Rev. P. Keith on the Structure of Living Fabrics. 129 



tional and supernumerary parts, denominated appendages; 

 such as the involucre, the spathe, the bracte, the nectary. 

 The first three are analogous to leaf or calyx, and demand no 

 particular notice in our present brief view. The latter is ana- 

 logous to corolla, and is peculiar both in its form and function. 

 It is defined to be an appendage of the flower secreting or 

 containing a honied juice. Its function was detected by Mal- 

 pighi, but he gave it no name*. This was reserved for Lin- 

 naeus, who applied to it the very appropriate appellation of 

 nectarium — the nectary or honey-cup, from nectar, the drink 

 of the gods* 



Ilium ego lucidas 

 Inire sedes, ducere nectaris 

 Succos, et ascribi quietis 



Ordinibus patiar Deorum. — Hor. lib. iii. Odeiii. 



It assumes a great variety of shapes and situations in different 

 genera of plants, and resembles a horn, or a cylinder, or a 

 slipper, or a cowl, or a petal, or a pore, or a gland. It is at- 

 tached generally to the corolla, but occasionally to the recep- 

 tacle, or calyx, or stamens; and even to the anther or pistil, 

 as in Adenanthera, and Cheiranthus. 



The Fruit. — In the progress of fructification, when the seve- 

 ral organs of the flower have discharged their respective func- 

 tions, the petals, the stamens, the style, and often also the 

 calyx, wither and fall. 



Nee viola semper, nee hiantia lilia florent, 



Et riget amissa spina relicta rosa. — Ovid. De Art. Amat. lib. ii. 115. 



The ovary alone remains attached to the plant, and swells 

 and expands till it reaches maturity. It is now denominated 

 the fruit. In popular language the term is confined chiefly to 

 such fruits as are esculent, as the Apple, the Peach, and the 

 Cherry; but with the botanist, the matured ovary of every 

 flower, with the parts contained, constitutes the fruit. Hence 

 the position or distribution of the fruit upon the plant will be 

 the same with that of the flower which preceded it; radical, 

 if the flower was radical ; terminal, if the flower was so. The 

 figure of the fruit exhibits a very great variety of modifications, 

 which it would be tedious to enumerate. But the spherical, 

 or elliptical, or cylindrical forms are, perhaps, the most com- 

 mon. The size of the fruit is also very various, yet not at all 

 in proportion to the plant producing it. The Oak and the 

 Ash, though among the largest of trees, produce a fruit that 

 is comparatively very small; while the Gourd, whose stem is 

 but herbaceous and creeping, produces a fruit of a most enor- 

 mous bulk. The surface of the fruit is very generally smooth, 



* Anat. Plant. 47. 



Third Seiies. Vol. 2. No. 8. Feb. 1833. S 



