122 
THE FIRST BOOK OF BOTANY. 
EXERCISE XL. 
Perfect, Imperfect, and Neutral Flowers . 
Pictures, illustrating this and the following exer¬ 
cise, may be found upon the charts. Living speci¬ 
mens of the kinds described will, perhaps, not often 
occur in the collections made for study. But if you 
keep a constant lookout for them you will be likely 
to get them before a long time. 
A Perfect Flower has both the essential organs 
(Fig. 211). 
An Imperfect, or Diclinous, flower has but one 
of the essential organs. If it have stamens only, it is 
said to be staminate (Fig. 212); if pistil only, it is said 
to be pistillate (Fig. 213). 
Neutral Flowers are destitute of both stamens 
and pistil (Fig. 214). 
When imperfect flowers are staminate (Fig. 212), 
they are said to be sterile , because they never produce 
Fig. 211. 
A Perfect Flower. 
Fig. 212. Fig. 213. 
Imperfect Flowers. 
seed. Sometimes they are spoken of as male flowers. 
When imperfect flowers are pistillate (Fig. 213), they 
