176 FLOWER. 



not yet been fully explained. As a protection to the 

 tender and important parts within, especially from wet, 

 its use in many cases is obvious, but by no means in all. 

 Linnaeus imagined it to serve as wings, to waft the flow- 

 er up and down in the air, and so to promote the func- 

 tions of the Stamens and Pistils, as will hereafter be 

 described ; nor is this opinion unfounded. 



Sprengel has ingeniously demonstrated, in some 

 hundreds of instances, how the Corolla serves as an 

 attraction to insects, indicating by various marks, and 

 perhaps by its scent, where they may find honey, and 

 accommodating them with a convenient resting place or 

 shelter while they extract it. This elegant and ingen- 

 ious theory receives confirmation from almost every 

 flower we examine. Froud man is disposed to think 



that 



" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen," 



because he has not deigned to explore it ; but we find 

 that even the beauties of the most sequestered wilder- 

 ness are not made in vain. They have myriads of ad- 

 mirers, attracted by their charms, and rewarded with 

 their treasures, which very treasures would be as use- 

 less as the gold of a miser to the plant itself, were they 

 not thus the means of bringing insects about it. The 

 services rendered by such visitants will be understood 

 when we have described all the parts of a flower. 



Besides the above purposes, I have always conceived 

 the Gorolla to fulfil some important office to the essen- 

 tial parts of the flower with respect to air, and especial- 

 ly li^ht. It not only presents itself in a remarkable man- 

 ner to the sun-beams, frequently closing or drooping 

 when they are withdrawn, but it is so peculiarly dis- 

 tiu^uished by beauty or brilliancy of colour, that one 

 cannot but think its functions somewhat different from 



