14 Mr. SarisauRY on the Perigynous Insertion 
has a flower which we all know very well; but so far from allow- 
ing this to be Perigynous, I cannot find that it has any Calyx at — 
all: its Stamina are exceedingly numerous, and gradually coalesce 
with the Petals into a thick Neck (I would hardly call it Tube) 
just as in Camellia. Ribes placed in this Order at present 
surely belongs to Sazifrage : compare the flowers of the com- 
mon Currant with Chrysosplenium or Adora: but the serratures 
and callosities of the Herba in the Gooseberry first indicated to 
me its affinity. Portulaca in the fourth Order has only a 2-phyl- 
lous Calyx, in which there is not the smallest room for the five 
Petals to be crammed: the whole Pedunculus in this genus 
might with equal propriety be termed Calyx as its Torus, Me- _ 
sembryanthemum in the fifth Order as to insertion exactly resem- 
bles Cactus, but this genus has a regular quinquefid Calyx. Oeno- 
thera and Epilobium are very common examples of the 6th Order: 
their receptaculum is so very long and remarkable, that it never 
fails to strike a beginner in Botany: at least many of my young 
friends have not only hesitated but thought it impossible that a 
Master in the science could call this part Calyx: nor are the ob- 
jections of a sensible Scholar always to be despised, for he 
comes unprejudiced on the subject, and sees the Works of Nature 
as they really are. The beautiful Myrti constitute the seventh 
assemblage of Perigynous Corollas: in no order is their real in- 
sertion more necessary to be understood than this; for the essen- 
tial characters of the Genera often depend upon it solely. Lep- 
tospermum and Philadelphus are two instances whichI shallnot easily 
forget: when the former genus was first discovered in New Zea- 
land by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, they had no doubt 
from its habitus, that it was a new genus; but upon comparing 
it with the Linnean characters of Philadelphus, it answered so 
exactly that they hesitated. Forster afterwards was less scrupu- 
lous, 
* 
