668 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. XI. 



Purple and Common Yellow Cow-wheat, Melam- 

 pyrum arvense, and M. pratense, &c.; but the 

 braete may be truly foliaceous, and yet differ 

 considerably in figure from the leaves of the plant 

 to which it belongs. The Lime tree, Tilia Eu- 

 ropcea, affords a striking example of the difference 



in figure and in 

 aspect of the 

 real leaf (a. a. a.) 

 and the braete 

 (b. b.) 9 which, in 

 this instance, is 

 attached to the 

 peduncle of the 

 flower. In Black- 

 berried Honey- 

 suckle, Lonicera 

 nigra, the braete 

 is a scale; and in 

 Atractylis can- 



^ ., cellata it is spi- 



Nj nous. The co- 



lour of the braete is often merely a differ- 

 ent shade of green from that of the leaves; but 

 in many instances bractes are very beautifully 

 coloured: purple, for example, in Cow-wheat, 

 Melampyrum arveme, Dwarf Orchis, O. ustulata, 

 Purple-topped Clary, Sal via Horminum; blue 

 in Milk Vetch, Polygala vulgaris; and bright 



