OP THE AMENTUM, S49 



the uhole scale remains, enlarges, hardens, 

 and protects the s<?ed, as in Finns, the Fir 

 tribe. Such is the case with* catkins of 

 fertile liowers, which arc necessarily per- 

 nicncnt till the seed is ripe; barren ones 

 fall as soon us the stamens have performed 

 their ofiice. Every catkin consists gene- 

 rally of either one kind of flower or the 

 other. There are few certain and invari- 

 able instances of stamens and pistils in 

 the same catkin, that circumstance oc- 

 curring chiefly in a few species of Salix 

 and Carex', nor is Tj/pJia, t. 14,55 — 7j 

 an exception to this. Examples of barren- 

 flowered catkins are seen, not only in Salix 

 and Vinus, but in several plants whose 

 fertile or fruit-bearing flowers are not cat- 

 kins, such as the Walnut, and, unless I am 

 much mistaken, the Hasel-nut, t, 7^3. 

 £,ach nut or seed of the latter has a per- 

 manent coriaceous calyx of its own, inad- 

 vertently called by Gsertner an involucrum^ 

 thouirh he considers the whole as an amen- 

 turn, which this very calyx proves it not 

 to be*. Ilumuhis, the Hop, f. 427, has a 

 catkin for the fertile flower only. 

 f It appears moreover that Carpmus, the Hornbeam, 



