ORGANS OF FRUCTIFICATION. 
81 
LECTURE XI. 
Calyx. 
We are now to consider the second division of vegetable or- 
gans, viz. such as serve for the reproduction of the plant, usual- 
ly called organs of fructification. Their names were considered, 
when commencing the analysis of flowers ; but we are now to 
examine them with more minute attention, and to remark upon 
their different uses in the vegetable economy. 
You are no doubt pleased to have arrived at that part of the 
plant, which is the ornament of the vegetable kingdom. Flowers 
are delightful to every lover of nature; a boquet or even the 
simplest blossom, presented by a friend, interests the heart. How 
many pleasant thoughts are awakened by the fresh and perfumed 
incense which they offer. The odour of flowers has been poeti- 
cally termed the language by which they hold communion with 
our mind. Females are usually fond of flowers ; but until 
recently, the greater number have only viewed them as beautiful 
objects, delighting the senses by their odour and fragrance ; but 
they have not been aware that these objects, lovely as they 
seemed, might be rendered doubly interesting, by a scientific 
knowledge of the relations and uses of their various parts. Even 
at the present period, there are those who spend years in culti- 
vating plants, ignorant of their botanical characters, when a few 
hours study might unfold to them the beautiful arrangement of 
Linnaeus, and open to their astonished minds a world of won- 
ders. 
Although every part of a plant offers an interesting subject 
for study, the beauty of the blossom, seems by association, to 
heighten the pleasure of scientific research. Flowers are indeed 
lovely, but like youth and beauty they are fading and transient ; 
they are, however, destined for a higher object than a short liv- 
ed admiration ; for, to them, is assigned the important office of 
producing and nourishing the fruit : like them may you so 
improve the bloom of life, that when youth and beauty shall 
have faded away, your mind may exhibit that fruit, which it is 
the important business of the present season to protect and 
nurture. 
Second division of vegetable organs — Flowers delightful — Many who 
cultivate them ignorant of their botanical characters — Flowers analogous 
to youth. 
