streams blended in such a way that the final flour product is obtained after being separated into 40 or more separate streams.

The introduction of the roller process of miling has made it possible to use varieties of wheat from which high-grade flour could not be made by the old stone process. By the roller process of reduction, the granular middlings which were formerly excluded from the flour and sold as a distinct product for animal feeding are now reduced and added to the patent grades of flour. About 75 per cent of the cleaned wheat is returned as merchantable flour, 72 per cent being straight grade or ordinary white flour. In ordinary milling, the grades are as follows: (1) first patent; (2) second patent; (3) straight, sometimes called standard patent; (4) first clear; (5) second clear; (6) red dog. First patent flour is the highest grade manufactured. Its gluten has greater power of expansion and absorbs more water than that from any other grade. First patent flour produces the whitest and largest sized loaf of bread. Second patent flour is similar to first patent, but the bread is slightly darker in color and the gluten does not possess quite so high a power of expansion. First clear grade flour is obtained after the removal of the first and second patent grades. This flour is slightly darker in color and produces a smaller sized loaf than the patent grades. Second clear or low grade is the name given to a small amount of flour obtained after the removal of the first clear. About 12 per cent of the cleaned wheat is recovered as first clear flour and about .5 per cent as second clear or low grade. When the wheat is milled so that the first and second patents and the first clear are all obtained as one flour, the product is called straight grade. This is the flour that is most extensively used for bread-making purposes. Straight flour is the sum of the first and second patents and the first clear. The lowest grade of flour manufactured is called red dog; it is dark in color and possesses but little power of expansion. It is secured largely from those portions of the wheat kernel adjacent to the germ and aleurone layers. Red dog flour is not generally used for human food, but is employed in the arts, as for foundry purposes, for the feeding of animals and occasionally in the preparation of some cereal breakfast food. It has a high per cent of protein or nitrogenous material, but is not valuable for bread-making purposes because the gliadin and glutenin (see BREAD AND BREAD MAKING) are not present in the right proportions to form a balanced gluten. By blending the different standard grades of flour, various commercial grades sold under different trade names are secured. The composition and properties of different kinds of flour result from the kind of wheat used in preparation (see WHEAT) and the method of milling employed. The percentage amounts of bran, shorts, and standard grades of flour obtained by the roller process vary with different kinds of wheat. Some wheats yield more flour than do others. The average yields are approximately as fol

lows:

*Straight grade flour is composed of first and second patents and first clear grade.

By the roller process of milling, the germ is excluded because of its poor bread-making properties and its fermentable nature. The wheat offals of which shorts and bran form the main portion are by-products used for the feeding of animals. About 25 per cent of the cleaned wheat finds its way into the offals. Bran is the episperm or outer covering of the wheat kernel. As human food, it is indigestible and does not contain any appreciable amount of available nutrients. As an animal food, however, it has a high value. Shorts consist mainly of the fine bran mixed with some of the floury portions of the wheat kernel. When the wheat screenings, consisting of weed seeds and other refuse are ground and mixed with the shorts, the product is known as shorts feed. When the germ is mixed with the shorts, the term shorts middlings is used. By some processes of milling, the germ is obtained separately. From 5 to 7 per cent of the weight of the cleaned wheat is recovered as germ.

Wheat flour is composed of starch, gluten proteids, water, fat, ash, or mineral matter, and small amounts of other compounds, as sugars, cellulose, organic acids, amids, etc. The proximate composition of the different kinds of flour when milled from the same lot of hard wheat is given in the following table:

