FLOWER
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FLOWERS, NATIONAL
sepals are green and leaf-like, but usually small as compared with the next set. The inner set of floral leaves is the corolla, the individual parts being called petals. It is the corolla which usually gives the display of the flower, the petals becoming delicate in texture, comparatively large in size and variously colored. The outermost set of sporangial leaves is composed of the stamens. Each stamen usually consists of a stalk-like portion, called the filament, and a pollen-bearing portion, called the anther. The anther contains usually two pollen-sacs, and the sterile tissue between them is often called the connective. The pollen-sacs are sporangia, and the pollen-grains are asexual spores. It was once thought that the stamen is a male organ, but it is merely a leaf modified to produce spores; in other words, it is a sporophyll (which see). The inner set of sporangial leaves is composed of the carpels, one or more of which may occur in the flower. Several carpels may unite to form one structure, or each carpel may remain distinct from the others, or there may be but one carpel. In any event the individual structure, whether made up of several carpels united together, or of separate individual carpels, is known as the pistil. This pistil usually develops in three regions: a bulbous base known as the ovary, which contains the ovules, which after fertilization become seeds; above the ovary there usually is a slender, beak-like prolongation, known as the style; and on the style there is developed the receptive structure known as the stigma, which receives the pollen. It was once supposed that the pistil is the female organ of the plant and that it contrasts with the stamen or male organ. It is now known that the carpels are sporo-phylls, that is, leaves set apart to produce sporangia, in this case the sporangia being the ovules.
Not all flowers possess all of these parts. For example, one of the sets of floral leaves may be absent, when the flower is said to be apetalous; both sets of floral leaves may be absent, when the flower is called naked; the stamen-set may be lacking, when the flower is said to be pistillate; the carpels may be lacking, when the flower is said to be staminate. In case the floral leaves are present, but cannot be distinguished from one another as calyx and corolla, it is common to speak of them all together as the perianth, as in the lilies. Very frequently the members of the same set may coalesce with one another; for exam-
gle, the sepals may organize together to 3rm a cup-like or tubular calyx. The petals may organize in a similar way, the corolla appearing like a bell, a trumpet, a tube etc. When sepals are thus united, the flowers are said to be gamosepalous; when the petals are united, the flowers are
said to be monopetalous or gamopetalous or, best of all, sympetalous. When the filaments of the whole set of stamens are united, the stamens are said to be monadel-phous. When the carpels are united, the pistil is said to be syncarpous. The word which contrasts with sympetalous, as indicating the opposite condition, is poly-petalous; and the contrasting word for syncarpous is apocarpous. Another very common modification is that in which the sepals, petals and stamens seem to arise from the top of the ovary, the latter appearing outside the flower below the other parts, as in the common honeysuckle. Such a flower is said to be epigynous, and the ovary is often described as being inferior. The term for the contrasting condition is hypo-gynous. Flowers are often also irregular, the members of the different sets, notably the petals, not being all alike. This results in the formation of two-lipped flowers, spurred flowers etc. This condition of irregularity is known as zygomorphy, and the contrasting term applied to a regular flower is actinomorphy. The great purpose of the flower, with more or less conspicuous floral leaves, seems to be to secure pollination by means of insects. See POLLINATION. JOHN M. COULTER. Flowers, National. Long years of association, tradition and event give the flower of a nation its peculiar significance. It is said the shamrock holds its place in the hearts of the Irish because good St. Patrick one day, whilst preaching, used as illustration the three little leaves in cluster. Mention of England's national emblem at once brings up the Wars of the Roses at the ending of which the Tudor rose was agreed upon as the emblem of the country. Mention France's emblem, and the lily comes to mind, the fleur-de-lis, which not even Napoleon could make lose its hold on the people. Scotland and the thistle have long-time association; and as loyal as the Scotchman to the thistle is the Welshman to the leek. A very pretty story is that of the way the cornflower, des Kaisers Blume, came to be chosen as the national flower of Germany. When Napoleon's army "was in possession of Berlin, Louise, mother of Emperor William I, had to take refuge just outside the city, and here comforted her crying children by wreathing for them garlands of the cornflowers that were growing all about; and so the flower was a prime favorite with William, and became favored by the nation. The national flower of the United States has not yet been agreed upon, the adoption of a national emblem being something for time and history to decide; but various states have adopted floral emblems, for instance: Kansas the sunflower; California the California poppy; Georgia the Cherokee rose; Minnesota the moccasin-flower.
