OCTOBER. 
223 
propagated on their own roots, in the open air, it would be a great boon to 
amateur growers, as the plants so raised are not so liable to disease, and 
generally appear much stronger in constitution, and produce finer blooms than 
those propagated in heat. 
The Cedars , Castle Bromwich. * Charles Jas. Perry. 
BOTANY FOB BEGINNERS. 
Lesson IX. 
Let us take the Oat (Avena sativa, fig. 1 ), as our present illustration. 
Here you will not find, as we have done in all the other flowers that we have 
hitherto examined, the stamens and pistils enclosed in envelopes, arranged 
circularly round them. In the 
Oat, it is true, these organs are 
protected, not, however, by a cir¬ 
cular envelope, but by small scales 
which, instead of being, placed on 
a level, are above each other in 
such a way that the inferior en¬ 
closes the superior placed oppo¬ 
site it. , 
Remove a flower {fig. 2); you 
first meet with tw r o leaves or 
pointed scales (gl, gl), nearly 
equal, and which seem placed at 
the same height; but on closer 
observation you will find that the 
one is lower than the other, and 
that the lower encloses the higher 
one. This will be more apparent 
in a flower that is not fully ex¬ 
panded. If you remove these 
two scales there remains a flat¬ 
tened body pointed at the summit, 
bearing on the middle of its back 
a stiff and brittle awn (a), which 
falls off in time. Press this body 
between your fingers, and with 
the point of your penknife open 
the scale upon which the awn 
is placed, and you will see that 
this scale encloses another much 
smaller (pl), the summit of which 
is not pointed, and the back of 
which does not carry a scale, and 
which is placed on a stalk oppo¬ 
site and a little above the large 
scale, in which it is completely enveloped. When you have thus removed it, 
you will see the organs in the centre of the flower ( fig. 3). These are, first, 
three stamens, with very slender filaments (e), the anthers of which (a) have 
the form of a very long X, and opening by two slits. In the centre of them 
is a small oval body (o), which is the ovary, and it is surmounted by two 
fine feathery stigmas, on which the pollen is deposited. 
Fig. 1.—The Oat (Avena sativa). 
