FURTHER EXPLANATIONS. 227 



united at the top, and disengaged at the bottom (see Fig. 47, 

 a.) But the reader must take careful note that this invariable 

 characteristic is not peculiar only to the floral ^ 



envelopes j it is not met with in the stamens, 

 for these may be united, either by their anthers, 

 as in the whole family of the Synantherae, or 

 by their filaments, as in the Leguminosae. 



AJ1 , j r , i v FIG. 47, a. Natural 



And what we have said of the stamens applies junction of Petal. 



also to the parts constituting the pistil. This l ^ 47 

 radical difference between the perianth and sible )J unction - 

 the true reproductive organs ought, from the beginning, to 

 have fixed the attention of botanists on the centripetal and 

 centrifugal metamorphosis of the leaf, which we have spoken 

 of in "The Circle of the Year." 



In many plants we are permitted to follow step by step, 

 as it were, the union of the petals, and their definitive trans- 

 formation into what is called the monopetalous corolla. The 

 term monopetaloid ought then to be rejected, if we are to 

 believe that the monopetalous corolla is the result of the meta- 

 morphosis of a single leaf. The word gamopetalous, or, rather, 

 gamophyllous, is preferable. As we have remarked in refer- 

 ence to the calyx, we shall here repeat that the expressions 

 bilobed, trilobed^ quadrilobed, or bipartite, tripartite, quadripartite 

 corollas, are radically vicious, because they are the consequence 

 of a false point of view, according to which the monopetalous 

 corolla will be simply a single metamorphosed leaf, susceptible 

 of being more or less deeply divided from top to bottom. 



