In past ages these tree-ferns must have been amongst the most numerous of vegetable productions. Coal, we need hardly say, is well known to be nothing more than the remains of vegetable substances, so long buried under great pressure in the earth that they have changed to the condition in which we at present find them. Notwithstanding the change of quality, yet in many cases the original shape of the vegetable has not undergone alteration. So that a person sufficiently acquainted with Botany can readily tell the kind of plant from which any specimen of coal under consideration has been formed. Although fronds are the substitutes for leaves in ferns and several other cryptogamic plants, nevertheless these organs are not the universal substitutes; but the general complexity of cryptogamic plants, the microscopic nature of these organs, and the comparatively limited acquaintance with this division of the vegetable world, render it undesirable to state much concerning them in a series of papers like these, in which so many tribes of flowering plants claim our notice. SECTION XII. -ON THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF PLANTS: THE FLOWER AND ITS APPENDAGES. Having written what is necessary concerning the nutritive parts of plants, we shall now describe their reproductive members, the flower and its appendages. It would be folly, indeed, to describe formally what is meant by a flower, but the purposes to which a flower is designed in the economy of vegetable nature will require our attentive consideration. Without flowers there could be no fruit; without fruit there can be no seed; and without the latter the greater number of vegetables could not be multiplied. The reason, then, for denominating flowers the reproductive organs of plants will be manifest. To state this fact, that flowers are the reproductive portions of a plant, is very easy. To demonstrate, however, the elaborate means by which the functions of reproduction are discharged is very difficult. Indeed, the laws affecting the multiplication of animals and vegetables are so similar in many respects, that many of the terms employed in this department of Botany are borrowed from the sister studies of animal anatomy and physiology; and without some preliminary knowledge of these sciences it would be next to impossible to make the reader comprehend the intricacies of vegetable reproductions. We therefore shall not attempt to deal with these intricacies, but shall content ourselves by saying that all plants most probably, certainly all evidently-flowering or phænogamous plants, possess sexes, and these sexes are usually in the same plant, in the same flower of the plant. Occasionally, however, the two sexes are on different flowers, and sometimes on different plants. We may, therefore, popularly say, that the greater rumber of flowers contain both gentlemen and ladies; but occasionally, on some plants, the gentlemen and ladies have flowers, each sex to itself; and occasionally, again, the gentlemen monopolise all the flowers on one plant, and the ladies all the flowers on the other. When the two sexes reside in two sets of flowers on one plant, then such a plant is said to be monacious, from two Greek words, povos (pronounced mon'-os) and oikos (pronounced oi-kos), signifying "one house;" the plant, we suppose, being regarded as a house, and the flowers as chambers in the same. When, however, the males all reside in the flowers of one plant, and the females in all the flowers of another, then such plants are said to be diacious, or "two-housed," the reason of which will be obvious. look at and agreeable to smell, the botanist is obliged frequently to destroy them before he can make himself acquainted with the peculiarities of their structure; that is to say, he is obliged to cut or pull their various organs from their attachments; this operation is termed dissection. Presently, then, we shall have to dissect a flower and learn its various parts. As a preliminary to this examination, however, it will be necessary that the learnes should make himself acquainted with some general terms employed in this department of Botany. First of all, then, the manner in which flowers are arranged upon any plant is termed the inflorescence of that plant. By this term botanists understand not merely the flower itself, but various appendages to the flower; in short, the term inflorescence has a very wide signification. SECTION XIV.-MANNER IN WHICH FLOWERS ARE ATTACHED. The attachment of flowers to the parent stem usually takes place through the intervention of a little branch-like appendage, to which the term peduncle, or occasionally pedicel, is applied. The reader will therefore remember that a peduncle or pedicel stands to a flower in the same relation as a petiole to a leaf. It 59. TREE FERN. SECT. XIII.