Clusters of Flowers and Their Parts

cluster of flowers is borne on a stem, the stem is called the Common Peduncle, and the stalk or s^em of each particular flower is called the Pedicel. 63. If the flower has no stem it is said to be Sessile. 64. The leaves on the common peduncle are called Bracts, and those on the pedicels are called Bractlets. A 65. cluster of flowers borne on a common peduncle, and each flower having a pedicel, is called a Raceme. 60 sewall's botaky RACEME. THE PLOWER. 61 CORYMB. 66. When the pedicels are unequal in length, the lower ones being longer than the upper, the cluster is called a Corymb, 62 SEWALL S BOTANY. UMBEL. THE FLOWED, 63 COMPOUND UMBEL. 67. When all the pedicels seem to spring from the top of the common peduncle, and are equal in length, the cluster is called an Umbel. 64 SEWALI�'S BOTANY. 68. When flowers are sessile on a common peduncle, as in the Mullein and Plantain, the cluster is called a Spike. THE FLOWER. 65 HEAD. 69. When flowers are sessile on a short and rounded peduncle, as in the Clover, the cluster is called a Head. 66 sewaijl's botany. PANICLE. 67 CYME, 68 sewall's botany. 70. Flower clusters like those of the Oak, the Willow, the Poplar, are called Catkins, 71. The name Panicle is given to a raceme having branches which bear flowers. 72. When flowers are developed from terminal buds, the flowering is said to be Definite, In the simplest form of definite flowering, the terminal bud develops into a flower and terminates the growth of the stem. 73. When a flower rises from the terminal bud of the main stem, and others from the terminal buds of the branches of this stem, the cluster is called a Cyme. It will be observed that the order of flowering in the cyme is the reverse of that of the raceme. The former has flowers at the top, and buds below; while the latter has buds at the top, and flowers below. 74. When the flowers are much crowded, as if into a bundle, the cluster is called a Fascicle. 75. When the flowers are crowded into a compact head, the cluster is called a Glomerule. The glomerule may be known from the head, by the fact that in the head the buds are found at the top, and the flowers below ; while in the glomerule the flowers are found at the top, and the buds below. THE PARTS OF THE ELOWEB. 69 LESSON VIII. THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER. 76. The parts of tlie flower tliat are necessary to the production of seeds are called the Essential Organs. The other parts are called the Floral Envelope. 77. The floral envelopes in a complete flower are double ; that is, they consist of two circles of leaves, one above or within the other. 78. The outer usually consists of green or greenish leaves, and is called the Calyx. 79. The inner set, which is usually of a more delicate texture, and some other color than green, forms, in most cases, the most showy part of the flower, and is called the Corolla. 80. Each leaf or separate piece of the corolla is called a Petal ; each leaf of the calyx, a Sepal. 81. The essential organs are of two kinds, placed one above or within the other. The lower or outer ones, which bear a peculiar yellow dust called Pollen^ are the fertilizing organs, and are called Stamens. The upper or inner ones, which are to be fertilized and to bear the seeds, are called Pistils. 82. Considering the flower as a branch, the lowest leaves are called sepals; the next are called petals; the next, 70 SEWALL S BOTANY. stamens ; the highest, pistils. All these are borne on a short stem, called the Receptacle. Note. It would be well for the teacher to explain to the pupils that, though the sepals, petals, stamens and pistils, especially the two latter, do not appear like leaves, still they are forms of leaves. Take a leaf from a book and roll it into the form of a hollow cylinder : it is still a leaf. Roll it into a solid cylinder and flatten one end : it is still a leaf. Color it yellow, red or blue ; and it is still a leaf. So in the flower : the leaves assume peculiar shapes and colors, yet they are truly leaves. 83. The Stamen has two parts. The upper and expanded part that bears the pollen is called the Anther. The stalk that bears the anther is called the Filament. SIMPLE PISTIL, THE PLAK OF THE FLOWER. 71 84. The Pistil consists of three parts. The lower part is a hollow case containing immature seeds (ovules), and is called the Ovary. The tapering part above the ovary is called the Style. The top of the style is naked (that is, has no covering of epidermis), and is called the Stigma. It is upon the stigma that the pollen falls ; and the result is, that the ovules contained in the ovary are fertilized and become seeds. 85. Sometimes the filament is wanting: then the anther is sessile. Sometimes the style is absent: then the stigma is sessile. So the filament and style are not essential parts. LESSON IX. THE PLAN OF THE FLOWER. 86. The Flower, like every other part of the plant, is formed upon a plan, which is essentially the same in. all blossoms. If -.we understand this plan^ the almost endless varieties, which different flowers present will be understood. 87. When a flo\ver has both kinds of essential organs, stamens and pistils, it is called Perfect. 88. When a flower has all the parts, calyx, corolla, stamens and pistils, it is called Complete. 89. If all the parts of each set in a flower are alike in size and shape, it is called Regular. 72 sewall's botany. 90. When the stamens and pistils are in separate blos- soms, that is, one sort of flowers has stamens but no pistils, and another has pistils but no stamens, the flower is called Impetfect PERFECT FLOWER. 