212 OF TUB NECTARY 



naeus considers as petals what Jussieu, following Vail- 

 lant, thinks a Calyx. Of these plants we shall soon have 

 occasion to speak again. 



I cannot but consider as a sort of Corolla the Calyp- 

 tra or Veil of Mosses, which Linnaeus reckoned a Ca- 

 l}x. Schreber, very deep and critical in his inquiries 

 concerning these plants, and Hcdwig, so famous for his 

 discoveries among them, were both of this opinion, 

 though the latter seems to have relinquished it. The 

 organ in question is a membranous hood, covering the 

 unripe fruit of these diminutive vegetables, like an ex- 

 tinguisher,y^ 151 ; butspon torn from its base, and ele- 

 vated along with the ) ipening capsule. See Engl. Bot. 

 t. 558, &c. The great peculiarity of this part, whatev- 

 er it be called, consists in its summit performing the of- 

 fice of a siigma, as Hedwig first remarked. In Junger- 

 mannia,/. 152, t. 771, &c., the very same part, differing 

 only in usually bursting at ihe top to let the fruit pass, 

 is named b} Linnzeus a perich<£tium^ but very incorrect- 

 1} , as we have already hinted. 



Whatever office the Petals may perform with respect 

 to air and light, it is probable that the oblong summit of 

 the Spadix in Jrum, t. 1298, answers the same pur- 

 pose. When this part has been for a short time expos- 

 ed to the light, it assumes a purplish brown hue, which 

 M. Srnebier seems to attribute to the same cause which 

 he thinks produces the great heat observed in this flow- 

 er, the rapid combination of ox}gen gas with the carbon 

 of the plant : an hypothesis hardly adequate to explain 

 either. 



Nectarium, the Nectary, may be defined as that part 

 of ihe Corolla which contains or which secretes honey. 



