214 OF THE NECTARY 



of Nectaries in the claws of petals are found in the 

 Crown Imperial and Lily ; which only confirms more 

 strongly the compendious construction of the Lily tribe, 

 the leaves of their flowers in these examples being Calyx, 

 Petals and Nectaries all in one. 



The most indubitable of all Nectaries, as actually se- 

 creting honey, are those of a glandular kind. In the 

 natural order of Cruciform plants, composing the Lin- 

 naean class Tetradynamia^ these are generally four green 

 glands at the base of the Stamens. See Dentaria, Engl. 

 Bot. t. 309, Sisymbrium, t. 525, and Brassica, t. 637. 

 In SaliXy t. 1488, and Geranium^ t. 322, 75, &c., similar 

 glands are observable ; whilst in Pelargonium^ the Afri- 

 can Geranium, the Nectary is a tube running down one 

 side of the flower- stalk. 



The elegant Parnassia, t. 82, of which we are now 

 acquainted with two new American species, has a most 

 elaborate apparatus called by Linnaeus Nectaries, y^ 175, 

 but which the cautious Jussieu names Scales only. Lin- 

 naeus usually called every supernumerary part of a flow- 

 er Nectary, from analogy only, though he might not in ev- 

 ery case be able to prove that such parts produced hon- 

 ey. This is convenient enough for botanical distinc- 

 tions, though perhaps not always right in physiology ; 

 yet there is nothing for which he has been more severely 

 and contemptuously censured. He was too wise to an- 

 swer illiberal criticism, or he might have required his 

 adversaries to prove that such parts were not Nectaries. 

 Sometimes possibly he may seem to err, like L'Heritierj 

 in calling abortive stamens by this name. Yet who 

 knows that their filaments do not secrete honey as well 



