WHA T IS A SEPAL ? 209 



is called the calyx. And why ? Out of a notion altogethe" 

 incorrect. It is true that this foliaceous envelope may often 

 assume the shape of a cup (in Latin, calix), and hence that 

 the name has about it a semi-poetical air. But this only 

 occurs when the calyx is composed of a single leaf, which 

 has procured for it the special designations of monosepalous^ 

 gamopetalous, and monophyllous^ three different words ex- 

 pressing one and the same thing ! The violet and the 

 primrose are examples of a monophyllous, monosepalous, 

 or gamopetalous calyx. 



I see, dear reader, that you are puzzled by the word sepal. 

 Certainly you would look for it in vain in any classical 

 dictionary; it is neither Greek nor Latin. It was only 

 invented, scarce a century ago, by a Swiss botanist, whose 

 works have chiefly remained in manuscript, by Necker, 

 brother of the celebrated minister of Louis XVI., and uncle 

 of the illustrious Madame de Stael. Let me explain the 

 circumstance which determined, I suspect, the choice of 

 this fanciful word, a word belonging to no language but 

 that of modern botanists. 



The botanists of antiquity called the coloured leaflets of 

 the corolla, petals. In this they were doubly right ; for, first, 

 they are, in reality, nothing but metamorphosed leaves ; 

 second, the word petal (in Greek, weraXov) signified "a leaf" 

 as early as the days of Homer, who, when speaking of the 

 nightingale, says, like a keen observer of nature, that this 

 bird, on the return of spring, sings 



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