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In popular language, a flower is the blossom of a plant, consisting chiefly of delicate and gaily-coloured leaves or petals; in botany, the term is restricted to the organs of reproduction in a phenogamous plant,.
A complete flower consists of stamens and pistils together with two sets of leaves which surround and protect them, the calyx and corolla. The stamens and pistils are the essential organs of the flower. They occupy two circles or rows, the one within the other, the stamens being in the outer row.
The stamens consist of a stalk or filament supporting a roundish body, the anther, which is filled with a powdery substance called the pollen.
The pistil consists of a closed cell or ovary at the base, containing ovules, and covered by a style which terminates in the stigma.
These organs are surrounded by the corolla and calyx, which together are called the floral envelope, or when they both display rich colouring the perianth. The leaves of the corolla are called petals, and those of the calyx sepals.
Some flowers lack the floral envelope, and are called achlamydeous; others have the calyx but are without the corolla, and are called monochlamydeous.
Flowers are generally bisexual, but some plants have unisexual flowers; that is, the pistils are in one flower and the stamens in another.
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