CHAP. II. BRACTS. 120 



fructification ; their office being to reproduce the species by a 

 process in some respects analogous to that which takes place 

 in the animal kingdom. The latter are, however, all modifi- 

 cations of the former, as will hereafter be seen, and as the 

 subject of this division is in itself a kind of proof; bracts not 

 being exactly either organs of vegetation or reproduction, but 

 between the two. 



Botanists call Bracts either the leaf from the axil of 

 which a flower is developed, such as we find in Veronica 

 agrestis ; or else all those leaves that are found upon the inflo- 

 rescence, and are situated between the true leaves and the 

 calyx. There are, in reality, no exact limits between bracts 

 and common leaves ; but in general the former may be known 

 by their situation immediately below the calyx, by their 

 smaller size, difference of outline, colour, and other marks. 

 They are generally entire, however much the leaves may be 

 divided ; frequently scariose, either wholly or in part ; often 

 deciduous before the flowers expand ; but rarely very much 

 dilated, as in Origanum Dictamnus, and a few other plants. 

 It is often more difficult to distinguish bracts from the sepals 

 of a polyphyllous calyx than even from the leaves of the stem. 

 In fact, there is in many cases no other mode than ascertain- 

 ing the usual number of sepals in other plants of the same 

 natural order, and considering every leaf-like appendage on 

 the outside of the usual number of sepals as a bract. In 

 Camellia, for example, if it were not known that the normal 

 number of sepals of kindred genera is five, it would be im- 

 possible to determine the number of its sepals. When the 

 bracts are very small, they are called hractlets ; or, if they 

 are of different sizes upon the same inflorescence, the smallest 

 receive that name. It rarely occurs that an infloi'escence is 

 destitute of bracts. In Crucifera? this is a general character, 

 and is observed by Link to indicate an extremely irregular 

 structure. When bracts do not immediately support a flo^ver 

 or its stalk, they are called empty (vacua). As a general 

 rule, it is to be understood, that whatever intervenes between 

 the true leaves and the calyx, whatever be their form, colour, 

 size, or other peculiarity, comes within the meaning of the 

 term. 



