212 PROTEIFORM MOVEMENTS. 



mended by the authority of Auguste Saint-Hilaire, would be 

 more precise and exact : therefore, it will not be very quickly 

 adopted. One would say that the human mind con- 

 demns itself to pass through the purgatory of what is false 

 and complex, before resolving to adopt the simple and the 

 true. 



If we admit the theory according to which all the organs of 

 the vegetable are the result of a metamorphosis of the leaf, 

 we shall ask what place is to be given to the calyx in the 

 series of these transformations ? Answer : The calyx is a 

 foliaceous transformation, intermediary between the bracts 

 and the corolla. 



It is particularly in the study of the calyx that the attentive 

 eye is struck by those proteiform movements in which nature 

 makes sport of our absolute rules. 



For example : in the Berberis vulgaris, the young calicinal 

 leaflets have less resemblance to the bracts than to the petals 

 of the corolla, and hence they hav*e received the name of 

 petaloid sepals. In other flowers this morphogenic wavering 

 inclines towards the bracts rather than towards the corolla. 

 We hesitate, therefore, whether we must give the name of calyx 

 or bracts to the three under leaflets which are visible beneath 

 the petaloid envelope of the Anemone nemorosa, or wood ane- 

 mone. The calyx of the Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria), which 

 also flowers in spring, is exactly like a whorl or involucre formed 

 by the union of the bracts. 



