Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln.
- Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![GO CALYX. hghtful to every lover of nature; a bouquet, or even the simplest blossom, presented by a friend, interests the heart. How many pleasant thoughts are awakened by the fresh and perfumed incense- Which ascends from flowers !—their odour lias been poetically term- ed, the language by which thev hold communion with our minds. Females are usually fond of flowers; but until recently, the greater number have only viewed them as beautiful objects, delighting the senses by their odour and fragrance, without being aware that they, lovely as they seemed, might be rendered doubly interesting, by a scientific knowledge of the relations and uses of their various parts. Even at the present period, there are those who spend years in cul- tivating plants, ignorant of their botanical characters, when a few hours study might unfold to them the beautiful arrangement of Lin- naeus, and open to their mental vision a world of wonders. Although every part of a plant offers an interesting subject for study, the beauty of the blossom seems, by association, to heighten the pleasure of scientific research. Flowers are indeed lovely, but like youth and beauty they are fading and transient; they are, how- ever, destined for a higher object than a short-lived admiration; for, to them is assigned the important office of producing and nourishing; the fruit; like them should the young improve the bloom of life, so that when youth and beauty shall fade away, their minds may exhibit that fruit, which it is the business of youth to nurture and mature. JCalyx. The calyx is frequently wanting; as in the lily and tulip. The corolla is also' wanting in many plants; as, in most of the forest trees, which, to a careful observer, may seem to produce no flower; but the presence of a stamen and pistil, is in botany considered as- constituting a perfect flower. These two organs are essential to the perfection of the fruit; and when a flower is destitute either of sta- mens or pistils, it is termed imperfect. A flower is said to be incom- ]>le!e when any of the seven organs of fructification are wanting. The word calyx is derived from the Greek, and literafly signifies a cup ; it is the outer cover of the corolla, and usually green ; when not green, it is said to be co-loured. This organ is an expansion of the bark of the flower-staik, as appears from its colour and texture. The calyx usually envelops the corolla, previous to its expansion, and afterward remains below or around its base. Sometimes the calyx consists of one leaf or sepal only, it is then called moiwscpaj- ous j when it consists of several distinct leaves, it is called polysc- • palous ; when one calyx is surrounded by another, it is double; when one calyx belongs to many flowers, it is common. In the calyx are three parts, very distinct in calyxes which are I long and cylindric ; these are, 1st, the tube which rises from the base; 2d, the thropt, above the tube; and 3d, the mouth, or the upper and expanded part; the tube of the calyx is cylindric in the pink, and prismatic in the stramonium. The position of the calyx with respect to the germ offers an im- portant mark of distinction between different genera, and also be- tween different natural families of pjants. The calyx is said to be superior when it is situated on the summit of the germ, as in the apple ; it is inferior, when situated below the germ, as in the pink In many plants the calyx is neither superior nor inferior, but is situ- ated around the germ. Flowers delightful-Many who cultivate them ignorant of their botanical charac- ters-Flowers analogous to youth-Calyx, sometimes warning-Descriptionof the calyx—Parts of the calyx—Position with respect to the germ. *uun OI lne / «](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21147267_0066.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
