394 SUPPEESSIOX. 



evidence furnisbed by teratology is conflicting, but 

 there seems little or nothing to invalidate the notion 

 that the end of the flower-stalk and the base of the 

 calyx may, to a varying extent, in different cases, 

 jointly be concerned m the formation of the so-called 

 calyx-tube and of the inferior ovary. Obviously it is 

 not proper to apply to all cases where there is an 

 inferior ovary the same explanation as to how it is 

 brought about. 



As these pages are passing through the press, 

 M. Casimir de Candolle has published a different 

 explanation as to the nature of the hip of the rose, 

 having been led to his opinion by the conclusion that 

 he has arrived at, that the leaf is to be considered in 

 the light of a flattened branch, whose upper or posterior 

 surface is more or less completely atrophied. 



According to M. de Candolle, the calyx-tube, in the 

 case of the rose, is neither a w^horl of leaves, nor a 

 concave axis in the ordinary sense in which those terms 

 are used, but is rather to be considered as a ring-like 

 projection from an axis arrested in its ulterior develop- 

 ment. The secondary projections from the original one 

 correspond to an equal number of vascular bundles, 

 and develope into the sepals, petals, stamens, and 

 ovaries. If these organs remained in a rudimentary 

 condition, the tube of the calyx w^ould be reduced to 

 the condition of a sheathing leaf. The rose flower, 

 then, according to M. de Candolle, may be considered 

 as a sheathing leaf, whose fibro-vascular system is 

 complete, and from which all possible primary projec- 

 tions are developed.^ 



If, as M. de CandoUe considers, the leaf and the 

 branch differ merely in the fact that the vascular system 

 is complete in the latter, and partly atrophied in the 

 former, it would surely be better to consider the " calyx- 

 tube " of the rose as a concave axis rather than as a 

 leaf, seeing that he admits the fibro-vascular system to 

 be complete in the case of the rose. 



' Thcorie de la feuille,' p. 24. 



