le: this is the CALYX, or flower-cup. When its
separate leaves are referred to they are called SEPALS, a name which
distinguishes them from foliage-leaves on the one hand, and from petals
on the other. Then come five delicate and _colored_ leaves (in the Flax,
blue), which form the COROLLA, and its leaves are PETALS; then a circle
of organs, in which all likeness to leaves is lost, consisting of
slender stalks with a knob at summit, the STAMENS; and lastly, in the
centre, the rounded body, which becomes a pod, surmounted by five
slender or stalk-like bodies. This, all together, is the PISTIL. The
lower part of it, which is to contain the seeds, is the OVARY; the
slender organs surmounting this are STYLES; the knob borne on the apex
of each style is a STIGMA. Going back to the stamens, these are of two
parts, viz. the stalk, called FILAMENT, and the body it bears, the
ANTHER. Anthers are filled with POLLEN, a powdery substance made up of
minute grains.

17. The pollen shed from the anthers when they open falls upon or is
conveyed to the stigmas; then the pollen-grains set up a kind of growth
(to be discerned only by aid of a good microscope), which penetrates the
style: this growth takes the form of a thread more delicate than the
finest spider's web, and reaches the bodies which are to become seeds
(OVULES they are called until this change occurs); these, touched by
this influence, are incited to a new growth within, which becomes an
embryo. So, as the ovary ripens into the seed-pod or capsule (Fig. 1,
etc.) containing seeds, each seed enclosing a rudimentary new plantlet,
the round of this vegetable existence is completed.

Section III. MORPHOLOGY OF SEEDLINGS.

18. Having obtained a general idea of the growth and parts of a
phanerogamous plant from the common Flax of the field, the seeds and
seedlings of other familiar plants may be taken up, and their variations
from the assumed pattern examined.

19. =Germinating Maples= are excellent to begin with, the parts being so
much larger than in Flax that a common magnifying glass, although
convenient, is hardly necessary. The only disadvantage is that fresh
seeds are not readily to be had at all seasons.

[Illustration: Fig. 11. Embryo of Sugar Maple, cut through lengthwise
and taken out of the seed. 12, 13. Whole embryo of same just beginning
to grow; _a_, the stemlet or caulicle, which in 13 has considerably
lengthened.]

20. The seeds of Sugar Maple ripen