STUDY OF BOTANY. 
221 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
Article XVII.—STUDY ON THE SCIENCE OF BOTANY. 
BY MR. F. F. ASHFORD. 
The next part that comes under consideration is the most Natural 
Structure of the parts of fructification, in considering which, the 
principal objects to be attended to are, 
1 The number of each part, 3 Its proportion 
2 Its figure 4 Its situation 
1. Number —The most natural structure of the parts in respect to 
number, is to have the Calyx divided into as many segments as the 
Corolla, the filaments equal in number to the segments of the corolla 
and calyx, a single anthera on each filament, the divisions of the 
pistillum, equal in number to the cells of the pericarpium, or the 
receptacles of the seeds. 
2. Figure .—In respect to figure, to have the calyx less spreading 
than the corolla, the corolla widening gradually, the staminum and 
pistillum upright and tapering, the pericarpium big with seeds, 
swelling and extending after the rest of the parts are taken off. 
3. Proportion. —The calyx less than the corolla, the pistillum of 
an equal length with the stamina in an upright flower, but longer in 
an inverted one, if the flower slope downwards the stamina and pis¬ 
tillum inclining towards the underside, but if it slope upwards placed 
close under the upper side. 
4. Situation. —The perianthium surrounding the receptacle, the 
corolla placed on the receptacle, and alternate with the perianthium, 
the filaments placed within the corolla, but corresponding with the 
perianthium, the anthera seated on the tops of the filaments, the ger- 
men possessing the centre of the receptacle, the style standing on 
the top of the germen, and the stigma seated on the top of the style. 
Complete flowers are either simple or aggregate. Simple flowers dif¬ 
fer from aggregate in this, they have not any part of the fructifica¬ 
tion common to many flowers, as in the case with aggregate. Flowers 
are called aggregate when many flosculi, florets, (partial flowers) are 
by the meditaion of some part of the fructification common to them 
all, so united that no one of them could be taken out without de¬ 
stroying the form of the whole of which it is a part. The common 
part of aggregate flowers are either the receptacle or the calyx. 
