lOG Mil. a. BENTIIAM ON MYllTACE.E. 



niecium, as in Ariatolochia, SauritruSy CJiloranthiis, &c., the sta- 

 mens, althougli described for couveuieuce as inserted on the ova- 

 rium, are admitted to be really adnate to them. 



It has been supposed that the union of the inner organs with 

 the calyx-tube in Myrtacea? and their allics,if it exists theoretically, 

 is too complete for their hypothetical distinctness to be more than 

 imaginary, whilst in gamopetolous corollas the filaments can be 

 traced to the base. But that is far from being always the case. In 

 numberless CoroUifloree the bundles of vessels descending from 

 the fiJaments are absolutely im distinguishable from the veins of the 

 petals; and the cases are comparatively few where the prominent 

 ribs lining the corolla evidently connect the filament wdth the recep- 

 tacle. There are, on the otlier hand, calyeiflorous plants, among 

 Lythrariese, lihamne^e, Samydaceae (Homalinea?), &c., in which the 

 union of the stamens at least, or even of the petals also, with the 

 calyx becomes gradually less complete and is traceable to the base. 



Again, it may be said that in ail cases of concretion of the inner 

 whorls of floral organs it is only two such whorls that are united 

 — the coi*olla with the androecium, or the androecium with thegy- 

 na)cium ; whereas in many Myrtacese we are obliged to suppose 

 the concretion of all the floral whorls into one fleshy mass, showing 

 no more trace of a compound nature than the peduncle below it 

 till the organs separate at the summit, and that this structure is 

 much more rationally explained by supposing it to be really what 

 it appears to bo, a hollow receptacle or enclosed summit of the 

 peduncle bearing on its margin or inner surfiice the various 

 organs. But this argument w^ould seem in the first place to carry 

 us to conclusions not only beyond what the advocates of the 

 theory have come to, but in opposition to some which are uni- 

 versally admitted in the homology of Phanerogams, and in the 

 next place to be (\yx\te untenable when applied to closely allied 

 plants in the same or in allied Orders. 



First, then, if we deny that this cup is a concretion of the base 

 of the floral organs, we cannot fairly make an exception as to the 

 carpels, of which there is no more evidence than there is of the 

 base of the stamens or petals ; and we must suppose that the ovule- 

 bearing placentas proceed from a central axis without the inter- 

 vention of any carpellary leaves, which, like the stamens, petals, 

 and sepals, are inserted at the orifice of the cup. Even this theory 

 has, indeed, been broached by Schleiden, Schychowsky, and some 

 others ; but I believe it to be now generally abandoned by most 

 cvtn of those who maintain the peduncular nature of the Myr* 

 tacoous and Kosaccous cup. 