From the table, it will be observed that there is a gradual increase in the amount of ash, proteids, and fat from the first patent flour to the red dog or lowest grade of flour. In fact, the variations in ash content of the different grades of flour are so regular that the percentage of ash can be taken as an index to the grade of flour. The highest grade flours, as first patent, contain least ash because of the more perfect exclusion of the bran and endosperm parts. There is but little difference in chemical composition between the first and second grades of patent flour, second patent, containing more fat, slightly more protein and germ, and less carbohydrates than first patent. In the straight grade or ordinary bread flour, there is only from .6 to 7 per cent less nitrogenous material as

proteids than in the wheat from which it was milled. Second clear and red dog flours contain a large amount of protein, fat, and ash, and judged by their proximate composition only, would appear to have a higher nutritive value than the patents or straight grade flours. But when judged on the basis of digestibility, available nutrients and physical character of the bread, these flours are found to have a much lower value than the patents or straight grade flours. For nutritive values, see article on BREAD AND BREAD MAKING. During the process of milling, the flour particles pass through bolting cloths containing from 12,000 to 16,000 meshes per square inch, which results in even and fine granulation of the flour particles. The character of the flour particles as angular or spherical depends largely upon the character of the wheat, as hard or soft, and to a less extent upon the method of milling. The flour granules from hard wheat are angular and have a sharp feeling akin to fine sand, while soft wheat flours produce small spherical particles lacking in gritty feeling.

In the testing of flour, particular attention is given to physical characteristics, as color, purity as indicated by absence of dirt and fine pieces of bran, capacity to absorb water, quality of gluten and character of the bread product. For bread-making purposes, the quality of the flour depends largely upon the amount and quality of the gluten. The gluten is obtained by making a stiff dough of the flour and then washing this dough with an abundance of water, which removes the starch, leaving the gluten in the form of a gum-like mass. Gluten from high-grade flours is firm, elastic, white or of slightly yellowish tinge and possesses good qualities of expansion. Poor gluten is dark in color, sticky and lacking in elasticity. The color of the flour depends largely upon the quality of the wheat and the method of milling employed. Some wheats produce creamy or yellowish flours, others chalk white flours and others dark-colored flours. Dark-colored flours, however, produce bread of inferior quality; creamy and white flours producing the best grades of bread. The granulation of the flour is also taken as an index of its quality, as it reveals to the experienced miller and baker the character of the flour. Comparative baking tests are generally resorted to in order to determine the bread-making value of flours. By these tests, under uniform conditions with the same amount of flour, yeast, water, etc., in each case, differences in the breadmaking qualities of the flour are readily revealed. When flour is stored for a long time, it sometimes becomes inferior through fermentation changes. Ordinarily, flour will not deteriorate until after it has been kept for 10 months or more. Some wheats produce flours of better keeping qualities than do others. The soundness of the wheat, as freedom from rust, smut or other blemishes, influences the keeping qualities of flour as well as does also the process of milling, particularly the extent to which the cleaning and purification are perfected.

Wheat flour is not ordinarily adulterated, although at times attempts have been made to add other cereals and mineral adulterants. The national flour law requiring all mixed flours to be branded has prevented extensive adulteration. At one time, corn flour produced by milling corn, was used for adulterating wheat flour.

This, however, was only practised for a very short time when corn was cheap and wheat was high in price. The blending of wheat and corn flours has never proven successful and the practice since the passing of the national flour law has been discontinued. Wheat flour appears to be less subject to adulteration than many other articles of food. See ADULTERATION.

Wheat flour is used not only for bread making but for other purposes. Crackers, cakes, pastry and many food articles are made largely of flour. Flour is also used in the arts and industries and in various manufacturing operations. The comparative value of bread made from different kinds of flour, as graham, entire wheat and straight, is discussed in the article BREAD AND BREAD MAKING.

It is estimated that four and a half bushels of wheat, equivalent to about 200 pounds of flour, are consumed annually per capita in the United States. The consumption of flour as food has, during recent years, gradually increased. Some political economists and scientists have feared that at no distant date the consumption of flour would exceed the production of wheat. But improved methods of agriculture and the opening up of large tracts of land suitable for wheat culture, as in northwestern Canada, render this improbable. From earliest times wheat and wheat flour have taken an important part in the dietary of man and there is every reason to believe that it will continue to be one of his staple articles of food. The extent to which it should be used in the dietary depends largely upon the individual and the cost of food. Ordinarily wheat flour is one of the cheapest articles of food, and when it forms a part or even the main portion of a ration, it supplies a large amount of nutrients in a digestible form and at a low cost. HARRY SNYDER,

Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Minnesota.

