2() BOTANY 
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 
| While the vegetative organs are concerned chiefly 
in maintaining the life of the individual, the repro- 
ductive organs are devoted to the preservation of the 
race. In the bean plant, for instance, the flower, fruit 
and seed are produced in order that the race of bean 
plants may not disappear from the face of the earth, 
while the leaf, root and stem only indirectly serve this 
purpose by making provision for vigorous growth. 
The reproductive organs form the link between one 
generation and another. They relate each generation 
to the generation that succeeds it. 
1. The Flower (Fig. 5). In the bean, the flowers 
are arranged on little branches that appear in the axils 
of the upper leaves. Such a flowering branch is called 
an inflorescence. Each flower itself is really a modified 
branch and the different parts, sepals, petals, stamens 
and carpels, are really leaves that have been crowded 
close together and modified to do special work. 
(a) Sepals (Figs. 5-6). At the base of each flower 
note the green or colourless cup showing on its upper 
edge five pointed lobes. This cup is the calyx (Fig. 5) 
and the five lobes show that it is made up of five united 
sepals. In many plants, such as the wallflower and 
buttereup, the sepals do not form a eup but are quite 
free and distinct. The function of the sepals is to 
protect the young flower in the bud, chiefly from cold. 
If a frost comes while the flower buds of the fruit 
trees are still covered by the sepals, but little harm is 
done, but if the flower be once expanded a frost is 
fatal. | 
Modifications of the calyx arise in the anemone and 
clematis, where, in the absence of petals, the sepals 
become large and showy to attract insects to the 
flower. 
