the family to which these legumes belong. In the case of gamopetalous (sympetalous) corollas it is convenient to speak of the parts of the more primitive or separated type as having coalesced, even if the growth be regarded as undivided from the beginning. The regular five-petaled corolla has its homologue in such a gamopetalous corolla, as that of the campanula (Plate I., Fig. 8), where the five lobes correspond to the separate petals and maintain the numerical scheme of the flower. The labiate or bilabiate (two-lipped) corolla is the characteristic form of the mint family (Labiata), and of the figworts (Scrophulariacea), the ringent or gaping corolla of the dead-nettle (Plate I., Fig. 14) and the personate corolla of the snapdragon and toad-flax being variations of the type. Not only is a union of parts frequent in the corolla and the calyx, but it has its counterpart in certain forms of the androecium and the gynoecium. The filaments of the lupine arise as a single cylindrical growth and the syngenesious anthers of the Composite are a pre-eminent characteristic of that large family. The combination of several carpels to form one pistil has already been referred to, complete union being found in the rhododendron among other instances, and the gynoecium takes a great variety of forms according to the degree of distinctness maintained by the separate parts of the contiguous carpels.

Fertilization.— Flowers which are achlamydeous, that is, destitute of floral envelopes, may be unisexual or bisexual (androgynous). The male (staminate) flowers and the female (pistillate) flowers may be found upon the same plant, which is then termed monoecious, the alder, oak, ragweed and begonia being examples; or the staminate flowers of a species may be produced by one plant and the pistillate by another, the plants being then dioecious, as in the willow family (Salicacea). The neutral flower is one lacking both kinds of essential organs, as is the case with the ray flowers of many Composite. The showy snow-ball tree and the garden hydrangea are examples of development of such flowers by cultivation, the neutral flowers being found only on the margin of the flower cluster in the wild species. Close fertilization, that is, the fertilization of a flower by its own pollen, is rendered impossible by the unisexual arrangement, but so long as the transfer may be from flower to flower on the same plant the advantages of crossfertilization strictly so-called (that is, from plant to plant) are not positively insured. Dicecious flowers might be expected to prove better producers of seed, as close fertilization would naturally be looked for in bisexual flowers, and indeed was formerly considered the normal method, but it is doubtful if there is any species of which it could be proved that its flowers are without exception self-fertilized. By the dichotomy of some species of bisexual flowers (that is, by a difference in the time when the essential organs mature) the pollen is set free before the stigma is ready for pollination, the latter being accordingly obliged to rely upon pollen from without. In other cases the structure of flowers is of such a nature that fertilization by their own stamens is guarded against.

Agencies for the transportation of pollen are various. Flowers dependent upon the wind, like those of the date-palm, are known as "anemophilous"; those for which insects are the carriers are entomophilous." (See FLOWERS

AND INSECTS.) Many plants bear two kinds of blossoms, conspicuous, nectar-producing flowers, which are entomophilous, and inconspicuous, later-blooming blossoms in which close fertilization takes place. Certain species of violets have the two forms, their later flowers never opening nor developing petals, but becoming fertilized in the bud. Contrary to the law which generally controls fertilization, these cleistogamous blossoms are more fruitful than those on the same plant open to cross-fertilization. Whatever be the method of pollination, the pollen-grain when it falls upon the stigma absorbs the moisture of the surface and germinates. It then sends down a tube which passes through the tissues of the style and stigma and on reaching the cavity of the ovary enters the micropyle and penetrates to the embryo sac. Sometimes the latter has grown out to the micropyle, or even through it, to meet the pollen-tube. The chalaza, or point of attachment of the ovule, is in a few instances the place of entrance for the pollen-tube. The transfer of the contents of the pollen-tube to the germ-cell in the embryo sac takes place, thus fertilizing the cell, which begins to grow and divide, developing the embryo plant, at first nourished by the endosperm, or albuminous contents of the sac.

Colors of Flowers.- The colors of flowers have been arranged in two series, the blue and the yellow, in both of which red and white are found, green being produced by a blending of the two. It has been estimated that in an average collection of 1,000 plants about 284 have white flowers, 226 yellow, 220 red, 141 blue, 73 violet, 36 green, 12 orange, 4 brown, and 2 black. White flowers are more generally odoriferous than those of other colors, and their odors are almost always agreeable. Red flowers, though less numerous than yellow ones, are more often fragrant. The tints are due to fluid or viscous matters contained in superficial cells and can be separated in certain cases by solution in water and in others by solution in alcohol and ether. Attempts have been made to refer the coloring matters to one or two principles, which have been described under the names of xanthin, xanthein, anthoxanthin, and cyanin and anthocyan. These bodies, however, are very ill defined and are in all probability mixtures, even supposing that when obtained from different sources they are essentially the same. chief difficulty is to obtain the coloring matters in sufficient quantity for investigation and then to separate them accurately from each other which, as they are amorphous, uncrystallizable bodies, is not easy to accomplish satisfactorily. Of the coloring matters from flowers one of the most individualized is the yellow body obtained from saffron. See BOTANY; FLOWERS AND INSECTS; FRUIT; GARDEN; INFLORESCENCE; SEED.

