128 REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. CHAP. III. 



SECTION III. 



The Receptacle. 



THE receptacle is the seat of the flower and point 

 of union between the different parts of the flower, 

 or between the flower and the plant, whether im- 

 mediate and sessile, or mediate and supported upon 

 a flower-stalk. Some botanists have considered it 

 as a part of the flower itself, though this view of 

 the subject is not entirely correct ; but it is at any 

 rate a part of the fructification, and cannot possibly 

 be wanting in the case of any flower whatever. 

 Like the flower-stalk it has been discriminated by 

 botanists into two different species which are not in- 

 deed disignated by proper names, but characterized 

 by the appellations of the proper receptacle, and 

 the common receptacle. 



SUBSECTION I. 



Exempli- The Proper Receptacle. The proper receptacle 

 is a receptacle proper to an individual flower, though 

 seldom so conspicuous as to attract any particular 

 notice on account of the small space which it oc- 

 cupies. Let any flower with its flower-stalk be 

 taken and stripped first of the calyx, then of the co- 

 rolla, then of the stamens, and then of the pistil or 

 pistils, and the receptacle will appear, seldom indeed 