91. The blossom which bears stamens is called a Staminate or Sterile flower, and the one that has pistils is called a Pistilate or Fertile flower. 92. When both kinds of flowers grow on the same plant, it is said to be Monoecious. 93. When only staminate blossoms are found on one plant, and only pistilate blossoms on another, the flowers are said to be Dioecious, 94. If the calyx or corolla is missing, the flower is said to be Incomplete. If both calyx and corolla, are missing, the flower is said to be Naked. 95. When all the parts of the same set in a flower are of different forms, it is called Irregular. THE PLAN OF THE FLOWER. T3 IRREGULAR FLOWERS. 96. When in a flower, different sets of organs (particu- larly sepals and petals) do not agree in the number of their parts, we call the flower Unsymmetrical. 97. The Spring Beauty is an unsymmetrical flower, having two sepals and five petals. The Mustard, like all the flowers of that family, is both unsymmetrical and irregular; the flower has six stamens and four petals, making 74 SEWall's botany. it unsymmetrical, and as four of the stamens are long and two short, it is irregular. 98, Sometimes the plan of the flower is more or less obscured, either by Abortive Organs or by mere vestiges of parts. In the flower of the Catalpa, the plan is five stamens ; but we almost always find only two perfect ones ; the others are vestiges, which seem to stand there merely to tell us what the plan is. 99. Sometimes the plan of the flower is obscured more or less by an increase in the number of parts. The Buttercup, for instance, has five sepals and five petals, but many stamens and pistils. Botanists, however, regard the Buttercup as built upon the plan of five. IRREGULAR FLOWER IN PARTS. THK FORMS OJT THE FLOWEK. 75 LESSON X. THE FORMS OF THE FLOWER, 100. It will be remembered that when we were studying the stem, we found many forms of it. The trunk and branches of a tree, the stalk of an herb, the trailing vine, the straw of Wheat or grass, the slender runners of the Strawberry, the tendrils of the Grape, the tubers of the Potato, we learned, were forms of stem. 101. So we have observed that certain buds which might have grown and lengthened into leafy branches, do, under other circumstances, and to accomplish other purposes, develop into blossoms. 102. In these the axis or stem remains short, nearly as it is in the bud ; the leaves, therefore, remain close together in sets or circles, the outer or lower ones, which constitute the calyx, generally appearing more or less like the ordinary foliage leaves. 103. The leaves of the next set above are more delicate, and are usually more highly colored, while the next sets, the stamens and pistils, appear in forms very different from those of ordinary leaves, and are concerned in the production of seed. 104. Again, flowers and branches arise from the same places, or have the same position. Flower-buds, like leafbuds, appear either on the top of the stem, that is, as a terminal bud, or in the axil of a leaf, as an axillary bud. Fur- 76 SEWALLS BOTANY^ thermore, it is quite impossible at an early stage to tell whether the bud is to give rise to a blossom or to a branch. 105. The sepals and petals are called by persons who are not botanists, the leaves of the flower. 106. The calyx is generally green, leaf-like; and though the eoroUa is rarely green, yet, neither are the foliage leaves always green. In some plants, such as the wild Painted Cup, the leaves are of the highest scarlet, while the corolla is^ a pale yellow. 107. Ill some plants there is such a, regular gradation from the foliage leaves to those of the calyx, that it is quite impossible to say where the one ends and the other begins. 108. Sepals, then, are leaves. So also are petals ; for there is, in many instances, no clearly fixed limit between them. 109. The calyx or the corolla often takes the form of a cup or a tube, instead of being in separate pieces. The same thing takes place with ordinary foliage leaves of many jjlants ; for instance, those of the Honeysuckles. 110. When flowers are cultivated, they sometimes become Double; that is, they change their stamens into petals. Even some wild and natural flowers do the same thing. 111. The white Water Lily exhibits complete gradations, not only between sepals and petals, but between petals and stamens. The sepals of this flower are green outside, and white a-nd petal-like on the inside. The petals, which are in many rows, THE F0BM8 OF THE FLOWER. T7 WATER-LILY, generally grow narrower towards the center of the flower. Some of these are found to be tipped with a trace of a yel-' low anther. The next are still more stamen-like, being narrower and with a flat filament; and this narrowing continues until we have a simple stamen. 112. Pistils often turn into petals, in cultivated flowers, and, in the Double Cherry, they sometimes change into small green leaves. Sometimes a whole blossom changes into a cluster of green leaves, and sometimes it becomes a leafy branch. 113. Ftom all these facts, we must conclude that the flower is a branch consisting of stem and leaves. 78 SEWALL'S BOTAKY. LESSON XT. THE PISTIL. 114. The pistil is, in a certain sense, the most important jpart of the flower; for, while all the other parts fall oif or wither away, the pistil remains, and its ovary contains the seeds that are to produce plants another time. SIMPLE PISTIL- COMPOUND PISTIL. THE Pisrati. 79 115. As we have before shown, a Simple Pistil answers to a leaf. When two or more leaves are combined to form a pistil, it is called Compound, 116. The cone of the Pine or of the Spruce is a collection of thick, scaly, open pistils^ Each scale or leaf