of the Stamina of Plants. 3 
spicuous indeed, yet generally so distinct as to merit, both from 
its appearance and the dignity of its office, a particular name: 
for, in this common point I suspect all the necessary changes in 
the vessels to produce the various parts of the flower and fruit 
first begin. I have long called it Torus, to distinguish it from the 
Receptaculum of Aggregate and Syngenesious flowers: the real 
structure of the latter I have yet to learn, but Aggregate flowers 
appear to me nothing more than a close mode of Inflorescentia. 
Adanson has the merit of having first described this common point 
of insertion by the name of Diske. The period at which he publish- 
ed his book, was particularly unfavourable to the stud y of Natural 
Families, few having been thenlearned enough in Botany to under- 
stand it, and those few who might have understood it, disgusted by 
the uncouth spelling, barbarous names, and sharp attacks on the 
Sexual. System then sbining forth in all its glory. I am also. 
ashamed to own, that for many years I never looked into the Fa- 
milles des Plantes, regarding them with the same contempt as our 
President has thrown upon them in his preliminary Discourse 
printed in the first volume of our Transactions. The solid infor- 
mation they contain, however, has since taught me to think very 
differently; and the honest and patient labourer in the mine of 
Natural History, may always have this satisfaction, that the value. 
of what he discovers, will, at one period or another, be fully appre- 
ciated and understood.: In hopes of meeting. with so. nething re- 
specting this mmon n Point of Insertion, I haye jus read Mirbel's 
Traité: d'Ana Phy: ot But. he says. little 
more than that it is a pant ks the Calyx x, and is totally silent as to 
its connecting the different parts of the flower: this is the more 
. wonderful, as he must have dissected did of the flowers shies 
I shall presently have occasion to mention. Uds EE 
d» distinguishing the Calyx and Corolla, he is far ı more € explicit, 
BQ and 
