ADNATION OF ITS ORGANS. 259 



of another, as the corolla out of the calyx, the stamens out of the 

 corolla, or all of them out of the pistil ; and therefore disguises the 

 real origin of the floral organs from the receptacle or axis, in suc- 

 cessive series, one within or above the other (42). In the nu- 

 merous cases where the real origin, or insertion, of the floral 

 organs is not obscured by these cohesions, but where they are in 

 appearance as well as in theory inserted on the receptacle, the 

 calyx, corolla, and stamens are said to be liypogynous, that is, in- 

 serted below the pistils ; as in the Buttercup, the Magnolia, in Cru- 

 ciferous flowers (Fig. 297), &c. The floral organs in such cases 

 are also said to be free; which is the term opposed to the adhesion 

 of one organ to another, as that of distinct is to the cohesion of the 

 parts of the same whorl or set of organs. Thus, the stamens 

 are said to be distinct, when not united with each other, and to be 

 free, when they contract no adhesion to the petals, sepals, or pis- 

 tils ; and the same language is equally applied to all the floral 

 organs. The word connate (born united) is applied either to the 

 congenital union of homogeneous parts (as when we say that the 

 two leaves of the upper pairs of the Honeysuckle are connate, the 

 sepals or stamens are connate into a tube, or the pistils into a com- 

 pound pistil), or to the coalescence of heterogeneous parts (as that 

 of the petals with the calyx, or of both with the pistil). But the 

 word adnate belongs to the latter case only. 



466. When heterogeneous parts are adnate, that is congenitally 

 adherent to each other, some additional technical terms are ren- 

 dered necessary. Thus two words are used as counterparts of 

 liypogynous (under the pistil), and accord with different degrees 

 of adnation, viz. perigynous and epigynous. The petals and sta- 

 mens, which almost always accompany each other, are said to 

 be perigynous (literally placed 

 around the pistil) when they ad- 

 here to the base of the calyx, or 

 in botanical language are inserted 

 on it, either directly, or perhaps 

 more commonly by means of a 

 disk or sort of common fleshy 

 base, from the upper surface or edge of which they grow ; as in 



FIG. 314. A flower of Rhamnus alnifolius, showing the perigynous disk, into the margin of 

 which the petals and stamens are inserted. 315. Vertical section through the calyx and the 

 fleshy disk which lines it. 



