More Beetles 



the same arrangement, all have their sepals 

 divided into three classes in the matter of 

 beards. It is a fixed rule, resulting from a 

 law which governs floral architecture, even 

 as the art of a Vitruvius l governs our build- 

 ings. This law, so elegant in its simplicity, 

 is thus stated in botany: in the quinary order, 

 the most important order of the vegetable 

 world, the flower groups the five portions 

 of a whorl at intervals upon a close spiral, 

 almost equivalent to the circumference of a 

 circle; and this arrangement is so contrived 

 that two turns of the spiral contain the series 

 of five parts. 



Having said this, it is easy to construct 

 the plan of the rose, in so far as concerns the 

 calyx. Divide a circumference into five 

 equal parts. At the first dividing-point, 

 place a sepal. Where shall we put the sec- 

 ond? It must not be at the second dividing- 

 point, for then the set of five pieces would 

 fill the circumference in a single revolution, 

 instead of in two. We shall place it at the 

 third point and continue in like fashion, each 

 time missing one division. This mode of 

 progress is the only one that brings us back 



1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (ft. sub Augusta), author of 

 De Architectura. Translator's Note. 

 268 



