STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 
low case or pod containing the rudimentary seeds called ovules; the style, or column (b), 
wanting in certain flowers, which bears aloft the third part, known as the stigma (c). 
This is the extreme viscous tip of the flower, and is exposed on all sides for the reception 
of the impregnating pollen from the encircling stamens. Sometimes an ovary has several 
styles and stigmas, when the pistil is called compound, and each part a carpel, as in the 
Blackberry (67). Some flowers have only stamens, while others of the same plant have 
only pistils as in the Cucumber (68), and as those alone that have pistils produce seed, they 
are called fertile, while those possessing stamens only are designated barren. Again, the 
pistils and stamens are sometimes to be found only in different plants of the same species, 
as in the Willow (69). When in different flowers of the same plant, they are called 
monoecious, from two Greek words meaning single-housed, as in the Cucumber; when in 
different plants, they are termed dioecious, or two-housed, as in the Willows. When the 
ovary is above the base of the perianth, it is termed superior, as in the Purslane (70); 
when below, as in the Roses, it is called inferior. 
Pericarp (from the Greek peri, around, and karpos , fruit), or seed-vessel, is the 
case, pod or covering of the seed or seeds of a plant, the enlarged and ripened ovary, 
which with the enclosed seeds constitutes the fruit. It presents various forms in different 
plants, as the capsule in the Purslane (71), the silique in the common Mustard (72), the 
silicle or capsella, a short pod (72), in the Shepherd’s Purse, the legtime or long pod in 
the Bean (73), the berry in the Currant (74), the nut in the Hazel (75), the drupe in the 
Hawthorn (76), and the cotie in the Pine (77)* Fruits are feshy when the seeds are en¬ 
circled by a juicy, pulpy substance, as in the Apple, the Pear, the Melon and many others. 
Stone-fruits is the name given to those in which the pulpy matter incloses the hard, horny 
substance, or “ stone,” which covers the seed. They are called dry fruits when the seed- 
vessel does not become juicy or pulpy, but is a mere husk or dry covering, as in Wheat, 
the Five-finger, the Ground Cherry, etc. 
Seed .—This is the portion destined to reproduce the plant, and is itself the result of 
the action between the stamens and the pistil, indicated above. The stigma receives the 
pollen, which is conveyed through the style to the ovary, where it comes in contact with 
the ovules, producing the seed that in due time arrives at the maturity necessary to repro¬ 
duce the plant according to its kind. When the plumule or embryo plant is enclosed in a 
seed of two cotyledons, it is styled, from the Greek, dicotyledonous, that is, having two 
lobes, as in the Bean (78), when in one, it is monocotyledonous, as in the common Grasses 
or Sugar-cane; and when there is no apparent nourishing seed-lobe, it is called acotyle- 
donous, as in the Ferns. 
Receptacle is the top of the stem, or apex of the flowerstalk, from which the 
organs of the flower spring, and into which they may therefore he conceived as gathered 
or inserted, whence the name. It is conical (79), as in the Obeliscaria, chaffy (So), as 
in the Thistle, or bristly, as in the Cactus (81), and is the part on which the other portions 
of the flower rest, as in the Scabious (82). 
Nectary is a term applied to any of the organs which may happen to contain nectar, 
that is, the sweet secretions from the plants. The nectary of the Crown Imperial 
comprises a number of cells around the center of the flower, while in the Crowfoot it is a 
scale at the base of the petals (S3). 
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