The Vegetable World: Being a History of Plants, with Their Botanical Descriptions and Peculiar Properties
The calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil, are inserted on an axis called the receptacle, the form of which varies according to the plant. In the Strawberry, for instance, the receptacle is the
succulent fleshy part which is eaten under the name of fruit; the fruit, in fact, being the little yellow specks which cover it. It is also the core of raspberry, and club-shaped spadix of the Arum.
The flowers of every plant present only these five orders of organs. There, are some which have no stamens, and others without pistil. In these two cases the flowers are said to be unisexual. In the first they are called female flowers, in the second, male; but both are always present, either on the same ‘ plant or on distinct plants. The Box-tree has unisexual flowers, some furnished with stamens without a pistil, others with a pistil without stamens. Other flowers are without a corolla, and some even without both calyx and corolla. The former are incomplete, (monochlamydeous), the latter are called naked (achlamydeous). The Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), which expands its magnificent golden flowers in spring along the marshy borders of rivers, ponds, or lakes, is without a corolla; the flower of the Ash has neither corolla nor calyx, but reproductive organs only.
In short, some flowers have neither calyx, corolla, nor stamens; others, neither calyx, corolla, nor pistil. They are at once icom-plete and naked. The flowers of the Willow are of this sort; some are possessed of two stamens, and others of a pistil only. A flower provided with stamens and pistil is said to be hermaphrodite, whether it has floral envelopes or not. There are great many plants which bear hermaphrodite flowers only; there are others bearing, on the same individual, male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers; these are polygamous plants. Some plants present only male, others, again, only female flowers, and these sometimes occur on the same, and in other cases on different, plants. In the former case, as in the Chestnut, Hazle-nut,, and Ricinus, to which the Castor Oil plant belongs, the plants are said to be monecious. In the latter, as in the Hemp-plant, Date-tree, and Merculiaris, one of the Euphorbiacee, the plants are diecious. Plants present themselves with flowers varying as much in their dimensions as in their structure. There are flowers only the thousandth part of a foot in diameter, and some which are celebrated for their’immense bulk. We find in Sumatra and the Sunda Islands a parasitical plant, the flower of which constitutes
neatly the whole vegetable production of the country, and is nearly nine feet in circumference. This is the Rafflesia Arnoldi (Fig. 188). The calyx of some of the Aristolochia on the banks of the Rio Magdalena, is so voluminous, that the inhabitants use it for acap. The flower of Victoria regia, represented in Plate VI., is about forty inches in circumference. The effect produced upon Sir Robert Schomberg, when he first saw this magnificent flower on the River Berbice, is thus described:—
“Tt was on the Ist of January, while contending with the difficulties nature opposed in different forms to our progress up the River Berbice, that we arrived at a point where the river expanded, and formed a currentless basin. Some object on the southern extremity of this basin attracted my attention; it was impossible to form any idea what it could be; and, animating the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, we were shortly afterwards opposite the object that had raised my curiosity—a vegetable wonder. All calamities were forgotten; I felt as a botanist, and felt myself rewarded: a gigantia leaf, from five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, with a broad rim, of a light green above and a vivid crimson below, rested on the water. Quite in character with the wonderful leaf was the luxuriant flower, consisting of many hundred petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with the blossoms, and, as I rowed from one to the other, I always observed something new to admire.” The leaves are of an orbicular form, the upper surface is bright green, and they are furnished with a rim round the margin from three to five inches in height; on the inside the rim has a green colour, and on the outside, like the under surface of the leaf, it is of a bright crimson; they have prominent ribs, which project an inch high, radiating from a common centre; these are crossed by a membrane, giving the whole the appearance of a spider’s web; the whole leaf is beset with prickles, and, when young, is convolvulate. The stock of the flower is an inch thick, and studded with prickles; the calyx is four-leaved, each sepal is Seven inches in length and four inches broad; the corolla covers the calyx with hundreds of petals; when first opened it is of a white colour, but subsequently changes to pink; it is very fragrant. Like all other water-lilies, its petals and stamens pass into each:
other, a petal often being found surmounted with half an anther. The seeds are numerous, and imbedded in a spongy substance. This plant has by some botanists been placed in the genus Euryale, whilst Lindley thinks it is nearer Vymphea, from which it differs in the sepals and petals being distinct, the papilla of the stigma being prolonged into a horn, and the changing colour of its petals. This splendid plant has now been successfully cultivated in many of the hot-houses of this country. Beautiful specimens are to be seen in the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, at Chatsworth, Sion House, and elsewhere.
