68 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



thus keeping up the vigor of the race. All our common 

 plants except the ferns and their allies bear flowers at 

 some period of their life cycle. 



i^AN OF THE FLOWER. 



A flower is simply a modified branch and all the floral 

 organs are transformed leaves, or more properly, are pro- 

 ducedjfrom what might otherwise have been leaves. This 

 at first seems rather difficult to believe, but Nature, her- 

 self, has given us many hints in the matter. Thus in cer- 



certain geraniums (fig. 1.) the cen- 

 tral part of the flower, which we 

 may regard as the end of the branch, 

 continues to grow and to produce a 

 new flower or even a truss of flow- 

 ers rising out of the old ones. Ap- 

 ples and pears have been found with 

 a leafy shoot growing out of the 

 "blossom end" showing very clear- 

 ly that the parts of the flower are in 

 the nature of modified leaves. That 

 singular object, the green rose, is 

 like other roses in the bud, but 

 when it opens, it shows that all its 

 petals have reverted to small green 

 leaves. 



Upon examining some simple flower such as that of 

 the stone-crop (fig. 2) we find it consists of four kinds of 

 organs. Beginning on the side 

 next the stem there is a circle of 

 five green leaf-like objects, the se- 

 pals and collectively called the 

 calyx. Next is a circle of five col- 

 ored leaflets, the petals which 

 form the corolla. Then comes a 

 circle of thread-like organs with 

 little knobs on the ends, the sta- 

 mens ; and last^ in the very cen- pj^, 2. 



tre of the flower certain bottle- Flower of Stonecrop, enlarged. 



Fig. 1. 



