256 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
different parts; the calyx, the corolla, the stamens and 
the pistils as shown in the Buttercup. Here are four 
different series of parts, and 
one or more of these may be 
absent. Let us take an own 
brother to the Buttercup for 
example, the Anemone or 
“Wind Flower,” (fig. 1), one 
or more kinds of which will 
be found almost everywhere 
among spring flowers. You 
will find that this has but 
one series of floral envelopes 
(see last month), and though 
this is white and petal-like 
in all the Anemones, it is 
regarded as the calyx. In most flowers there is both 
calyx and corolla, but when there is but one of these it is 
called the calyx. It was stated last month that the calyx 
Fig. 5. —TOMATO 
FLOWER. 
the Tomato (in fig. 5). Where the petals are united for 
their whole length, we get a great variety of tubular and 
funnel-shaped flowers, of which the Morning Glory (fig. 
6) will answer as an illustration. Not only do the petals 
of the corolla unite, but the sepals of the calyx do the 
same,and we get a great variety of forms from this cause. 
Still another set of changes is produced by the union, 
or growing together of those parts, which we have seen 
in the Buttercup are separate. The calyx and corolla 
may grow together in one piece, and the calyx, corolla, 
the stamens, and even the pistils may all be united. It 
is now too late for you to examine the apple-blossoms, 
and you must take our engraving instead. If you 
were to take an apple blossom and cut it down 
through the middle, (as in fig. 7), you would see (hat the 
calyx and all other parts were for some distance all 
grown together to make a solid mass that in ripening, 
becomes the fruit which we know as an apple. You 
will find a great many other variations from the general 
BOTS & flmTDTM-HS 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
As many of my young friends have asked me to tell 
them about plants and flowers I am very sure that they 
gave some attention to what I said last month. I took 
the Buttercup as a 
starting point, for 
the reason that there 
is scarcely any place 
in the country,north, 
south, east or west, 
even to the very 
shore of the Pacific, 
in which some kind 
of Buttercup can not 
be found. In the last 
talk I tried to make 
you understand one 
very important fact 
— that all flowers, 
however different and unlike they may seem to be, are 
all made upon one general plan, and illustrated that plan 
by a figure of the Buttercup. Now, to look back a 
minute upon last month's Talk. It was shown that the 
Buttercup had first (and best seen in the bud), a set of 
five green leafy parts, the calyx , of which the separate 
parts are sepals ; next above these five larger and more 
showy parts (in the Buttercup usually 
bright yellow), the petals, which to¬ 
gether make the coi'olla. Next within 
the corolla, there are (in the Butter¬ 
cup) many bodies, called stamens: 
these consist of a stem (the filament), 
which has at its top a two-lobed case 
(the anther ), that produces a fine 
dust (the pollen). In the very middle 
of the flower are some differently 
shape :i parts called pistils. It was also 
stated that these pistils, after the pol¬ 
len had acted upon them, would pro¬ 
duce seed pods, each in the Buttercup 
producing a single seed. Why do I 
repeat all this ? Because, if you learn 
this well and understand it, you will learn a great 
deal about plants, and find, after you have understood 
the Buttercup, its parts and their uses, that you will be 
able to understand other flowers. You will recollect that 
in the Buttercup all of the petals were alike, of the 
same shape and size, but the flower of the Pea was 
brought in to show that, though there might be the same 
number of petals, these could be so unlike in size and 
shape as to make the flower of the Pea very unlike that 
of the Buttercup, and the same is true of many others. 
Now please attend once more, and look at your Butter¬ 
cup flower, or if you have none at hand, look at the en¬ 
graving given last mouth, but always have the real flower 
when you can get it. I know you do not like repetition, 
but it is the only way to make sure that you understand 
a thing. Then, with Buttercup flower in hand, note 
first, the green calyx ; next the yellow corolla : next, the 
many stamens ; and in the very center, a number of 
pistils, and observe that all these parts are attached to 
the end of the stem, called the receptacle. Just here I 
wish to repeat what I said last month, that these are all 
the parts that any flower has, and no matter how unlike 
to those of the Buttercup they may seem. Every flower, 
if carefully examined, will have either all, or some of 
Fig.3. —FEMALE FLOWER. Fig.4. —WILLOW CATKIN. 
these parts in one shape or another. There are many 
ways in which these parts will differ: the Pea given last 
month, shows one of these. Bear in mind now these 
Fig. 6.— MORNING GLORY FLOWER. 
and corolla were called the floral envelopes, because they 
surround the other parts, but they are not essential. 
