)28 ORGANOGRATHY. BOOK I. 



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 Ami. des Sc v. xxiii. p. 226.) 



The flower, when in the state of a bud, is called the alahas- 

 frus {bouton of the French) ; a name used by Pliny for the 

 rose-bud. Some writers say alabastrum, forgetting, as it 

 would seem, that that term was used by the Romans for a 

 scent-box, and not for the bud of a flower. Link calls the 

 parts of a flower generally, whether united or connate, moria, 

 whence a flower \^ hi-polymorious {Elem., 243.); but I know of 

 no other writer who employs these terms, which indeed are 

 quite superfluous. 



The flowers of an anthodium, which are small, and some- 

 what different in structure from ordinary flowers, are called 

 florets {Jlosculi ; elytriculi o^ decker ; Jleur on of the French). 



The period when a flower opens is called its anthesis ; the 

 manner in which its parts are arranged, with respect to each 

 other, before the opening, is called the (estivation. iEstivation 

 is the same to a flower-bud as vernation (p. 61.) is to a leaf- 

 bud : the terms expressive of its modifications are to be sought 

 in Glossology. This term aestivation is applied separately to 

 the parts of which a flower may consist; thus, we speak of the 

 aestivation of the calyx, of the corolla, of the stamens, and 

 of the pistil ; but never of the aestivation of a flower col- 

 lectively. 