Flow'er, Benjamin Orange, American editor and author: b. Albion, Ill., 19 Oct. 1858. He was for some years the publisher and editor of the 'Arena' at Boston. Among his numerous works are: 'Civilization's Inferno; or Studies in the Social Cellar) (1893); The New Time' (1894); Persons, Places, and Ideas'; 'Gerald Massey: Poet, Prophet, and Mystic) (1895); The Century of Sir Thomas More) (1896); 'Lessons Learned from Other Lives.'

Flower, Frank Abial, American historical writer: b. Cottage, N. Y., 11 May 1854. Has Wisconsin War Eagle (1880); The Life of written several local histories: 'Old Abe, the Matthew H. Carpenter' (1883); 'History of the Republican Party) (1884).

Flower, Roswell Pettibone, American financier: b. Jefferson County, N. Y., 7 Aug. 1835; d. Eastport, Long Island, 12 May 1899. He began his business and political career in Watertown, N. Y., where he organized the Jefferson County Democratic Club. His success in politics attracted the attention of Samuel J. Tilden, through whose influence he was appointed chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1877. Four years later he was elected to Congress, and in 1886 was appointed president of the Subway Commission. He was re-elected to Congress in 1888 and 1890, and in 1891 was elected governor of New York. From the close

of his term till his death he applied himself to the interests of his large banking house and to a systematic course of philanthropy.

Flower, SIR William Henry, English zoologist: b. Stratford-on-Avon 30 Nov. 1831; d. London 1 July 1899. After a medical training he served as an assistant-surgeon in the English army during the Crimean war; in 1861 was appointed conservator of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons; and in 1870 Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy in the same institution. In 1884 he was appointed director of the natural history departments of the British Museum, which two or three years before had been removed to their new quarters at South Kensington. From this post he retired in 1898. In 1889 he was president of the British Association meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was made a knight commander of the Bath in 1892. Several important treatises came from his pen, including Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia) (1870, 3d ed. 1885); Fashion in Deformity) (1881); Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct' (1891); The Horse: a Study in Natural History) (1892); and Essays on Museums and other Subjects connected with Natural History' (1898).

Flower, that part of the spermatophytous (phanerogamous) plant which consists of the organs of reproduction, frequently, but not necessarily, accompanied by protecting envelopes. In common usage, the word "flower" is applied to those related structures only in which one or both sets of floral envelopes are present and rather conspicuous.

Parts: Their Position and Functions.-The end of the flower stalk upon which the parts of the flower are grouped is known as the torus or receptacle. In a complete flower the floral envelopes are double, .composed of two whorls or circles, alternating with each other; the outer series consisting commonly of green or greenish leaves named sepals, and together forming the calyx; and the inner series, of leaf-like parts, usually of a delicate texture, and of some other color than green, named petals, and together constituting the corolla. The term perianth is sometimes applied to the floral envelopes taken together, but it is generally restricted to those flowers in which only one of the series is present, at least in appearance, as in the lily, and in the common marsh-marigold; or in other instances where the limits of the calyx and the corolla are not easily distinguished. The organs of reproduction are the stamens, or fertilizing organs, forming a whorl within the floral envelopes and known collectively as the androecium; and the pistils at the centre of the flower, containing the ovules or undeveloped seeds, and known as the gynoecium. The essential part of the stamen is the anther or pollen sac, having usually two cells attached by a connectile to one another and to the stalk, called a filament, at the summit of which they are placed. The insertion or place of attachment of the stamens varies. In the lily, the buttercup, and the marsh-mallow the stamens are seen to arise directly under the gynoecium, and are accordingly described as hypogynous; in the strawberry and cherry they arise in a higher circle and upon the calyx and are termed perigynous; while in the iris, the rose, and blueberry they are inserted upon the top of the ovary, and

