"There comes Ben, and I hear Tom whistling around the corner," and in a moment more the boys appeared and settled themselves for the talk.
Tom had brought a bunch of pinks, and Ben had some poppies which a neighbor had given him, while Ella held a spray of the wild roses.
"And so you want to talk about the flowers themselves?" said Mrs. Browne. "Well, if you will look, each of you, at the flowers you have you will find them made up of several parts. Tom, what do you find?"
Tom busied himself for a moment pulling apart a pink blossom, then replied, "I find this outside green part, and then there are the leaves of the flower and little slender thread-like things in the centre."
"The leaves of the flower, as you call them, are called the corolla; and the green envelope, which in your flower is shaped like a cup, is the calyx, while the slender parts in the centre are the stamens. And the one exactly in the middle is the pistil. Sometimes there are more pistils than one. Each division of the calyx is called a sepal, and each division of the corolla is a petal. Now you have quite a number of new names to-day to remember. What is the outside envelope?"
"Calyx," said Ella promptly, the boys chiming in a little behind time.
"And the separate parts of the calyx?"
"Sepals," said all together.
"Now the colored part of the flower?"
"The whole is the corolla, and the parts or divisions are petals."