52 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



Upon which the insects naturally alight are thus decor- 

 ated. This is well seen in the garden nasturtium. 



CONSOLIDATED PETALS. 



In the least specialized flowers each petal is distinct 

 and separate but one can scarcely walk a rod along a 

 country roadside in summer without finding many flowers 

 in which the petals are variously joined together. Some, 

 as in the flowers of the elder (Samhucus) are onl}'^ joined 

 at base, others like the partridge berry (Mitchella) and 

 the phlox are joined half wa}' to their tips, while in the 

 morning-glory and petunia the five petals are completeh' 

 joined and the corolla appears as if made of one piece. 

 However, as in the case ot consolidated stamens and pis- 

 tils, the petals are seldom so completely joined as to leave 

 no trace of their union. Indications of this may be found 

 in the number of lobes on the l^order, and in the markings 

 of the interior. When the parts of the corolla are united 

 at all, it is called a gamopetalous corolla, when it consists 

 of separate petals, it is a polypetalous corolla. 



The gamopetalous corolla maj- be campanulate or 

 bell-shaped as in the dog-bane {Apocynutn) and hare-bell 

 (Campanula), rotate or wheel shaped as in the tomato 

 and star chick-weed {Trientalis), cup-shaped as in the 

 mountain laurel (Kalwia), funnel-form as in the morning- 

 glory, salver form as in phlox, petunia and nicotiana, urn- 

 shaped as in most of the heaths and tubular as in certain 

 honeysuckles. The difference between tubular, salver-form 

 and funnel-form corollas is, that in the first there is no 

 speading border, in the second there is a spreading 

 border at the top of the tube, and in the last instead 

 of tube and border the corolla graduall}' widens from 

 the base upward. In composite flowers like the dan- 

 delion, hawk weed, lettuce, etc., the corolla is ligulate 

 or strap-shaped. It appears as if it might have once been 

 tubular, but was afterwards split down one side and flat- 

 tened out. We can still see evidences that it is five-parted 

 by the five lobes at the tip and by the longitudinal marks 

 of the union. In the sunflowers, asters and the like, the 

 outer ray flowers are ligulate and those in the center 

 tubular. 



