278 THE FLOWER. 



same manner as an ordinary leaf, (only no petiole is interposed be- 

 tween the blade and the axis,*) when the sepals remain distinct 

 (463) or unconnected. Otherwise, the lower and later-eliminated 

 portions of the nascent organs of the circle coalesce as they grow 

 into a ring, which, further developed in union, forms the cup or tube 

 of the gamophyllous calyx : or, in some cases, it would appear that 

 the sepals may at first grow separately, and afterwards, though 

 only at a very early period, coalesce by the cohesion of their con- 

 tiguous parts. The several parts of an irregular calyx are at first 

 equal and similar ; the irregularity is established in their subse- 

 quent unequal growth. The petals or parts of the corolla originate 

 in the same way, a little later than the sepals. Their coalescence 

 in the gamopetalous corolla, as far as known, is strictly congenital : 

 the ring which forms its tube appearing nearly as early as the 

 slight, projections which become its lobes and answer to the sum- 

 mits of the component petals. The rudiments of the petals are 

 visible earlier than those of the stamens ; t but their growth is at 

 first retarded, so that the stamens are earlier completed, and their 

 anthers surpass them, or often finish their growth, while the petals 

 are still minute scales : at length they make a rapid growth, and 

 inclose the organs .that belong above or within them. Unlike 

 the sepals in this respect, the base of the petal is frequently nar- 

 rowed into a portion which corresponds, more or less evidently, to 

 the petiole (the daw), which, like the petiole, does not appear until 

 some time after the blade or expanded part ; the summit being al- 

 ways the earliest and the base the latest portion formed. As the 

 envelopes of the flower grow and expand, those of each circle 

 adapt themselves to each other in various ways, and acquire the 

 relative positions which they occupy in the flower- bud. Their ar- 

 rangement in this state is termed 



490. Their Estivation or Prafloration, The latter would be the 

 preferable term ; but the former is in common use ; the word ^Esti- 

 vation (literally the summer state) having been formed for the 



* At least the case of a petiolate sepal is very rare. The sepals are rather 

 to be compared to bracts, which are mostly sessile, than to ordinary leaves. 



t When the stamens, or an exterior set of them, originate by chorisis or de- 

 duplication of the petals (459), it appears from the observations of Duchatre 

 that the five protuberances which represent the petals at their first appearance 

 divide transversely, or grow double, the inner half developing into a stamen 

 or a cluster of stamens, the outer into the petal itself. 



