338 FOBMS OF THE CORONET. [BOOK i. 



this kind of appendage. The whole mass of the coronet is 

 the orbiculus, or saccus, or stylotegiwn ; certain horn-like pro- 

 cesses are cornua, or horns ; the upper end of these is the 

 beak, or rostrum, and their back, if it is dilated and com- 

 pressed, is the ala, or appendix; occasionally there is an 

 additional set of horns proceeding from the base of the orbi- 

 culus, and alternate with the horns, these are ligulce ; the 

 circular space in the middle of the top of the orbiculus is the 

 scutum. Brown names the orbiculus corona staminea, and its 

 divisions foliola, or leaflets. 



In some plants as Cynoglossum, the lamellae are very 

 small, scale-like, and overarch the orifice of the tube ; such 

 have received the name offornices. 



Link calls every appendage which is referable to the corolla 

 & paracorolla ; or, if consisting of several pieces, parapet alum; 

 and every appendage which is referable to the stamens a 

 parastemon. The filiform rays of the coronet of Passiflora the 

 same author calls paraphyses or parastades. 



Moench names such appendages of the corolla as the fila- 

 mentous beard of Menyanthes perapetalum, and Sprengel calls 

 the same thing nectarilyma. 



In Ranunculus there exists at the base of each petal a little 

 shining, sometimes elevated, space which secretes honey. This 

 is the true nectarium or nectarostigma of Sprengel. By some 

 writers it has been considered a kind of reservoir, in which 

 there is some plausibility ; but it seems, from analogy, to be 

 rather a barren stamen., united with the base of the petal, 

 and of the same nature as the lamella of other plants. 



8. Of the Stamens. 



Next the petals, in the inside, are seated the organs called 

 Stamens the Apices of old botanists. These constitute the 

 Andrceceum or male apparatus of the flower, like the calyx 

 and corolla are modifications of leaves, and consist of the 

 filament, the anther, and the pollen, of which the two latter 

 are essential: the first is not essential; that is to say, a stamen 

 may exist without a filament, but it cannot exist without an 

 anther and pollen. All bodies, therefore, which resemble 



