6o THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
sexual organs." The flower may be either monosporangiate or 
bisporangiate (that is, with both pistils and stamens or lacking 
one of these organs) and the monosporangiate flower may be mi- 
crosporangiate (staminate) or megasporangiate (pistillate). For 
stamens and pistils the terms androecium and gynoecium are pro- 
posed. The structure which develops when the pollen grain falls 
upon the pistil is to be called the male gametophyte, while the 
ovule is the megasporangium. All this may be good enough for 
the scientist, but it will scarcely impress the flower-lover as in- 
viting. 
The Sunflower as an Economic Plant. — The first year 
of the Twentieth Century closed with a curious sale on 
the Baltic of a cargo of sunflower seeds. Though a small trade 
has been done in sunflower seed for close on twO' hundred years, 
this transaction was the first in which a whole cargO' — 300 tons 
from Odessa — was dealt with. In Russia, where the cultivation 
of the sunflower and the manufacture of oil from its seed is con- 
ducted on a large scale, the Grandiflora is the variety grown. 
The species rises in a slender stalk 5 ft. high, producing o^ne . 
monster head, the average yield being as much as fifty bushels of 
seed to the acre. So rich is it in oil that that quantity of seed will 
yield fifty gallons of oil, while the refuse of the seed, after this 
quantity of oil has been expressed, weighs 1,500 pounds when made 
into cattle cakes. Few people in England or India who grow the 
sunflower for ornament have any idea of its usefulness. It is 
among neglected crops in which there is money, as is shown by 
the price paid a few days ago. Besides the seed, every other por- 
tion of the plant can be utilized. The leaves furnish an excellent 
fodder, while in Russia the stalks are prized as fuel, and their 
ashes, which contain 10 per cent, of potash, are readily sold to 
soapmakers. Naturally, in Russia the chief virtue of the sun- 
flower lies in oil contained in its seed. The oil is of a clear, pale 
yellow color, almost inodorous, and of an agreeable mild taste, so 
that it is in great request as a table article. Why sunflowers are 
not cultivated on an extensive scale in this country it is diflicult to 
