ITS 



THE FLOWER. 



superposed to) the sepals, and the stamens of the inner series 

 stand before the petals ; as in the diagram. Fiji. 331. 1 



:'>'2~>. Flowers which completely 

 exemplify their type or symmetry 

 are rare, but mo>t exhibit it more 

 or less. Kadi natural order or 

 group exhibits its own particular 

 floral type, or modification of the 

 common type.- Some of these 

 modifications do not at all affect 

 the sy linnet ry or obscure the plan 

 of the flower, except by combina- 

 tions which render the phylline 

 character of the floral envelopes and carpels 

 less apparent, such combinations being of 

 rare occurrence in foliage. Others gravely 

 interfere with floral symmetry, sometimes to 

 such degree that the true plan of the blossom 

 is to be ascertained only through extended 

 comparisons with the flowers of other plant* 

 of the same order or tribe, or of related 

 orders. The symmetiy of the blossom finds its explanation in 

 the laws which govern the arrangement of leaves on the axis; 

 that is, in phyllotaxy. The deviations from symmetry and from 

 typical simplicity have to be explained, and in the first instance 



1 For convenient reference and the avoidance of circumlocution, some 

 \\ritiTs term the stamens which are before tin- petals epipefo/ous, those before 



the sepals , /lisr/mlnu* ; but, as this prefix means upou, it is better to restrict 

 these terms to rases of adnation of stamens to these respective parts of the 

 perianth, and to distinguish as 



Anii/K /n/inis, those stamens which stand before petals, whether adnate or 

 free, and 



Antisepalous, those which stand liet'oiv sepals. These terms we find have 

 already been employed in this way by Dr. A. Dickson (in Seemann, Jour. 

 Bot. iv. 275), with the addition of a third, viz. 



/'iini/Kfii/tiiia, for stamens which stand at each side of a petal, yet not 

 necessarily before a .sepal, as in many Rosaceae. 



2 These particular types, with their modifications, are set forth in the 

 i-fiiirin-i, rs or distinguishing marks of the orders, tribes, genera, Xc. The 

 best generally available illustrations of ordinal types are in Le Maoiit and 

 Decaisne's Traite (ie'ne'ral de Botaniqiie, and in Hooker's Knglisli edition 

 and revision, entitled A (ieneral System of Botany, Descriptive and Analyti- 

 cal, London, 187'J. The best morphological presentation is in Eichler's 

 Bluthendiagramme, c. (Flower Diagrams, Constructed and Illustrated), 

 Leipzig, 1875. 



FIG. 330. Opened flower of Trillium erectum. 331. Diagram of the same. 



