FLOWERS. The most beautiful parts of plants and trees, which contain the organs of fructification. (See Botany.) From their fre quent utility as medicinal drugs, as well as their. external beauty, the cultivation of flowers in our gardens becomes an object of some impor tance. Flowers are many of them excellent indicators of the weather by expansion or clos ing, and other motions. It is an established fact, that flowers as well as fruits grow larger in the shade, and ripen and decay soonest when exposed to the sun. Flowers which are to be used or preserved for medicinal purposes should with a few exceptions, be gathered in full bloom, and dried as speedily as possible. The rose is gathered before it is fully blown. In flowers, the calyces, claws, etc., should be previously taken off; when the flowers are very small, the calyx is left, or even the whole flowering spike, as in the greatest portion of the labiate flowers. In some instances as in the baulistines, or pomegranate flower, the active matter resides chiefly .in the calyx. Compound flowers with pappous seeds, as colt's foot, ought to be dried by a high heat, and before they are entirely open, otherwise the slight moisture that remains would develop the pappus, and form a kind of cottony nap, which would be very hurtful in infusions, by leaving irritating par ticles in the throat. Flowers of little or no smell may be dried in a heat of 75° to 100° Fahr. The succulent petals of the liliaceous plants, whose odor is very fugacious, can not well be dried, as their mucilaginous substance rots and grows black. Several sorts of flowering tops, as those of lesser centaury, worm-wood, melilot, water germander, etc., are tied in small parcels and hung up, or else exposed to the sun, wrapped in paper covers, that they may not be discolored. After some time, blue flowers, as
those of violets, bugloss, or borage, grow yellow, and even become entirely discolored, especially if they are kept in glass vessels that admit the light; if however, they are dipped for a moment in boiling water, and slightly pressed before they are put into the drying stove, the blue color is rendered permanent. The origin of double flowers is believed to result from the luxuriant growth of the plant in consequence of excessive nourishment, moisture, and warmth; they arise from the increase of some parts of the flower, and the consequent exclusion of others; thus the stamens arc often converted into petals. Botanists very properly term such multiplied flowers vegetable monsters, because they possess no stamens or pistils, and therefore can not pro duce seeds. There subsists (says Dr. Darwin) a curious analogy between these vegetable mon sters and those of the animal world; for a duplieature of limbs frequently attend the latter, as chickens and turkeys with four legs and four wings, and calves with two heads, etc. Seien tifie floriculture, or the culture, propagation, and general management of plants, divides itself into five sections: 1, stove plants; 2, green house plants; 3, hardy trees and shrubs; 4, hardy herbaceous plants; 5, annuals and bien nials. Practically it is divided into three divisions: out-door floriculture; in-door floricul ture, and commercial floriculture, the last, the raising of plants for the sale of the cut flowers. (See Floriculture.)