MK. G.BENTHAM OX MYKTACEJ::. l05 



So it is also when several leaf organs of the same whorl are 



fall 



Ileduotis 



other Eubiacese, the persistent united portion of many monadel- 

 phous stamens, the hardened persistent base of the filaments in 

 Melaleuca angustifolia and many other Myrtacese, the persistent 

 base of the corolla in Nuxia^ the persistent base of the circumsciss 

 capsules of Sesuvium and its allies, many Primulacese, &c., all of 

 which are universally admitted to be portions of the leaf organs, 

 not of the axis. 



It is objected, however, that the case of the so-called calyx-tube 

 of Myrtacese and Eosacese is very different, inasmuch as more or 

 less of the inner whorls of organs are inserted upon it, and that, 

 as it bears these organs, it must be a hollow prolongation of 

 the axis, not part of a leaf organ. This appears to me to be 

 purely a reversion to the old way of viewing structure before the 

 introduction of the theory of consolidation of organs, which, if 

 retained in the case of the calyx, ought surely to be equally taken 

 into consideration in that of the corolla and other leaf organs. 



Leaves are not usually so closely superposed as floral organs, 

 and no instance of consolidation of those of two superposed whorls 

 occurs to me ; but they are occasionally concrete at the base with 

 the axillary peduncle. Thus in several Chailletiacese, where the 

 flowers were formerly considered to be inserted on the petiole, it is 

 now recognized that the base of the peduncle and the base of the 

 petiole are concrete, and both are supposed to commence from the 

 point of divergence from the stem. So tlie bracts of Marcgruviea), 

 of Tilia, &c., apparently inserted on the pedicels, are admitted 

 to be subtending bracts with their petioles concrete with the 



pedicels. 



Taking next the leaf organs above or witMn the calyx, we have 

 much more frequent instances of the concretion of two superposed 

 M'horls, closely analogous to that of the calyx, corolla, and androe- 

 cium in Myrtacese. Thus in almost all the Monopetalae (or ga- 

 mopetalous flowers) the corolla and androecium are so much con- 

 nected at the base that for convenience' sake we describe the 

 stamens as inserted in the tube of the corolla; but at the same 

 time we all admit that both stamens and petals are really hypo- 

 gynous but concrete at the base, that both commence from the 

 point of divergence from the receptacle ; and no one, to my know- 

 ledge, has ever proposed that the corolla-tube up to the divergence 

 of the stamens should be considered a part of the receptacle or 

 axis. So also in cases of concretion of the androecium and p:v- 



