FEBRUARY. 
31 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. 
Lesson II. 
Let us now take the Melon (Cucumis melo, fig. 1), as our second illus¬ 
tration of flowers. At this season there will be no difficulty in obtaining a 
specimen from any respectable 
garden ; and when this cannot be 
had the flower of the Cucumber 
will answer equally well. 
On examining the plant you 
will see that the same stem bears 
two kinds of flowers, which re¬ 
semble each other, it is true, by 
their envelopes; but one sort 
{fig. 2), has no central column, 
and is only provided with the 
dust or pollen-pouches ( anthers ), 
borne on short stems, and their 
form is sinuous {fig. 3). In the 
middle of them, if you cut the 
flower longitudinally {fig. 4), you 
will find merely the vestige of a 
central column. 
The other flowers, on the 
contrary {fig. 5), are provided 
with a central column, the longish 
neck of which is terminated by 
three or five fleshy crests {fig. 6); 
and the body, which is in the 
form of a bottle {fig. 5), is 
situated below the envelopes of 
the flower. Here there are no 
pollen-pouches, or anthers, and 
all that is seen are only vestiges 
of them round the central column. 
If you ask a gardener about 
these two sorts of flowers, he 
will tell you that those that are 
swollen beneath ultimately pro¬ 
duce as many fruits, while the 
others wither away and perish without producing anything. What, then, is 
the use of these flowers ? We shall see. 
If, in a garden which stands alone, and is far removed from any other, you 
find a Melon-bed, and the Melons ready to flower, you were without exception 
to cut all the flowers which are not swollen below {fig. 2), before they open, 
but were careful to preserve those that are destined to produce fruit {fig. 5), 
these would unfold perfectly, but would not take any development after 
flowering ; the small eggs contained in their cavity would not enlarge, and 
would never become seeds. 
It is evident, then, that it is to the absence of the unswollen flowers that 
the sterility of the others is attributable. What, then, do these flowers con¬ 
tain that has been removed ? Uniformly they contain pouches filled with 
dust {fig. 3), and it is therefore probable that this dust is necessary to the 
fecundation of the other flowers. 
Fig. 1.—The Melon (Cucumis melo). 
