CHAP. IX.] NICOTIANEjE. 149 



The Petunias are so well known, that I need 

 say very little of the general form of their 

 flowers, except to point out the connexion be- 

 tween them and the Tobacco. The corolla is 

 salver-shaped, with a cylindrical tube, wider at 

 the top than at the base, and a five-lobed limb. 

 There are five stamens of unequal length, which 

 are hidden in the tube of the corolla. The 

 stigma has a broad head which is slightly two- 

 lobed ; and the calyx remains on the ripe cap- 

 sule, which is two-celled, and opens in the upper 

 part with two valves. The seeds are numerous 

 and very small, and the leaves are pubescent 

 and slightly clammy. If my readers will take 

 the trouble to compare the Petunia and the 

 Tobacco, they will be surprised to find how much 

 the flowers are botanically alike. The differences 

 are, that the calyx is more leaf-like in the Petunia 

 than in the Tobacco ; and the corolla of the 

 Petunia is somewhat oblique, that is, two of the 

 segments are smaller than the others ; the fila- 

 ments, also, are thickened at the base. It will 

 appear extraordinary to every one acquainted 

 with the flowers of the purple and the white 

 Petunias, to find that some botanists have placed 

 them in different genera. Such, however, is the 

 case. On cutting open the delicate little seed 

 of the white Petunia (P. nyctaginiflora)^ which 

 it must have been very difficult to do, and ex- 



