Proserpina Volume I Part 13

13. When a husk consists of two or more parts, each of which has a separate shaft and volute, uniting in the pillar and volute of the flower, each separate piece of the husk is called a 'carpel.' The name was first given by De Candolle, and must be retained. But it continually happens that a simple husk divides into two parts corresponding to the two leaves of the embryo, as in the peach, or symmetrically holding alternate seeds, as in the pea. The beautiful drawing of the pea-sh.e.l.l with its seeds, in Rousseau's botany, is the only one I have seen which rightly shows and expresses this arrangement.

14. A Fruit is either the husk, receptacle, petal, or other part of a flower _external to the seed_, in which chemical changes have taken place, fitting it for the most part to become pleasant and healthful food for man, or other living animals; but in some cases making it bitter or poisonous to them, and the enjoyment of it depraved or deadly. But, as far as we know, it is without any definite office to the seed it contains; and the change takes {236} place entirely to fit the plant to the service of animals.[66]

In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to a temperate zone, of which the polar limit is marked by the strawberry, and the equatorial by the orange. The more arctic regions produce even the smallest kinds of fruit with difficulty; and the more equatorial, in coa.r.s.e, oleaginous, or over-luscious ma.s.ses.

15. All the most perfect fruits are developed _from exquisite forms either of foliage or flower_. The vine leaf, in its generally decorative power, is the most important, both in life and in art, of all that shade the habitations of men. The olive leaf is, without any rival, the most beautiful of the leaves of timber trees; and its blossom, though minute, of extreme beauty. The apple is essentially the fruit of the rose, and the peach of her only rival in her own colour. The cherry and orange blossom are the two types of floral snow.

16. And, lastly, let my readers be a.s.sured, the economy of blossom and fruit, with the distribution of water, {237} will be found hereafter the most accurate test of wise national government.

For example of the action of a national government, rightly so called, in these matters, I refer the student to the Mariegolas of Venice, translated in Fors Clavigera; and I close this chapter, and this first volume of Proserpina, not without pride, in the words I wrote on this same matter eighteen years ago. "So far as the labourer's immediate profit is concerned, it matters not an iron filing whether I employ him in growing a peach, or in forging a bombsh.e.l.l. But the difference to him is final, whether, when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage, and give it the peach,--or drop the sh.e.l.l down his chimney, and blow his roof off."

{238}

INDEX I.

DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE.

Plants in perfect form are said, at page 26, to consist of four princ.i.p.al parts: root, stem, leaf, and flower. (Compare Chapter V., -- 2.) The reader may have been surprised at the omission of the fruit from this list. But a plant which has borne fruit is no longer of 'perfect' form. Its flower is dead. And, observe, it is further said, at page 65, (and compare Chapter III., -- 2,) that the use of the fruit is to produce the flower: not of the flower to produce the fruit. Therefore, the plant in perfect blossom, is itself perfect. Nevertheless, the formation of the fruit, practically, is included in the flower, and so spoken of in the fifteenth line of the same page.

Each of these four main parts of a plant consist normally of a certain series of minor parts, to which it is well to attach easily remembered names. In this section of my index I will not admit the confusion of idea involved by alphabetical arrangement of these names, but will sacrifice facility of reference to clearness of explanation, and taking the four great parts of the plant in {239} succession, I will give the list of the minor and const.i.tuent parts, with their names as determined in Proserpina, and reference to the pages where the reasons for such determination are given, endeavouring to supply, at the same time, any deficiencies which I find in the body of the text.

I. THE ROOT.

PAGE

Origin of the word Root 27

The offices of the root are threefold: namely, Tenure, Nourishment, and Animation 27-34

The essential parts of a Root are two: the Limbs and Fibres 33

I. THE LIMB is the gathered ma.s.s of fibres, or at least of fibrous substance, which extends itself in search of nourishment 32

II. THE FIBRE is the organ by which the nourishment is received 32

The inessential or accidental parts of roots, which are attached to the roots of some plants, but not to those of others, (and are, indeed, for the most part absent,) are three: namely, Store-Houses, Refuges, and Ruins 34

III. Store-houses contain the food of the future plant 34

{240}

IV. REFUGES shelter the future plant itself for a time 35

V. RUINS form a basis for the growth of the future plant in its proper order 36

Root-Stocks, the acc.u.mulation of such ruins in a vital order 37

General questions relating to the office and chemical power of roots 38

/# The nomenclature of Roots will not be extended, in Proserpina, beyond the five simple terms here given: though the ordinary botanical ones--corm, bulb, tuber, etc.--will be severally explained in connection with the plants which they specially characterize.

II. THE STEM.

Derivation of word 137

The channel of communication between leaf and root 153

In a perfect plant it consists of three parts:

I. THE STEM (STEMMA) proper.--A growing or advancing shoot which sustains all the other organs of the plant 136

It may grow by adding thickness to its sides without advancing; but its essential characteristic is the vital power of Advance 136 {241}

It may be round, square, or polygonal, but is always roundly minded 136

Its structural power is Spiral 137

It is essentially branched; having subordinate leaf-stalks and flower-stalks, if not larger branches 139

It developes the buds, leaves, and flowers of the plant.

This power is not yet properly defined, or explained; and referred to only incidentally throughout the eighth chapter 134-138

II. THE LEAF-STALK (CYMBA) sustains, and expands itself into, the Leaf 133, 134

It is essentially furrowed above, and convex below 134

It is to be called in Latin, the Cymba; in English, the Leaf-Stalk 135

III. THE FLOWER-STALK (PETIOLUS):

It is essentially round 130

It is usually separated distinctly at its termination from the flower 130, 131

It is to be called in Latin, Petiolus; in English, Flower-stalk 130

These three are the essential parts of a stem. But {242} besides these, it has, when largely developed, a permanent form: namely,

IV. THE TRUNK.--A non-advancing ma.s.s of collected stem, arrested at a given height from the ground 139

/# The stems of annual plants are either leafy, as of a thistle, or bare, sustaining the flower or flower-cl.u.s.ter at a certain height above the ground. Receiving therefore these following names:--- #/

V. THE VIRGA.--The leafy stem of an annual plant, not a gra.s.s, yet growing upright 147