162 



EECEEATIYE SCIENCE. 



Fig. 39. — Poppy- bud 

 drooping before flow- 

 ering and casting off 

 two-pieced calyx. 



THE CALTX 



Of a plant has its first office in the protec- 

 tion of the flower-bud, covering the tender 

 organs within, until their time for full expan- 

 sion has come. Then 

 it assumes various 

 modes of procedure. 

 We have seen, as in 

 the poppy (Fig. 39), 

 it may be cast off as 

 the blossom opens, be- 

 ing lifted off in one 

 piece like an extin- 

 guisher, and allowing 

 the petals, which seem 

 to have been crumpled 

 up within it, to expand 

 in their full size and beauty. More generally, 

 however, the calyx remains for a longer or 

 •shorter time after the flower opens, and in 

 many plants it is still there after the petals 

 of thecoroUahave faUen, either protecting the 

 growing seed-vessel, or forming part of what 

 people generally call the fruit itself. Such 

 we find to be the case in the apple, the pear, 

 the thorn, the fruit of these being partly com- 

 posed of the enlarged calyx. When a calyx 

 falls off early, it is called a deciduous calyx ; 

 when it remains till the fruit has formed, it is 

 called persistent. 



As yet, our calyxes have been green or 

 leaf-like organs, more or less regular, and 

 easy of recognition ; you must not, however, 

 expect always to find them bearing this pal- 

 pable character ; they are often very irregu- 

 lar in form, sometimes in one piece, some- 

 times in two, sometimes ia more. Neither is 

 the calyx always green : of this we have had 

 some notice in the frequently deep-coloured 

 calyx of the wallflower, or yellow of the gorse, 

 though, in these instances, it preserves its 

 well-marked distiuction from the brighter 

 corolla. But there are cases where, although 

 the coroUa exists, it is so insignificant as to 

 be entirely eclipsed by the more brilliant 



calyx — such we find in the hellebores or 

 Christmas roses of our gardens ; and, lastly, 

 we find, as in the anemones, the corolla ab- 

 sent altogether, and its place supplied by a 

 calyx as beautiful as any corolla. In such 

 cases the calyx is called petaloid or flower- 

 liJce. The crocus and the snowdrop likewise 

 offer us examples of the petaloid calyx, and 

 in such plants the entire flower, petals and 

 sepals, are frequently called the perianth. 

 When the calyx is joined together so as to 

 constitute a one-pieced or monosepalous calyx, 

 its composition of several conjoined parts is 

 usually indicated by toothings, folding or 

 marking, as we shall see in the primrose. 

 Lastly, the calyx is frequently irregular in 

 form ; in this respect generally being coinci- 

 dent with irregularity of form in the corolla 

 it incloses. Did space permit, we might 

 enlarge greatly upon the variety of forms 

 to be found in calyxes, but now that our 

 readers can recognize the part for themselves, 

 it is better that they should seek out their 

 knowledge by looking at every plant or 

 weed for that variation — and beautiful varia- 

 tion too — which they will not fail to find. 

 One last word over our flower- cups. You 

 will not have examined plants long before 

 you meet, every now and then, with a calyx 

 which looks rather like a collection of the 

 ordinary leaves of the plant, than like an 

 orderly, well-conducted calyx; this is espe- 

 cially remarkable among the roses and the 

 primrose tribe, and it is, in fact, an effort of 

 the calyx to metamorphose itself back to 

 its original leaf-type. This is a subject of 

 plant lore, however, which, only hinted at 

 now, must engage our attention at some 

 future time. 



Calyx first, next within comes the corolla, 

 regular or irregidar in form, in many pieces 

 or petals, as we have met with hitherto, 

 or in one piece as we shall come upon 

 it ere long. Now, before we take the 

 flower in its full expanse of beauty, let us 

 give short attention to it whilst yet in its 