The corolla and the calyx may both be absent, but if the 
Fig. 7. —APPLE BLOSSOM CUT IN TWO. 
stamens and pistils are present, the flower will perfect 
its seed, because it has these essential parts, the stamens 
and the pistils. But some flowers go still further than 
this, and lacking both calyx and corolla, they in some 
plants have only stamens, and in others only pistils. 
You can find examples of this in the Willows. The 
“Pussy Willows,” as those are called, that produce their 
flowers very early in the season, before the leaves ap¬ 
pear, will all be gone by the time you get this, but there 
are many willows that bloom this month, after their 
leaves open, and you can no doubt find some of these 
on the margins of swamps, and may examine their flow¬ 
ers. The flowers of the Willows are in what are called 
aments, or catkins. There is no calyx or corolla, but 
each flower is merely a couple of stamens (fig. 2). or a 
pistil (fig. 3), with a leafy appendage called a bract, and 
these bracts together on a short stem make the catkin 
(fig. 4). Here you have flowers without calyx or corolla; 
indeed in some trees only stamens, and in others only 
pistils are borne—yet they are just as much flowers as 
those of the Buttercup—only they have not all the parts. 
This illustration will show you how flowers may vary by 
not having all the parts. Now let us look at another kind 
of variation. In the Buttercup given last month, it was 
shown that the petals were all separate; let us now sup¬ 
pose that the petals, instead of being broad at the top 
were pointed, and grew together by their edges for half 
way up; we should then have such a flower as that of 
Fig. 8 .— A HEAD OF COMPOSITE FLOWERS. 
plan given in the Buttercup, but if you recollect that 
the parts of each set—as calyx, corolla, etc , may differ 
in shape and size (as shown last month in the pea), that 
the parts in each set, as the petals, the sepals, etc., may 
grow together among themselves, or that the parts of 
one set may be attached to those of another set, as shown 
in the apple (fig. 7), you can see what a great variety of 
forms may be produced, and yet all of them be accord¬ 
ing to one general plan. There is one set of flowers 
that I have no doubt will puzzle you, at first. I refer to 
those like the Sunflower and the common Ox-eye Daisy, 
or White-weed. Flowers of this general structure are 
to be met with, from the common May-weed by the 
road side to the enormous Sunflower. Flowers of this 
kind are troublesome to beginners, until they learn that 
they are not single flowers, but collections of flowers. 
Figure 8 shows the general appearance of these flow¬ 
ers, so called, with adense mass in the center, surrounded 
by spreading “ rays,” as in the Sunflower and its rela¬ 
tives. Figure 9 shows a head like that in figure 8, cut 
apart, leaving but a single-flower of each kind in place. 
The left hand flower is formed as we may suppose by 
the edges of five petals growing together to make a 
tube. On the right, at the margin, we have a broad 
flower which is like the tubular one, only the tube is 
split open and spread out, to form a more showy flower. 
. These small flowers, gathered in heads in this manner, 
will be found very numerous late in the season. They 
are called Composite flowers. In the Sunflower and 
Ox-eye Daisy you have two ki nds, the tubular ones in the 
center and the flat ones on the margin. In the Thistles, 
Fig. 9.— PORTION OF A FLOWER HEAD, WITH A 
“RAY” AND A “CENTRAL” FLOWER. 
the flowers are all tubular, and in the Dandelion, and 
several others, all the flowers in the head are flat. 
There is a great deal more that might be said about 
the wonderfully varied shapes of flowers, but I trust that 
Fig. 1.— ANEMONE FLOWER. 
Fig.2. STAMINATE 
WILLOW FLOWER. 
