamous or flower- 

 ing plants. 



Is it destitute of true bark, without pith, and with stem 

 composed of cellular tissue and scattered bundles of woody 

 fiber ? or, has it a stem with pith in the center, a bark (or 

 skin) on the outside, with a ring of wood between the 

 bark and the pith ? It has pith, a ring of wood and bark, 

 and leaves with netted veins; therefore we must place it in 

 the^rs^ class, Exogenous. 



Our next step is to find the sub-class. Eemoving the 

 petals and stamens, we find in the center of the flower a 

 number of one-seeded pistils — the naked eye can plainly see 

 the ovary containing the young seed, or ovule; therefore 

 this plant bearing seed that are covered must belong to the 

 first sub-class, Angiosperm. 



We have no trouble in determining the division. Its 

 calyx and corolla of five petals place it in the first divisiony 

 Polypetalous. 



We find in this division orders that are identified by 

 different characteristics — first those with 



* iStamens and pistils free from the calyx, hypogynous, or nearly so. 



Split the flower through the middle; you find the 

 stamens inserted on the receptacle, free from the calyx. 

 Our flower goes under this description. 



Next we find 



t stamens more than twice as many as the petals. 



We have five petals and any number of stamens ; there- 

 fore we are evidently thus far on the right road in search 

 of our plant. 



Now carefully follow down this list; and first we find a 

 description of leaves : 



Leaves " opposite. 



dotted. 



alternate,'' 



