STRUCTURE.] ITS MORPHOLOGICAL NATURE, 315 



the nodus, from whence proceed the carpellary leaves. It is 

 then either covered with seeds, dispersed without any per- 

 ceptible order, as in Primworts (Primulacese) and Cloveworts 

 (Caryophyllaceae), or it forms at a greater or less height a 

 special nodus, from whence one or two seeds descend into 

 each cell of the fruit, supported on distinct seminal pedicels, 

 as in Mallowworts (Malvaceae) with monospermous carpels, 

 Phytolacca cfecandra, and all Spurgeworts (Euphorbiacese) . 

 In the latter family the seed-stem is already almost free, 

 that is, the margins of the carpellary leaves scarcely adhere 

 to it, and readily separate when ripe, without any laceration 

 of the tissue." 



The Flower is in fact a terminal bud enclosing the organs 

 of reproduction by seed. By the ancients the term flower 

 was restricted to what is now called the corolla ; but Linnaeus 

 wisely extended its application to the union of all the organs 

 which contribute to the process of fecundation. The flower, 

 therefore, as now understood, comprehends the calyx, the 

 corolla, the stamens, and the pistil, of which the two last only 

 are indispensable. The calyx and corolla may be wanting, 

 and a flower will nevertheless exist ; but, if neither stamens 

 nor pistil nor their rudiments are to be found, no assemblage 

 of leaves, whatever may be their form or colour, or how much 

 soever they may resemble the calyx and corolla, can constitute 

 a flower. 



We usually consider the flower to consist of a certain num- 

 ber of whorls, or of parts originating round a common centre 

 from the same plane. But Adolphe Brongniart has correctly 

 pointed out the fact that what we call whorls in a flower are 

 in many cases not so, strictly speaking, but only a series of 

 parts in close approximation, and at different heights upon 

 the short branch that forms the axis. This is particularly 

 obvious in a Cistus, where, of the five sepals, two are lower 

 and exterior, and three higher and within the first. The 

 manner also in which the petals overlap each other evidently 

 points to a similar cause, although the fact of those pieces 

 being inserted at different heights may not be apparent. 

 (See Annales des Sciences, xxiii. 226.) 



