Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Science
Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Botany; Plants -- Classification
When the flower first expands, the ovary, if cut open
and examined, will be found to be divided into several cells, each
containing two rows of ovules. As in the preceding genera, however,
many of these ovules become abortive; and as the cells fill gradually
with cellular pulp, the seeds become detached from the placenta, and
buried in it. The seeds themselves are very interesting; they are
covered with a thick wrinkled skin, and they show distinctly the hilum
(_c_ in _fig._ 121), the chalaza (_d_) and the raphe or connecting cord
between them, parts which are seldom to be distinguished in seeds with
the naked eye.
[Illustration: FIG. 122.—LEAF AND FRUIT OF THE ORANGE.]
The leaves, calyx, and petals of the Orange, if held up to the light,
appear covered with little dots. These dots are cells, covered with
a transparent membrane, and filled with a kind of oil, which is
exceedingly fragrant. The rind of the fruit is covered with similar
cells, filled with a pungent oily liquid. The leaves are smooth and
shining; and they are articulated; that is, they can be separated from
the petiole or footstalk without lacerating them. In most of the
species, the petioles are winged; that is, they are dilated into little
leaves on each side (see _d_ in _fig._ 122). The different species vary
chiefly in the number of stamens, the thickness of the rind, the shape
of the fruit, and in the wings of the petioles. In the Citron these
wings are wanting entirely, and instead of them there are spines in the
axils of the leaves; there are generally forty stamens, and the rind of
the fruit is very thick. In the sweet Lime, the petioles are slightly
winged, and there are about thirty stamens; the fruit is small and
round, with a slight protuberance at one end like that of the Lemon,
and the pulp is sweet. In the Lemon the petioles are somewhat winged,
the flowers have about thirty stamens; the fruit is oblong, with an
acid pulp, and a thin rind. The Sweet Orange has winged petioles,
about twenty stamens, and a fruit with a thin rind and sweet pulp;
and the Seville Orange differs principally in having a thicker rind
and bitter pulp. The China, St. Michael, and Malta Oranges, with many
others, are all varieties of the Sweet Orange (_Citrus Aurantium_); and
there are many other species, which I have not thought it necessary to
describe.—All the species above-mentioned are natives of Asia, and most
of them of China, but they have been so long cultivated in Europe and
America, as to have become almost naturalised.
ORDER XXXVIII.—HYPERICINEÆ.—THE HYPERICUM TRIBE.
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