when the little plant died there would be no more to come after it. So now, you see, the coloured corolla of a flower may have separate parts, as in the snowdrop and the buttercup, and these parts are each called petals, or corolla leaves, and the calyx or little cup has parts too, which are called sepals; but the flower of the gorse is not made of little leaves all following each other regularly, but of one curious large yellow bit, and four others, two of which are joined together,—the two that stand out are called wings in this family of plants. The daisy is not at all really like either of these other flowers in the way it is made. The little white bits you can pull out are not petals like the snowdrop, but are, each one, a little perfect flower of itself, and can only be well studied with a microscope, so we will not talk of it yet. Suppose we take our dried buttercup, and look at its parts. Begin from the outside. There is first the calyx, a ring of greenish leaves or sepals; then the shining yellow corolla, quite regularly set Parts of a Flower. 33 round, each little petal in its place. This makes two rows or rings of the flower. Then inside we see the little threads or stamens, each with a little rush or ball for a head, which is called an anther. Inside this anther, when the flower is fully grown, we find some coloured dust; and the anther is the little case or box in which it is kept, so the anthers are like so many snuff-boxes. Then in the middle of all is a little green spike, which is called the pistil. It is made up of several pieces joined together at their edges. The top swells, and is called the stigma; and at the bottom it forms a case for the young seeds, which we can often find lying there packed together, if we pick it open carefully. The part in which these little seeds lie is called the germen or ovary, and the thread or stem which joins the stigma to the germen is called the style. Now I think I have done with troublesome names for the parts of a plant, and can tell you what the parts do, if you will try to remember what they are called. C |