120 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
succulent fleshy part which is eaten under the name of fruit ; the 
fruit, in fact, being the little yellow specks which cover it. It is 
also the core of raspberry, and club-shaped spadix of the Arum. 
The flowers of every plant present only these five orders of 
organs. There, are some which have no stamens, and others 
without pistil. In these two cases the flowers are said to be 
unisexual. In the first they are called female flowers, in the 
second, male; but both are always present, either on the same 
‘ plant or on distinct plants. The Box-tree has unisexual flowers, 
some furnished with stamens without a pistil, others with a pistil 
without stamens. Other flowers are without a corolla, and some 
even without both calyx and corolla. The former are incomplete, 
(monochlamydeous), the latter are called naked (achlamydeous). 
The Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), which expands its magni- 
ficent golden flowers in spring along the marshy borders of rivers, 
ponds, or lakes, is without a corolla; the flower of the Ash has 
neither corolla nor calyx, but reproductive organs only. 
In short, some flowers have neither calyx, corolla, nor stamens; 
others, neither calyx, corolla, nor pistil. They are at once icom- 
plete and naked. The flowers of the Willow are of this sort; some 
are possessed of two stamens, and others of a pistil only. 
A flower provided with stamens and pistil is said to be herma- 
phrodite, whether it has floral envelopes or not. There are 
great many plants which bear hermaphrodite flowers only ; there 
are others bearing, on the same individual, male, female, and her- 
maphrodite flowers; these are polygamous plants. Some plants 
present only male, others, again, only female flowers, and these 
sometimes occur on the same, and in other cases on different, 
plants. In the former case, as in the Chestnut, Hazle-nut,, and 
Ricinus, to which the Castor Oil plant belongs, the plants are 
said to be monecious. In the latter, as in the Hemp-plant, Date- 
tree, and Merculiaris, one of the Euphorbiacee, the plants are 
diecious. 
Plants present themselves with flowers varying as much in 
their dimensions as in their structure. There are flowers only the 
thousandth part of a foot in diameter, and some which are cele- 
brated for their’immense bulk. We find in Sumatra and the 
Sunda Islands a parasitical plant, the flower of which constitutes 
