Mr. SaxisBURY's Observations on the Genera of Trollius, &c. 301 
ria of this Natural Order are not Petals, it is incumbent üpon 
me at least to give my reasons for this MAS. 
-Fhe general laws of Nature are so uniform, that, if we deviate 
from them on any other ground than that of actual facts, we 
meet unsurmountable difficulties. The present question, there- 
fore, can only be determined by reasoning from the analogy of 
other vegetables, which if closely investigated, I think, refute 
rather than confirm the doctrine of the French School. Now, 
in the whole class of Polyandria, the Calyx is comparatively of 
little importance, often coloured and by degrees runninginto the 
Petals, or entirely wanting : the Corolla on the contrary is large, 
showy; ‘almost invariably present, and seldom melliferous. Is it 
not then surely more philosophical to describe those additional 
parts, which from their very size and figure seem. constituted t 
solely to secrete and hold honey, by the appropriate name of 
"Nectaria, than to raise them to the proud and exclusive dig- 
nity of the Petals, degrading these last into a mere outer cover ? 
Has it never occurred to Jussieu, that the same reasoning by 
which he admits these Nectaria to be Petals, would alone over- 
turn his favourite hypothesis of Monocotyledonous plants having 
no » Petals? for there : is no. difference i in 1 this Fa iioi n the 
Qui: so called, Miis E y" rS 
prophetic spirit: of Msi eot that s ‘wo d spring E 
= Pp a definition, has shown its fallacy 
amples pdb "where. ont Corolla, a and N We m : 
