OF THE IN VO LUCRU M . 347 



would surely be more proper -than involu- 

 vrum or involucellum, as is evident from 

 a consideration of the inflorescence of the 

 whole genus, so very different in different 

 species. In £, Pep lis, and many others, 

 the flowers are solitary and axillary; in 

 others again, as E. amygdaloides, Engl 

 Bot. t. 256, and Characias, t. 442, some 

 flower-stalks are umbellate, some scattered; 

 and the subdivisions of the umbel in all 

 are ultimately forked, that is, of a nature 

 between umbellate and scattered. Th?s 

 genus has, moreover, a proper calyx or 

 periantlrium of a most distinct and pecu- 

 liar nature. Some species of Anemone, a 

 genus destitute of a pcrianthium, are said 

 by Linnaeus to have an involucrum, as 

 A. Pulsatilla, t. .51, for which the name 

 of bractea would be vastly more correct, 

 though in A. Hepatica, Curt. Mag. t. 10, 

 it is placed so near the flower as to seem a 

 part of it, which* however, is really not the 

 case. 



The name of Involucrum is applied by 

 Gleditsch to the membrane covering the 

 fructification of ferns; nor have I, in study- 