The dimensions of flowers are by no means in proportion to the plant which produces them. The flowers of the greater part of our forest trees are very inconspicuous, and little valued except by the botanist, being generally so small as to escape the ordinary observer; to study some of them, indeed, a lens must be employed. On the other hand, smaller plants often produce magnificent flowers; witness the daisy and other floral ornaments which decorate our meadows, woods, and gardens, dazzling us by the elegance of their forms, and brilliancy of their colours.
It is on the corolla especially that Nature has expended all the riches of her inexhaustible palette. The corolla is also peculiarly the seat of the sweetest perfumes of the vegetable world.
Plants with sweet-smelling flowers are more common in dry than in moist countries. On the burnt-up and naked hills of Southern France, the Thyme, Sage, and Lavender perfume the air with their aromatic scents;whilst the moist plains of N ormandy exhale no vegetable aroma.
Before a flower blows, the different parts constituting it are brought closely together and compressed one against the other; they then form a flower-bud. The buds of all annual plants—that is, plants germinating, growing, flowering, and dying, all in a same year—continue to develop themselves up to the time of ther full bloom. The flower-buds of certain ligneous plants, as the Lime-tree, also act in the same way. But there are other plants, 28: Almond-tree, the Plum-tree, the Pear-tree, &c., in which the flower-buds appear during the summer, and increase in size UP of the time of autumn. They remain stationary during winter,
-come into bloom the following spring with the first rays of the warm sun. These flower-buds are scales (sguamose), that is, shut up in scaly coverings, which bear the name of /ibernacula, or winter quarters. The flower-buds which spring and are developed during the warm season are said to be naked.
The flower-bud at last opens, blows, and passes into the state of a flower. This blooming does not take place at all times of the day indifferently. Linnzus has drawn up a list of plants arranged according to the hour at which their flowers blow. He called this list the Floral Clock. De Candolle has also noted the times at which the following flowers blow at Paris:—
Between 3 and 4 A.M. Bindweed of the hedgerows
PRE Naked stalked Poppy and mostof the Chichoraces.
Between 5 ps 6AA.M. Nipple Wort and the Day Lily.
A Many of the someone a come family. hiwida: 6 ick TAA.M. Sow Thistle and Spurr 7 AM. Water Lilies, iets: At 7 to 8 a.m Venus’s Looking-glass
At 8 a.m. Wild Pimpernel. At 9 a.m. Wild M 1d, At 9 to 10 a.m Ice Plant At 11 am. Purslain, Star of Bethlehem. Ati;: Most of the — or Mesembryanthemum family.
At 2 p.m. Between 5 oak 6xP.M. Silene ates
Between 6 and 7 p.m. Marvel of Peru.
Between 7 and 8 p.m. Cereus grandiflorus, Tree Primrose.
At 10 p. Purple Convolvulus.
Some plants remain in bloom many days in succession. There are others which are ephemeral, and, opening at a fixed time, finally close up and fall off the same day at a nearly settled hour. The Cistus and Flax plant expand their green flowers about five or six o’clock in the morning, and are withered before midday. The Cereus grandiflorus blows at seven in the evening, and closes about midnight. ertain equinoxial flowers open and close at a fixed time in the same day; on the morrow and for several following days, they again open and shut at the same regular hours. The Star of Bethlehem opens several days in succession at eleven in the morning, and closes at three. The Ficoides noctiflora blows several days in succession at seven in the evening,and closes about six or seven in the morning.
“ The regularity of these phenomena,” says De Candolle, “has struck all observers, but although the cause evidently is referable to the action of light, it is still difficult to verify it with precision. ae I have subjected the Marvel of Peru to continuous lamplight, and by that means have obtained an inflorescence altogether irregular; but having also placed them where they were lighted during the night, and kept in darkness during the day, I noticed that at first their flowering was very irregular. They soon became accustomed, however, to their new circumstances, and ended by blowing in the morning, that is, at the end of the day artificially made for them, and closing in the evening as their period of obscurity approached.”:
Heat, however, appears to have a certain influence on the time and the duration of the blowing of flowers; and it is observed that these phenomena vary in different countries, according to their latitudes, and in the same country according to the seasons. The Floral Clock drawn up by Linnzeus at Upsal goes slower than the clock arranged by De Candolle at Paris.
In a few flowers the time of blowing is modified by the state of the atmosphere. These may be called meteoric plants. The Siberian Sow Thistle (Sonchus dentatus) never closes in the evening, it is said, when it is going to rain the next day. Several of the Chichoracee do not open in the morning when it is going to rain. The Caltha pluvialis is said to close its petals when the weather indicates rain, but its flowers remain open in sudden storms, which seem to take it by surprise. Facts of this kind, which are, however, neither numerous nor very trustworthy, have been used in the arrangement of a floral weather-glass.