108 MR. G. BENT U AM OX MYKTACE^T:. 



stamens leaving a circular star beloAV the top, and sometimes as low 

 as the middle of the capsule. In this genus the calyx-tube is 

 always wholly adnate, but it is sometimes very much shorter than 

 the adnate part of the corolla; in those cases the calyx-lobes are 

 usually adnate also, but not so high up as the corolla-tube. In 

 VelJeia the whole calyx, whether campanulate and lobed (as in 

 V. trinervis)^ or consisting of distinct sepals, is wholly free, 

 w^hilst the corolla-tube is adnate nearly or quite to the summit of 

 the ovary. In Brunonia the calyx -tube, corolla-tube, and stamens 

 are all entirely free from each other, but so contracted over the 

 ovary as completely to enclose and give it as much an inferior 

 aspect as in Sccevola and Dampiera. 



The argument derived from the leaf-like nature of the deciduous 

 calyx-lobes in Rosa as compared with that of the cup or calyx- 

 tube, and the usual disarticulation of the lobes from the persistent 

 cup in the allied orders, appears to me to be a very weak one. 

 Similar foliaceous calyx-lobes are not uncommon in gamopetalous 

 Orders {e.g, Pediciclaris). Disarticulation of the calyx-lobes, 

 tliough frequent, is anything but universal in Myrtacese and 

 Eosacese ; and in some genera, such as Prunus in Eosacese, and 

 some species of CalytTirix in Myrtaeeae, the disarticulation takes 

 place below the insertion (or divergence) of the petals and sta- 

 mens, in the middle or near the base of tlie cup or so-called hj-p- 

 anthium. 



It has been said that the oro^anogenesis of the flower in Rosacese 

 will show that the cup is an after-production of the peduncle after 

 tlie sepals have been formed. For, it is stated, in the very young 

 bud the sepals form five distinct protuberances round the margm 

 of tlie concave summit of the peduncle, the carpels occupying the 

 centre of the cavity ; the petals and stamens are then gradually 

 produced between the two j and in after-growth a tissue, 

 gradually formed from the receptacle, raises the sepals to a 

 distance from the axis, constitutes the staminal disk, and, in Pyrnfj 



envelops the carpels themselves. This is, however, strictly ana- 

 logous to the formation of the stalks or supports of other leaf- 

 organs, whether single or combined in whorls. The compound 

 leaf of Loguminos?e and other Orders (always excepting Meliaccse) 

 has every future leaflet defined at a very early stage, forming a 

 cluster variously folded and almost sessile on the stem, but which 

 in the course of growth is gradually raised to a distance from it 

 by the gradual production of the common petiole (proceeding quite 

 as much from the stem as the calyx-tube does from the receptacle) ; 



