36 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



intended that it should convey. He did 

 not intend to put into his lecture any philo- 

 sophical theses. He intended to treat the 

 subject in as simple a manner as possible ; 

 and as philosophy meant a love of know- 

 ledge, the title might stand. He did not 

 intend to use technicalities, but if he found 

 himseli obliged to do so he would endeavour 

 to explain those he used. His idea of a 

 typical lecture was that it should take a 

 single subject and treat of that in such a 

 manner as not only to impart knowledge 

 but to create a desire for more : whether he 

 should succeed in doing this remained to 

 be seen. 



Flowers have been used by all people for 

 personal and home adornment from time 

 immemorial, and in every part of the world. 

 Everv'thing in the painter's and sculptor's 

 art, carpets, wall papers, &c., are indebted 

 to the vegetable kingdom, and chiefly to 

 flowers. Look even at our own times ; every 

 cottage window is decorated with flowers ; 

 even in the most smoky parts of towns you 

 may see the box of mignionette, a plant that 

 will grow under almost any atmosphere. 

 What is the first thing a man does when he 

 has got the means ? It is to build himself a 

 home, but that home is not considered 

 complete until he has added one or more 

 greenhouses for the cultivation of flowers. 

 The flower is the ultimate aim and existence 

 of the plant, and generally consists of four 

 parts — two which may be called essential, 

 and two which now are sometimes called 

 ersential. The two essential parts are the 

 stamens or pistil, and the two other parts 

 the calyx and corolla. 



This diagram represents a section of a 

 flower, A being the calyx, b the corolla, c 

 the stamen, and d the pistil. The use of 

 the ealyx is to protect the unexpanded flower 

 before it bursts. The use of the corolla, 

 which is generally brightly coloured, is to 

 attract insects for the purpose of fertilizing 

 the flower. The use of the stamens and 

 pistil are of a sexual character. A stamen 

 consists of two parts — the filament sur- 

 mounted by a sort of knob called the anther, 

 the latter containing a number of minute 

 bodies called pollen grains. The pistil is 

 more complicated. At the bottom is the 

 ovary which contains a number of minute 

 bodies called ovules ; then there is a stalk 

 or style sometimes several inches in length, 

 and on the top of that is the stigma which 

 secretes a sticky matter. Before a plant can 

 produce fertile seed, some of those pollen 

 grains must come from the anther and stick 

 upon the stigma ; and when this takes place 

 the pollen grain begins to burst and send 

 out a tube which penetrates the whole length 

 of the style and finally enters one of those 

 small egg-like bodies called ovules, into 

 which the contents of the pollen grain is 

 discharged through the pollen tube. In 

 some plants the calyx and corolla are com- 

 bined in one, and this is then called the 

 perianth. (A number of large flowers were 

 then dissected and passed round for exami- 

 nation.) Botany was perhaps one of the 

 oldest sciences, for as far back as history 

 can take us men studied, named, and ar- 

 ranged plants; but, strange to say, with all 

 the students it was left to the end of the 

 eighteenth century, to that father of modern 

 botany — Linnaeus — to discover the uses of 

 the sexual organs of plants. In the rose, 

 and in the vast tribe which it represents — 

 Rosace — the petals and stamens spring 

 directly from the calyx, and, strange to say, 

 there is not a single plant in that class which 

 is in any way poisonous, but, on the con- 

 trary, many of them are useful. In the 



