STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS AND FRUITS 
The outer parts of a flower (usually green) 
which cover it when in bud, are collectively 
called the calyx; the calyx is sometimes shaped 
like a cup or tube, and sometimes it consists of 
several parts which are called sepals. The showy 
part of the flower is called the corolla, which 
again may be cup-shaped or tubular at the base, 
or may consist wholly or in part of separate 
petals. Next come the stamens. Each stamen; 
consists of a short or long stalk (filament) and 
an anther containing pollen. The pollen grains 
produce the male reproductive cells of the plant. 
In the middle of the flower is the ovary, bearing 
a style with one or more stigmas at its tip. 
The ovary contains one to many ovules. When 
pollen is placed on a stigma, each pollen grain 
forms a tube which carries a male cell into the 
ovary and there can fertilize an ovule, When 
this occurs, the ovary develops into a fruit, and 
each fertilized ovule into a seed. 
i 
Different kinds of flowers have different num- 
bers of sepals, petals etc,, and different structure 
of ovary and fruit. It is on such characters that 
the classification of flowering plants is based. 
The drawings in this booklet are designed to 
show the floral parts. Some of them are enlarged, 
as indicated ; to see these parts clearly one must 
use a pocket lens. 
