When flowers grow from an elongated flower-stalk without distinct stalks of their own, or when their separate stalks are very short, they form a spike, as in the plantain or rib-grass; when the separate stalks are of notable length, we have a raceme,1 as in the hyacinth. Both spikes and racemes are often compound by the branching of the principal stalk. Compound spikes sometimes have their branches or spikelets, closely compacted into a head of flowers. Spikes of a close form, having a scaly bract under each flower, are called catkins.2 When the lower flowers of a raceme are supported on longer stalks than the upper, so that all the flowers are nearly on a level at top, as in the hawthorn, we have a corymb.3 When all the branches of a raceme spring from nearly the same point, and diverge in a radiating manner, they form an umbel. An example of the umbel may be seen in the cowslip, but this form of inflorescence is particularly characteristic of a great order of plants, therefore called Umbellifera or umbel-bearers, of which the carrot, the cow-parsnip, and the hemlock are familiar examples. In all these forms of inflorescence, the first flowers which expand are the lowest or outermost. There are plants, however, in which the first flowers produced are the most central. In this case, the flowers are often produced on stalks which grow up together in nearly equal length, and form what is called a cyme,5 an example of which may be seen in the elder.

Flowers-Parts of the Flower.-Flowers are produced from buds as leaves are. The parts of a flower are, in fact, leaves changed as to their form and use, but produced and arranged after the manner of leaves; and their true nature is shewn by their sometimes becoming leaves again in what are called monstrosities of plants, which often occur when a plant receives excess of nourishment through cultivation. They arise from the stalk of the flower, as leaves arise from the stem, but form definite groups very distinct in character and use. These groups are generally whorls, even when the leaves of the plant are not whorled. The first or outermost whorl (g, fig. 78) forms the calyx [Greek, a cup], and commonly consists of small green leaves called sepals, which are often united so as to form a kind of cup. The use of the calyx seems to be the protection of the more tender parts of the flower, and it encloses them all when in bud. The second whorl of leaves, which may either be quite distinct, or may unite into a cup, bell, or tube, is the corolla (h, fig. 78), generally the most beautiful part of the flower; the leaves which form it, called petals, being delicate and finely coloured. The calyx, however, sometimes assumes an appearance similar to that of the corolla; and in some plants, these whorls grow so closely

1 From Latin racemus, a cluster of grapes.

2 From the resemblance of a cluster to a cat's tail.
3 From Latin corymbus, a cluster of fruit.
4'A little shade,' from Latin umbra, a shade.

5 From Latin cyma, a sprout.

6 Latin, 'little crown,' diminutive of

corona, a crown.
7 Latin petalum, a leaf.

together as to be almost one, and resemble one another very closely, as in

The stamens form the whorl next within the corolla; the pistils are the innermost of all, and are the final extension of the stem or stalk from which the flower grows. The pistils contain the ovules, which, when matured, become the seeds. A pistil is sometimes formed of one modified leaf, and sometimes of several, more or less united. Each leaf which enters into the formation of the pistil is called a carpel, and each carpel has its own ovules. The lower part of the pistil is the germen or ovary (c, fig. 78), in which are the ovules; from this rises the style 5 (e, fig. 78), which is crowned by the stigma (b, fig. 78). 6 The style is often very slender, although in some flowers it is thick and stout. The stigma also assumes very various forms; it is sometimes broad and large, sometimes nothing more than the mere point of the style. The style is sometimes altogether absent, and the stigma rests immediately on the summit of the germen. The only use of the style is as a tube to communicate between the stigma and the germen. The stamens are ranged around the pistil. In some plants, they are few in number; in others, they are very numerous. Those plants which have few stamens have a certain number of them, as they have also a certain number of sepals and of petals; and it very often happens that there is a correspondence in these numbers, so that some plants are dimerous, some trimerous, some tetramerous, and others pentamerous. The crocus is an example of a trimerous flower; the primrose is a pentamerous flower. A stamen consists of two

1 From the Greek peri, around, and anthos, a flower.

2 Latin stamen, a thread, a fibre.

8 So called from their likeness to the pestle of a mortar.

4 From Greek karpos, a fruit.

5 From the Greek stylos, a pillar.

6 Greek, a mark.'

7 From the Greek meros, a part, dis, twice,

tres, three, tetra, four, and penta, five.

parts, called the filament1 (d, fig. 78), and the anther 2 (a, a, fig. 78). The filament is the modified stalk of the leaf, the anther its blade. The filament is generally slender, as the name indicates; in some flowers it is extremely so, but in others it is thick and stout, and in some it is altogether absent; whilst the anthers are sometimes produced on the pistil itself, which is a peculiarity of orchids. The anther is the essential part of the stamen; the filament serves merely for its support. The anther is attached to the filament in various ways, sometimes firmly, or even as covering the mere extremity of its surface, and sometimes by an extremely slender neck, so as to be liable to be shaken by the slightest breath of wind, or by the touch of the smallest insect. The anther, when matured, which it is when the flower is in full perfection, produces pollen.3 Pollen is a fine dust, which, when examined by the microscope, is seen to consist of minute cells. The anther consists of two lobes, corresponding to the two sides of the blade of a leaf, and these both produce pollen. Pollen is produced in cells or cases, which burst and scatter it. It is essential to the fecundation of flowers-that is, to make them productive of seed; and in order to this, it must be applied to the stigma, through which the minute pollen grains find their way to the germen and its ovules. The fecundation of plants is often very much assisted by insects, which stir the stamens, and set the pollen afloat in the air. In some plants, the stamen has a peculiar property called irritability, so that when the filament is touched, it moves, and closes upon the pistil, as may be seen in the barberry, the stamens of which can readily be made to move in this way by touching them near the base with the point of a needle. The stamens and pistils are ordinarily found in the same flower, arranged as already described, the stamens forming the whorl which immediately surrounds the pistils such flowers are called hermaphrodite. In many plants, however, there are flowers which have stamens only, and other flowers which have pistils only, and the flowers are then described as male and female flowers. The pollen of the male flowers is often extremely abundant, and is carried about in the air, as may be seen in the hazel, from which it may be driven off in clouds by shaking the branches at the time of flowering. The male flowers of the hazel are in long yellowishwhite catkins, which have a very beautiful appearance as they hang from the branches in early spring, before the leaves are expanded; the female flowers are small and red, situated at the tips of buds. Plants which have the stamens and pistils in different flowers on the same plant, as the

