456 DH. M. T. MASTERS Otf THE SUPERPOSED 



Remarks on the Superposed Arrangement of the Parts of the 



_ 1 y _. 



Flower, By Maxwell T. Masters 



[Head June 15, 1876.] 



I. Prefatory BemarJcs. 



The alternate arrangement of the parts of the flower is so general 

 that any exceptions to it are invested with peculiar interest. In 

 the following paper I propose to allude to some of the real or 

 apparent deviations from the rule, to offer some explanations 

 concerning them, and to cite a few illustrations showing how 

 considerable may be the amount of variation in this particular 

 even among the genera of the same order. It is necessary, in the 

 first instance, to say that for the purposes of this communication 

 the term " superposed " is made use of in preference to the word 

 " opposite," to which objection has been reasonably raised by 

 Steinheil, Payer, and others*. 



For conciseness' sake, and to avoid the employment of woodcuts 

 condensed floral formulae are employed : thus an ordinary penta- 

 merous tetracyclic flower, such -a one as Braun calls encyclic, 

 may be represented as follows 



s s s s s 

 p p p p p, 



St St St St St 



o, 



or, for brevity's sake, as 



S5 



P5 



St 5 



5, 



the S representing the sepals, P the petals, St the stamens, the 

 ovaries or carpels, while x may stand for a staminode, and r^\ for 

 a gland of the disk. Cohesion of the parts of the same whorl 



may be expressed by a line over the letters ; thus S S S S S 



or S 5 may be taken to represent a so-called gamosepalous calyx 

 of 5 sepals ; while | P 5 may be taken to indicate that the sta- 



St5 

 mens are adherent to the petals. 



* Payer, ■ Elements de Botanique,' p. 141. 