are said to be epigynous. (Plate I., Figs. 3, 4, 5.) In the absence of the filament the anther may be sessile on the receptacle, calyx, petals, or ovary, or be adherent to the style (as in orchis). and the stigma. The former is the rudimentary The essential parts of the pistil are the ovary seed vessel. The latter, which is intended to receive the pollen upon its viscid surface, is connected with the ovary by a stalk known as the style, or is sessile upon it, as in the poppy. The pistil may be formed of a single carpel or of a number of carpels united by their lower parts to form a compound pistil. The number of carpels represented in such a pistil may be determined by the number of styles; by the number of free stigmas (though a single carpel is sometimes acCompanied by a two-lobed stigma); by the seams, lobes, or angles of the ovary; by the cells, by the tion of the carpel. The ovules, or rudimentary character of the placenta, or ovule-bearing porseeds, are borne upon the inner or ventral suture formed by the united edges of the carpellary leaf constituting the seed-vessel. In a "compound" pistil the single carpels may be closed, as in a ventral sutures; or they may be open and joined "single" pistil, and joined at their sides and by their edges. In the first case there will be in the compound ovary, as many cells as there are carpels, and the placenta will meet at the axis. In the second there will be but one cell and the placenta will be parietal. There are, however, many intermediate conditions, as in the poppy where the inflected margins of the carpels carry the placentæ to the centre. The apparent anomaly of a free axial placenta in the single cell of a compound ovary is found in the purslanes and in the pinks. The delicate partitions or dissepiments have very early disappeared. The ovules vary in number from one to hundreds. They are sessile or borne on a stalk called the funiculus. In direction they are horizontal, ascending (pointing obliquely upward), erect from the base of the cell, pendulous from near the top of the placenta, or suspended from the summit. The ovule-body is surrounded by an integument of one or two coats, which does not meet at the summit. The minute opening thus left is known as the micropyle. Within the ovule-body is the embryo-sac, which contains the endosperm and one or more germ-cells. The simplest form of pistil is that of the gymnosperms, which consists of open scales bearing two or more ovules on the inner face next the scales.

The chief function of the calyx is protection, an office which it shares with the corolla, especially while the more delicate organs are in the bud. When the corolla is lacking, the calyx frequently assumes some of its characteristics, becoming more conspicuous and of finer color and texture, the marsh-marigold and purple clematis furnishing examples in point. The bright hues or markings of the corolla serve to attract the insects that play such an important part in the pollination of the flower. The androecium has for its function the producing and scattering of the fructifying pollen, which falls from the anthers when they open at maturity. The gynaecium is devoted to the development of seed from the ovules.

Evolution of the Flower.-The recognition of the flower as a modification of the stem and leaves, adapted to the purposes of reproduction, gives a key to its morphology, throwing light on

