SECT. I. OBGANOGBAPHY AND GLOSSOLOGY. 117 



namous) : the calyx is subdivided into five segments, 

 indicating the adhesion of as many sepals ; the pisti 



13! 



is a two-celled capsule, with the seeds arranged on 

 a central placenta. In short, the flower is highly un- 

 symmetrical and irregular, in all its parts. Now, there 

 is an interesting variety of this plant, termed " Peloria," 

 in which the corolla is strictly symmetrical, consisting 

 of a conical tube, narrowed in front, and elongated 

 behind into five spurs (6). It contains five stamens of 

 equal length. In this state, therefore, we have a flower 

 composed of five sepals, adhering through a considerable 

 portion of their length, constituting a five-toothed mo- 

 nosepalous calyx ; five petals, adhering into a monope- 

 talous corolla ; five stamens ; but a pistil which is com- 

 posed of only two carpels, as in the irregular flowers. 

 The three first whorls are therefore strictly symmetrical, 

 and the parts are also arranged in an alternating order 

 round the axis. It should seem, that the ordinary 

 irregularity of this flower is somehow connected with 

 the disappearance of the fifth stamen, involving a 

 partial suppression, as well as modification, of four 

 of the petals. Other specimens may be seen in every 

 intermediate condition, between the regular and irre- 

 gular forms here described ; some having two, others 

 three or four spurs, to the corolla (c). If we connect 

 these and similar facts, with the observations already 

 detailed, viz. that the subordinate parts of the flower- 

 bud are analogous to those which compose the leaf-bud, 

 i 3 



