NATURAL HISTORY. 
361 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
ARTICLE X.—SCIENCE OF BOTANY CONTINUED. 
BYT MR. F. F. ASHFORD. 
ON L1LACEOUS AND CRUCIFORM FLOWERS. 
I think the idea is excellent of amusing the reader, and exercising 
his attention upon such agreeable and varied objects as plants. Per¬ 
haps I should not have ventured so far as to propose it myself, had I 
not been convinced that, at all times of life, the study of nature 
abates the taste for frivolous amusements, assuages the tumult of the 
passions, and provides the mind with an object worthy of its contem¬ 
plation. Besides, to he merely acquainted with plants by sight, and 
only to know their names, may be too trifling an attainment for many 
of your readers. It may be presumed, that they would not be satis¬ 
fied with so small a share of knowledge, and I propose that they 
should possess higher notions of the vegetable structure or orginiza- 
tion of plants. I would have them gain some real information, 
though they should only take a few steps in the investigation of the 
richest and most beautiful of the three kingdoms of nature. 
A perfect plant is composed of a root and a stem, with its branches 
of leaves, flower and fruit. This at least is sufficiently known already 
to understand the terms; but one principal part requires examin¬ 
ing now at large, I mean the fructification, that is the flower and 
fruit. Let me begin with the flower, which first appears. In this 
part nature has inclosed the summary of her work, by this she per¬ 
petuates it, and this is commonly the most brilliant part of the vege¬ 
table, and always least liable to variations. 
Take a lily, as an example of the Lilaceous tribe, and dissect it. 
Before it opens, you see at the top of the stem an oblong greenish 
bud, which grows whiter the nearer it approaches the period of open¬ 
ing, and when it is quite opened, you perceive that the white cover 
assumes the form of a basin or vase, divided into several segments. 
This is called the corolla, and when it withers, it falls or separates 
into six distinct pieces, which are called petals, and consequently it 
is a pentapetalous, or a polypetalous corolla. Exactly in the middle 
of the corolla, a sort of little column rises from the bottom, pointing 
directly upwards. This, taken as a whole* is called the pistillum, 
consisting of the parts called the germ style, and stigma. Between 
the pistil and the corolla, six other bodies rise entirely separate from 
each other, which are the stamens, each consisting of two parts, viz. 