innumerable variations of arrangement and structure and even on such details as scent, color, and the production of nectar. This conception of the flower was of fundamental importance in the transition from the artificial to the natural system. The shortening of the axis aggregates the transformed leaves and a growth is produced in which the arrangement of the true leaves on the stem is still the regulating principle, whether there be an alternating succession or a whorled (cyclic) grouping, the more developed flowers following the latter order, with limited number of parts, generally definite for certain large groups. Flower buds, like leaf buds, are terminal or axillary. The prefloration or æstivation of the sepals and petals, individually considered, is similar to that of leaf buds, being convolute, revolute, or involute. The metamorphosis of the leaf is easily traced in certain flowers. In the peony the transition from leaves to bracts and thence to petals is gradual, as is the change in the sweet-scented shrub (Calycanthus) from sepals to petals. In the white water-lily the gradations between the pistil and stamen are finely illustrated. It does not follow that the order of development is from the former to the latter. That the essential organs are of earlier origin than the floral envelopes is indicated by the fact that the latter are wanting in the gymnosperms, which are older and less developed forms than the phanerogams (spermatophytes). In the anther we recognize the infolded leafblade, in the filament its petiole, and in the pollen a development from the parenchyma. In the pistil the carpellary leaf may be traced, with its lengthened apex forming the style. The double-flowering cherry offers an interesting example of the reversion of the pistil to the form and color of the true leaf. The interpretation of the ovule as a transformed bud upon the edges of the carpellary leaf is confirmed by the fact that the leaves of Bryophyllum and certain other plants produce buds upon their margins or upper surface. Even the stipule of the leaf has its homologue in the floral structure. What is called the outer calyx or epicalyx of the strawberry may be regarded as the united stipules of adjacent sepals. That portion of the stem which becomes the floral axis sometimes undergoes striking modifications in its function as a receptacle. In the wild geranium it is extended into a slender beak, while in the rose-hip it becomes urn-shaped. The fig and the strawberry are succulent receptacles, the one hollow and the other convex. In investigating the morphology of the flower it was formerly the method of botanists to start from an ideal type and to consider as mere modifications of that type all forms that differed from it. A later view admits the probability of various independent lines of development. Those types are the simplest in which the floral structure is nearest to the original arrangement, the parts being more definitely separated. Union of parts indicates as a rule greater complexity of type, though simplicity of structure may in some cases be an indication of degeneration. Simplicity of type is illustrated by the water-lily family (Naiadacea), and complexity by the orchids (Orchidacea) and the thistle family (Composite).

Although the morphology of the flower continues to be of paramount importance in the classification of plants, the application of the

principles of evolution to the study of botany has inevitably led to a method differing from that formerly in use. The 24 classes into which Linnæus divided plants were (with the exception of the cryptogams) based on the length, number and other characteristics of the stamens; and the classes were divided into orders chiefly according to the characteristics of the pistil. In the system worked out by the French botanists and known as the "natural" system stress was laid upon the characteristics of the perianth, the presence or absence of a corolla and the union or separation of petals. In a system based on the facts of development the fundamental division into monocotyledons and dicotyledons may still be maintained, though late methods do not recognize the likeness existing between adult forms as sufficient to place them in the same group, classification proceeding rather on the principle that relationship is more convincingly shown by similarity in manner of reproduction and in laws of growth.

Variation in Structure and Arrangement.Flowers are said to be perfect when they are provided with both kinds of essential organs; complete when calyx and corolla are also present; regular when all the parts of each set are alike in shape and size; and symmetrical when they have an equal number of parts of each kind. In the monocotyledons the parts are in threes; in the dicotyledons mostly in fives or fours. The perianth of the lily, though apparently having six in a set, has really three sepals and three petals, as is plainly shown in the bud. Apparent violation of the law of symmetry may in certain cases be due to adhesion, abortion or non-development of floral plants. In the mustard family, though the calyx and corolla are in fours, the stamens are generally six. The suppression of two stamens would account for lack of symmetry. An instance of non-development is found in the monkshood, where the sepals number five and the petals two, while three very minute rudimentary petals are sometimes discernible. The violet, although symmetrical as to sepals, petals, and stamens, which are in fives, has a simple stigma and three-valved seedvessel. The flax is a good example of a symmetrical and regular flower. The irregularity of the flower may be shown in any of its parts, but is most striking in the peculiar forms often assumed by the corolla and calyx, most curious instances being seen in the orchids, a family in which the morphology of the androecium and gynoecium are also of especial interest.

Certain variations of form may be traced to the visits of insects, as where such a visitant alighting always on the same side of the flower tends by its weight to increase the size of that part or to thicken the tissue, etc. The chief irregularity of some corollas consists in having one or more spurred petals. This deviation from the ordinary petal shape is common and sometimes serves the purpose of providing flowers with nectaries, as in the case of the violet, the toad-flax, and the columbine. In the nasturtium it is the calyx spur that constitutes the nectary. Less noticeable modifications in the petals of other flowers have the same function, as the scales on the petal-claws in the crowfoots and the pits in the petals of lilies and fritillaries. The irregularity illustrated in the blossoms of the pea and the bean is of a very common kind. This butterfly or papilionaceous corolla marks