SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 195 



Chalcophyliuin, of which Kingsley says : "It is not 

 the flowers themselves which make the glory of the 

 tree. As the flower opens, one calyx-lobe, by a 

 rich vagary of nature, grows into a leaf three inches 

 long, of a splendid scarlet ; and the whole end of 

 each branch for two feet or more in length, blazes 

 among the green foliage till you can see it and 

 wonder at it a quarter of a mile away." 



Di'ooping flowers are usually distinguished by 

 having the calyx-lobes either coloured or else 

 shrunken and shrivelled to their extremest tenuity. 

 These modifications, opposite and extreme as they 

 are in their character, nevertheless subserve the 

 same end. It is evident that in drooping flowers 

 the calyx is the most conspicuous part. Therefore, 

 if it is not to interfere with the effect of the coloured 

 corolla, its parts or sepals must be dwarfed^ as they 

 are in the Common Hairbell {Campanula rotundifolia). 

 If they are enlarged they must be coloured, and then 

 they act in conjunction with the corolla, assisting its 

 efforts to attract insects, and become beautifully 

 tinted, as in the pendent flowers of the Fuchsia. 



Not unfrequently, in flowers where the calyx is 

 the most prominent object, the sepals grow so 

 enlarged that practically the petals of the corolla 

 cannot be seen, or only seen very faintly. This is 

 the condition in which the petals of the Monkshood 

 {Acouitum napellus), the Columbine {Aqidlegia vul- 

 garis), and the Larkspur {Delphiniiun ajacis) now are. 