-ANATOMICAL EXAMINATION OF A FLOWER. Flcasing objects of contemplation as flowers are, beautiful to is also called the primary axis of inflorescence, and the flower-stalks which spring from it are called the secondary, tertiary, etc., axes. These pedicels or flower-stalks are arranged on various plants in different ways, and thus give rise to various terms indicative of the nature of inflorescence. The word peduncle is derived from the low Latin pedunculus, a little foot, while pedicel is derived from the Latin pediculus, which has the same meaning. Both words are diminutives of the Latin pes, a foot. The inflorescence, or mode of flowering, is said to be definite or terminal when the primary axis is terminated by a flower. When the original stem goes on growing in a straight line, giving off as it proceeds little flower-shoots or secondary axes of various degrees on either side, but does not terminate dis in a flower, then the term indefinite inflorescence is applied; the propriety of which term will be obvious. The term axillary is somefont times given to this condition of inflorescence. If the reader glance for an instant at Fig. 60 in the opposite page, he will be at no loss to comprehend what is meant by indefinite or axillary inflorescence. The reader will here please to observe the little leaf-like things from the axilla (or junctions with the primary axis) of which the flower-peduncles spring in this example. Such leaf-like appendages are frequently to be seen attached to the peduncles of many flowers. They are called bracts, from the Latin bractea, a thin plate of metal, and although their usual appearance is green like a leaf, yet they sometimes undergo very strange modifications. Thus, the pineapple, which we discovered long ago to be no fruit, is, in reality, nothing more than an assemblage of fleshy bracts, and the scale of the fir-cone is nothing more than hard leathery bracts. In proportion as bracts are developed nearer to a flower, so docs their natural green colour give place to the colour of the flower itself. Occasionally the flower actually springs from the upper surface of a bract, as in the case of the linden (Fig. 61). Sometimes bracts unite at the base of cach group of flowers, and on the same plane, as, for example, we find it in the carrot. This association of bracts gives rise to what botanists term the involucrum, a Latin word, which is derived from volvo, to wrap or roll, and which means anything that serves to wrap or cover. Under the classification indefinite inflorescence are compre 60. AXILLARY INFLORESCENCE. 61. FLOWER OF THE LINDEN TREE-BRACT CONSOLIDATED WITH THE PETUNCLE, 62. RACEME OF THE CURRANT. 63. COMPOUND RACEME OF THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 64. CORYMB OF THE MAELLEB CHERRY. 65. SIMPLE UMBEL OF THE COMMON CHERRY. 66. COMPOUND UMBEL OF THE CONMON FENNEL. 67. DICHOTOMOUS CYME $8. CORYM BOUS CAPITULUM OF GROUNDSEL. 69. COMPOUND SPIKE OF WHEAT. 70. SIMPLE SPIKE OF THE VERVAIN. 71. CAPITULUM TEB SCABIOUS. 72 CORYMBOUS CYME OF THE HAWTHORK 73. FASCICULE OF THE KALLOW- 74 UMBELLAR CYME OF THE CELANDINE. hended the raceme, the panicle, the corymb, the umbel, the spike, the capitulum, and the cyme, all of which we shall now proceed to describe. The raceme, from the Latin racemus, a cluster, is that kind of inflorescence in which the pedicels or secondary axes are almost equal in length, and arise immediately from the primary axis or stem. Of this kind of inflorescence the black, white, and red currant-trees offer familiar examples (Fig. 62). The panicle (from the Latin panicula, anything of a little round swollen figure, the diminutive of panus, a woof about the quill in a shuttle), sometimes called a compound raceme, is a form of inflorescence in which the secondary axes or pedicels, springing from the primary axis or stem, do not at once bear each a terminal flower, but ramify a third, and sometimes even a fourth time. Of this description is the inflorescence of the horse-chestnut (Fig. 63). The corymb, from the Greek kopuμßos (pronounced kor-um-bos), a branch, is that kind of inflorescence in which the lower pedicels, much longer than the upper ones, terminate, in consequence of this difference of length, at the same level, or nearly so, as the latter. An example of this is afforded by the Mahaleb cherry, of whose inflorescence a diagram is appended (Fig. 64). The umbel, from the Latin umbella, a little shade, the diminutive of umbra, a shade, is an inflorescence in which the pedicels or secondary axes, being equal in length amongst themselves, spring from the same level, rise to the same height, and diverge like the ribs of an umbrella or parasol. An umbel is simple when each pedicel terminates at once in a flower, as, for example, in the common cherry (Fig. 65); and compound when the pedicels, instead of terminating at once each in its own flower, severally give off other pedicels on which the flowers are arranged. An example of this is seen in the common fennel (Fig. 66). The spike, from the Latin spica, a point, may be either simple or compound. The simple spike is that form of inflorescence in which the pedicels are completely, or almost completely wanting, and the flowers accordingly are sessile, as may be seen in the vervain (Fig. 70). The compound spike is that form in which the secondary axes, instead of terminating in a flower, emit each a little flower-bearing pedicel. Of this description is the inflorescence of wheat (Fig. 69). The capitulum, from the Latin caput, a head, is the form of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are collected upon the thickened head, called torus, of a peduncle. This torus may be flat, as we see it in the marigold and the scabious (Fig. 71), or concave, as in the fig. It appears, then, that the capitulum is that form of inflorescence to which the fig belongs. Banished from Rome! what's banished, but set free from daily contact of the things I loathe ? "Tried and convicted traitor' Who says this? Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head? "Banished ?"-I thank you for 't. It breaks my chain! I held some slack allegiance till this hour-but now my sword's my own. Young Blount his armour did unlace, aud, gazing on his ghastly face, said,-"By St. George, he's gone! that spear-wound has our master sped; and see the deep cut on his head! Good night to eyes," said Eustace, “peace!" Marmion!"-"Unnurtured Blount! thy brawling cease; he opes his A celebrated modern writer says, "Take care of the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves." This is an admirable remark, and might be very seasonably recollected when we begin to be "weary in well-doing," from the thought of having much to do. I've seen the moon gild the mountain's brow; I've watched the mist o'er the river stealing; but ne'er did I feel in my breast, till now, so deep, so calm, and so holy a feeling; 'tis soft as the thrill which The cyme, from the Greek Kuμa (pronounced ku'-ma), a wave, is a definite inflorescence which imitates by turns several of the indefinite kinds of inflorescence, from all of which it essentially differs in the circumstance that the primary axis is itself termi-memory throws athwart the soul in the hour of repose. nated by a flower which appears before the others; each of the subsidiary axes also terminates in a flower, but the secondary axes flourish before the tertiary ones, tertiary axes before quaternary ones, and so on in like manner for the rest. The chief varieties of the cyme are the racemous cyme, as in the campanula or blue-bell; the dichotomous, or divided, cyme (Fig. 67), from the Greek dixa, apart, and Teμvw (pronounced tem-no), to cut; the corymbous cyme (Fig. 72); the umbellar cyme (Fig. 74); the scorpioidal, or scorpion-like, cyme, as in the myosotis or forget-me-not; and the contracted cyme, in which the flowers are crowded together through the extreme shortness of the axes. The fascicule, from the Latin fasciculus, a little bundle, is an inflorescence in which the axes preserve a certain length and an irregular distribution, as in the sweet-william. But thou, who Heaven's just vengeance dar'st defy, this deed, with fruitless tears, shalt soon deplore. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, "To THE UNKNOWN GOD." Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. Mixed inflorescence is that which partakes of the characters of both definite and indefinite inflorescence. In the dead-nettle the general inflorescence is indefinite, whilst the partial inflorescence consists of true cymes or fascicules. In the mallow there is a similar arrangement (Fig. 73). In the groundsel (Fig. 68) and the chrysanthemum the general inflorescence is a definite corymb, but the partial inflorescences are capitulous. In the family of plants called umbelliferous. and to which the carrot, the fennel, angelica, etc., belong, each umbel in itself is indefinite but the aggregate of umbels is definite; frequently, indeed, the axis of an umbel bears a little central umbel of its own. XIV. THE ASTERISK, OBELISK, DOUBLE OBELISK, SECTION, PARALLEL, PARAGRAPH, INDEX, CARET, BREVE, AND The student should take particular notice of the following marks, so that he may call them by name, and discover their use in the following examples : * An Asterisk or Star. + An Obelisk, or Dagger, A Double Obelisk. :-- A Paragraph. 78. The Asterisk, Obelisk, Double Obelisk, Paragraph, Section, Parallels, and sometimes figures or letters, are used to show that * In this lesson, as well as in some of the preceding lessons, there are several sentences of poetry, which are not divided into poetical lines. The object of printing these lines without regard to this division was to prevent the student from falling into that "sing song utterance into which he is too apt to fall in reading verse. It remains to be observed here, that abbreviations and contractions, such as occur in poetical sentences in this lesson and others, which appear in the form of prose, are not allowable in prose itself. The Cougar + is the largest animal, of the cat kind, found in North America; and has occasionally received the name of the American lion, from the similarity of its proportions and colour to those of the lion of the old world. The keeper of the elephant gave him a gallon of arrack, which rendered the animal very furious. I fell upon my knees on the bank, with my two servants, and the dragoman § of the mănăstěry. The history of Joseph is exceedingly interesting and full of instruction. I It was a cave, a huge recess, that keeps till June December's snow; a lofty precipice in front, a silent tarn below. This, with the St. before it, is the name of a small island situated on the west of Africa, noted for the exile of Naɲ ɔleca I. + Pronounced Coo'gar. The name given to this animal by the Americans generally is painter, evidently a corruption of panther. Arrack is a very strong spirituous liquor. § Dragoman means an interpreter. The whole of history of Joseph will be found in the Bible; from the 37th chapter to the end of the book of Genesis. Tarn is a small lake, high up in the mountains. ** A clergyman. + Cure.-The office of a clergyman. Stole.-A long robe worn by the clergy of England. § Bridewell.-A house of correction. نی 5. 6. ?༠ وقا Write in shorthand ن १क्ष X EXERCISE 21. They who would rule safely must rule with love, not with force. wud rwL sefli most rWL de lov not |