A REFORM PROPOSED. 2 i 1 



at their base. The monophyllous calyx (formed of one piece) 

 is, therefore, simply the result of a more or less complete union 

 of the leaflets composing, properly speaking, the calicinal 

 whorl. This whorl is originally polyphyllous ; that is to say, 

 formed of several distinct parts. If it were, in the first place, 

 monophyllous, it would be impossible to understand how its 

 divisions are made from top to bottom, since nature, in its 

 developments, proceeds from bottom to top. In the final 

 analysis, then, it is an error to consider the calyx as a cup, 

 primarily formed of a single piece. 



Grew, an English botanist of the eighteenth century, seems 

 to have been the first who made use of the word calyx. " I 

 call a calyx," he says,* "the external portion of the flower, 

 which enfolds the others, whether it be all in one piece, as in 

 the violets, or divided, as in the roses." 



If we wish to conform to the truth, as brought before us 

 by nature, we must revolutionize our terminology. Instead 

 of speaking of bipartite, tripartite, quadripartite, or of bilobed 

 and trilobed calices, terms all signifying that the mono- 

 phyllous calyx is cloven more or less deeply from top to 

 bottom, we must say that the calyx in such and such a 

 species has its leaflets united at the base, or one third, fourth, 

 or half of its height ; the polyphyllous or polysepalous calyx will 

 be that whose leaflets remain detached, as was the case in the 

 monophyllous or monosepalous calyx. This language, recora- 

 * Grew, "Anatomy of Plants," p. 147. 



