FLOWERS : THEIR NATURE. 
65 
which sinks into the pistil, somewhat as a root grows down into the ground, and 
reaches an ovule in the ovary, causing it in some unknown way to develop an 
embryo, and thereby become a seed. 
197. As to the Pistil , we have also learned that it consists of three parts, the 
Ovary , the Style, and the Stigma (16) ; that the style is 
not always present, being only a stalk or support for the 
stigma. But the two other parts are essential, — the 
Stigma to receive the pollen, and the Ovary to contain the 
ovules, or bodies which are to become seeds. Fig. 156 
represents a pistil of Stonecrop, magnified; its stigma 
(known by the naked roughish surface) at the tip of the 
style; the style gradually enlarging downwards into the 
ovary. Here the ovary is cut in two, to show some of the 
ovules inside. And Fig. 157 shows one of the ovules, or 
future seeds, still more magnified. 
198. Nature of tile Flower. In the mind of a botanist, 
who looks at the philosophy of the thing, 
A flower answers to a sorl of branch. True, a flower 
does not bear much resemblance to a common branch; but 
we have seen (90-109) what remarkable forms and ap¬ 
pearances branches, and the leaves they bear, occasionally 
take. Flowers come from buds just as branches do, and 
spring from just the same places that branches do (169). In fact, a flower is a 
branch intended for a peculiar purpose. While a branch with ordinary leaves is 
intended for growing, and for collecting from the air and preparing or digesting 
food, — and while such peculiar branches as tubers, bulbs, &c. are for holding pre¬ 
pared food for future use, — a blossom is a very short and a special sort of branch, 
intended for the production of seed. If the whole flower answers to a branch, 
then it follows that (excepting the receptacle, which is a continuation of the 
flower-stalk) — 
The 'parts of the flower answer to leaves. This is plainly so with the sepals and 
the petals, which are commonly called the leaves of the blossom. The sepals or 
, calyx-leaves are commonly green and leaf-like, or partly so. And the petals or 
corolla-leaves are leaves in shape, only more delicate in texture and in color. In 
many blossoms, and very plainly in a White Water-Lily, the calyx-leaves run into 
156 157 
Pistil. Ovule. 
