APPENDIX A 



619 



in which comparison makes it appear probable. In accordance with 

 the views thus briefly sketched the Polypetals, or Dicotyledoneae — 

 Choripetalae, will be taken first. 



DICOTYLEDONEAE— CHORIPETALAE. 



ORDER : SALICALES. 

 Family : Salicaceae. Example : The Goat Willow. 



(12) The numerous native species of Willow are trees, or shrubs, or dwarf 

 undershrubs, which live in damp situations ; almost any of them would serve to 

 illustrate their very simple floral structure. In the large shrubby Goat- Willow 

 (Salix caprea, L.) the flowers appear grouped to form the well-known Catkins 

 or " Palms." These are of two sorts, distributed on different plants {dioecious) 



a 



Fig. 466. 

 Catkins of the Willow, a, male ; b, female. (After Figuier.) 



(Fig. 466). The male catkins appear bright yellow when in bloom, from 

 their projecting stamens ; the female catkins are more slender, and of olive- 

 green colour. In each case the catkin is a spike. Its main axis bears 

 darkly-coloured bracts, and in the axil of each of these is a single very simply- 

 constructed flower. 



The male flower (Fig. 467, a) consists of two stamens, each with a long 

 filament, which bears the anther, with sticky, not dusty pollen. There is no 

 perianth, nor gynoecium ; but on the side next the stem is a nectary, which 

 secretes honey freely at flowering (Fig. 468, A, d). Other species may have 

 three, four, or more stamens, but no other floral parts (Fig. 468, C). The 

 female flower (Fig. 468, b) is also axillary. It consists only of a gynoecium of 

 two carpels joined by their margins to form a unilocular, superior ovary with 



