THE FLOWER. 119 
definitions of a flower; and yet these vegetables bear flowers not 
less real than those of the rose-tree, although much less apparent.” 
Nevertheless, although the definition of the flower appeared to 
Rousseau so surrounded with difficulties, he does not hesitate to 
propound the following :— 
“ The flower,” he says, “is a local and temporary part of the 
plant, which precedes the fecundation of the germ, in or by means 
of which part the fecundation is effected.” This was an unex- 
ceptionable definition, which was scarcely modified a century later 
by Moquin-Tandon, when he said, “A flower is that temporary 
apparatus, more or less complicated, by means of which-fecunda- 
tion is effected.” 
The flower, then, is an apparatus composed of two envelopes, the 
calyx, the corolla, and the essential organs proper to ensure the 
Fig. 139.—Section of the Foxglove. Fig. 140.—Section of the Cal 
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reproduction of the plant, namely, the pistil, in which the seed is. 
afterwards enclosed, and the stamens, destined to fecundate the 
pistil. The position of the organs will be better understood by 
examining the following diagrams. Fig. 139 is a portion of the 
flower of the Foxglove (Digitalis purpusia), showing the stamens 
J a united with the corolla cor, p, the peduncle, or floral axis, c, the 
calyx, 0, st, s, the pistil. Fig. 140 is an ideal figure showing how 
the calyx c, the corolla cor, the stamens s, and the pistil p, are 
consolidated throughout their basal portions. 
The calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil, are inserted on an axis 
called the receptacle, the form of which varies according to the 
plant. In the Strawberry, for instance, the receptacle is the 