The

Flower Beetles, scarabeid beetles of several genera. One of the most abundant and destructive of these insects is the rose-chafer (q.v.), which annually does great damage to roses and other flowers and fruits. Several species of the genus Euphoria, more especially E. inda, is frequently found on flowers eating pollen, but it also attacks corn in the milk, and eats into various forms of fruit. Other flower beetles belonging to the genera Hoplia and Trichius are commonly found on flowers through

out the country and take some part in the crossfertilization of useful plants. Numerous other beetles frequent flowers, among which are beautiful species of the genera Clerus and Trichodes of the Clerida; Leptura and many related genera of long-horned beetles; and many genera of small families such as the Mordellida.

Flower-bug, a very minute bug (Triphleps insidiosus) also called "insidious flower-bug," and related to the bedbug. It is found on the foliage of various plants, and preys upon other minute insects.

Flower Month, in general any month in any country in which flowers are springing most abundantly; in the United States, June is specially the month of flowers. Specifically, the month Anthesterion, the eighth of the Attic year, corresponding nearly to February; so called because that time was, in that country, the season of flowers.

Flower-peckers, general name for a large family (Dic@ida) of small insectivorous birds allied to the creepers (q.v.) which get their food largely by searching flowering plants and their blossoms, picking up minute insects largely by aid of a curious tongue which is separated at the end into four tubular projections. They inhabit the Indo-China region and thence throughout the archipelagoes to Australia, where the white speckled diamond-birds (Pardalatus) and the swallow-dicæum (Dicaum erythrorhynchum) are familiar friends of the gardener. They frequent bushes and trees, hopping briskly about the branches, and creeping and clinging like titmouses. Some make extremely beautiful, highly decorated nests, while others are content to deposit their eggs, which in most of the species are white, in holes in trees, or earthen banks, or old birds' nests. Some are plainly dressed, but most of the flower-peckers are gaudily colored, and several sing sweetly.

Flowering Ferns. See Filicales (1), under FERNS AND FERN ALLES.

Flowers, in chemistry, a term formerly applied to a variety of substances procured by sublimation in the form of slightly cohering powder, hence in all old books we find mention made of the flowers of antimony, arsenic, zinc, and bismuth, which are the sublimed oxides of these metals in a more or less pure state. We have also still in use though not generally the terms flowers of sulphur, of benzoin, etc.

Flowers and Insects: Their Relations. In order to appreciate the intimate relations between flowers and insects we should bear in mind the fact that in all probability the earliest plants known were flowerless, and that the earliest known insects never visited flowers. The most primitive reproductive parts of plants were minute structures, simply greenish, and without colors. From the cryptogamous plants somehow arose the flowering plants, and when flowers did appear, they were of regular shape, with the corolla made up of separate petals; then finally appeared the irregular flowers like those of the monkshood, the pea, bean, wistaria, etc. The simpler forms of flowers were those of the grasses. Such plants are fertilized by the wind, but in the higher modern flowering plants the floral organs are fertilized by insects. What attracts insects to flowers, and thus causes them to carry the pollen from the stigmas to the

A hawk-moth sucking nectar from a tiger-lily. the flower. But this view has been called in question by a Belgian naturalist, Plateau. To test the matter Darwin and others had removed

the petals, or corolla, and watched to see whether insects continued to visit the flower, but this, owing to want of care in removing the petals, had led to contradictory results. Plateau ling the flowers, or doing anything which might experimented more carefully; he avoided handinfluence an insect's sense of smell. He removed the brightly colored corollas from the flowers of lobelia, ipomæa, larkspur, foxglove, etc., and in every case, except that of Antirrhinus majus, the mutilated flowers were observed to be freely visited by various kinds of insects (bees, bumblebees, syrphus flies, and an occasional butterfly), no special preference being exhibited for flowers that were left intact. The insects not only sucked honey from the mutilated flowers, but they often circled around them without alighting. In the case of the snapdragon, several bumblebees hovered around the mutilated heads but afterward left them for those with entire flowers, a result explained by the peculiar mode in which bees have to enter the corolla, which would render the absence of that structure perplexing to them. Plateau covered several of the large umbels of Hieracium with rhubarb leaves, when it was found that even when thus masked they were freely visited by insects. The result shows that insects are in reality guided to flowers in the great majority of cases by their sense of smell,