2 From Greek anthos, a flower.

4

3 Latin, dust.'

1 From Latin filum, a thread. 4 That is of both sexes.' The word is derived from the mythological story of Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite (Venus), who, when bathing, grew together with a nymph into one person.

hazel, are called monacious;1 but there are also plants which have the male and female flowers on separate plants, as the date-palm and the hemp, and these are called diœcious.2 Flowers which have both stamens and pistils are called perfect flowers, because all the essential parts of the flower are found in them. In some such, however, the calyx or the corolla is awanting; and there are flowers which have none of these envelopes, but consist of stamens and pistils only: such flowers are described as naked. A flower which has calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils, is called complete.

The parts of a flower are variously arranged. The leaves of the calyx and corolla, the sepals and petals, are sometimes opposite to one another, sometimes alternate, and a similar diversity appears in the inner whorls. Not unfrequently there are two or more stamens for each petal, and sometimes many; and the stamens are sometimes in bundles, as if many were formed by the division of a single leaf. Some of the whorls which form a flower often consist of a number of parts, which is a multiple of the number that characterises the flower, making it trimerous, pentamerous, &c.—as six instead of three, or ten instead of five. This regularity of numerical arrangement is called the symmetry of flowers. A flower in which the parts of each whorl are equal and similar, or nearly so, is called a regular flower, as the flower of the crocus or primrose. Many flowers, however, are irregular. Sometimes one leaf of the calyx is more developed than the rest, and assumes a different form; this more frequently occurs in the corolla, and sometimes in the stamens. The flower of a true geranium is regular; but the flower of a pelargonium, which is very nearly allied to a geranium, and is often called by that name, is irregular, the five petals of the flower appearing as two upper and three lower petals, with some difference of size and form. In the flowers of many orchids, irregularity may be said to be carried to its extreme. Some irregular flowers assume peculiar forms, and some of these are characteristic of certain orders of plants. Thus, the form called papilionaceous, because of its resemblance to a butterfly, prevails generally in an order of plants containing a multitude of species, and producing their seeds in pods, of which the pea is an example.

Fruit. The matured carpels of the flower form the fruit of a plant, and the matured ovules the seeds. Sometimes the fruit consists only of a single carpel, which contains only one seed, or a number of seeds; sometimes of a number of carpels belonging to the same flower, which are either separate or closely united together, so as to form one seed-vessel, or pericarp. In pines and firs, there is no seed-vessel, but the seeds are protected by scales. The fruit is sometimes formed not merely

1 From Greek monos, one, and oikos, a house. 2 From Greek dis, twice, and oikos, a house.

3 From Latin papilio, a butterfly.

4 From Greek peri, around, and karpos, fruit.

of the pistil, but of other parts of the flower united with it. Thus, the calyx, which in some plants falls off during or immediately after flowering, is permanent in others, and remains attached to the fruit. The whole of a ripe fruit is often dry and hard, the softest part being the seed itself; but in other fruits, some part enlarges and becomes succulent, as in the apple, pear, plum, &c.; and a soft pulpy substance is formed in the interior of some fruits, as the gooseberry, grape, and orange. When the fruit is ripe, it often opens to scatter the seeds, which takes place in a great variety of ways, some of them very curious. Soft fruits, however, fall off entire when ripe, and the seeds are set free by the decay of the soft parts, or when they are eaten by birds or other animals, by which they are often carried to a distance so that the plant may be produced in a new situation. Among the provisions of nature for the dispersion of seeds are wing-like appendages with which some are furnished, so that they are readily wafted about by the wind. The down attached to the seed of a thistle is an appendage of which this is the obvious use. It is called the pappus,1 and assumes various forms. In the dandelion, it consists of a stalk, from the summit of which hairs radiate; and the pappus stalks produced from a head of flowers are so regular in length, that their hairs, spreading out and touching each other, form a beautiful globe. The pods of some plants, as the broom, burst with considerable force when ripe, so as to fling the seed away from the parent plant, and in a warm summer day, the sound of the cracking of the pods may be heard at a considerable distance. The seed-vessels of the poppy exhibit a very different provision for the accomplishment of the same object. They resemble little urns, which have a row of small holes around them, just under the top; and the seeds, which are very small and very numerous, are scattered through these holes when the stem of the plant is shaken by the wind, as pepper is shaken out of a pepper-box. The great seeds of the cocoa-nut palm are wafted by the waves and currents of the ocean from one tropical coast to another, protected from the water by their thick husk and firm shell.

A fruit is generally formed from the pistil of a single flower, but the pistils of a number of flowers growing close together sometimes combine to form one fruit, as in the pine-apple, mulberry, and fig, the fleshy parts coalescing together.

Different kinds of Fruits.-There are so many different kinds of fruits, that a complete enumeration and description of them cannot be attempted here. Only a few of the most common and important can be noticed. A pear or an apple is a pome, so called from the Latin pomum, an apple, and is formed of two or more carpels. In the centre are cartilaginous or bony cells, containing the seeds, with a fleshy mass around them. A

1 From Greek pappos, down.