148 The Flora of Wiitshire. 
flower) margin of the tube longer than the inner. The next stage is 
Myosurus, in which the disproportionate length of the external 
margin is much increased, forming a petal with a tubular claw. 
Next the Ranunculus shows the expansion of the outer and diminu- 
tion of the inner margin, proceeding to the formation of a petal, 
with a minute scale at its base. In Ranunculus auricomus, this scale 
is absent, the nectary being merely a naked pore, thus showing an 
approach to the next genus, Zo//ius, in which the scale is perma- 
nently obliterated, the claw of the petals exhibiting merely an 
obscure depression. Finally, in Adonis all traces of the Helleborine 
tube are obliterated, the external portion being fully expanded 
into a perfect petal. 
Commencing again with Hellebore and proceeding to Aquilegia, 
we find that the tubular petals have undergone a change of a dif- 
ferent description, having been expanded above by the dilatation of 
the external margin, and produced below into a hollow horn-shaped 
spur. In this plant the petals are five in number, corresponding 
to the five sepals of the calyx, but in the next stage, Delphinium, 
one is obliterated, and of the other four, two are elongated behind 
into spurs and inclosed in the process of the calyx. In Aconitum 
Napellus, two more petals are obliterated, and the two remaining 
ones are become slender curved bodies (usually called nectaries), 
inclosed under the helmet-shaped sepal of the petaloid calyx. In 
the last stage, Anemone, &c., all the petals are entirely absent, the 
obliteration having been perfected. The flower now possesses but 
one envelope, which is a calyx and not a corolla, as (in consequence 
of its being beautifully coloured) it is wswally and erroneously con- 
sidered by Linnean botanists, Smith, Withering, &. We now see 
how improperly botanists of this school describe Aconite and Lark- 
spur to possess a corolla of five petals, the parts which they describe 
as such, being merely the sepals of the calyx beautifully coloured, 
the corolla existing only in the form of the singular rudimentary 
petals, which are usually considered as nectaries. As an additional 
proof of the correctness of these views, I may remark, that a per- 
fectly formed large membranous petal has been found in the flower 
of the Aconitum, occupying its proper situation between the two 
